Results 11,581-11,600 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: On the face but I agree with the Deputy. Perhaps the Ceann Comhairle might-----

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: In the first instance it is important to point out that it is the gardaí and the Garda Commissioner who make decisions on the frequency and location of checkpoints. There are no Ministers ordering checkpoints anywhere: I can guarantee that. There is a degree of misunderstanding on the new law. This new law has not changed the drink-driving or alcohol limits: it has changed penalty....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: In addition, we have reduced prescription charges and will do so again in the next couple of weeks. Sláintecare, which the Deputy advocates for and supports, recommends that we extend free GP care to an extra 500,000 people a year, that is, 500,000 this year, 1 million next year and 1.5 million the year after. I think that the Deputy's recommendation is a mistake because it is too...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I followed with interest in recent days the debate about how moving towards multi-annual budgets would help us to improve our health services. I am broadly a supporter of multi-annual budgets, not just in the health service but across the board. Before there can be multi-annual budgets, however, one must demonstrate that one is able to keep within annual budgets. We already have a...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Instead of using €600 million to make public transport free, we should use that €600 million to invest in public transport, to increase capacity, to have more buses and more trains more frequently, and to invest in rural public transport as well so that more people use it, not just so it becomes free. The solution to all our problems is not to tax everything and make it free....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I hear that and I am listening to it. I ask the Deputy to listen to it too because socialists are no friends of the environment. They opposed water metering and water charges and they now deny that a carbon tax is part of the solution to climate change. The Deputy should listen to students too and ask them what they think about water conservation-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----what they think about carbon tax, and not tell them what socialists think they should think.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I agree with the Deputy on the point that we need more health reform. I do not agree with his contention that health reform is not happening at all. I will give a few examples in response to some of the questions the Deputy raised. At the heart of Sláintecare is the view that health care should be affordable and that we should extend free GP care to more people and reduce the cost of...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising the important issue of climate change. To reply to his first question, yes, of course, I will listen and I do. Second, we need to invest in public transport. One of the actions we are taking, for example, is that from the middle of this year Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann in the other cities-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----will no longer purchase high emission vehicles. They will all be no or low emission vehicles. As the Deputy is aware, we are implementing proposals for major investments in public transport through projects such as BusConnects, MetroLink and so forth, of which I hope he will be supportive. I heard Greta's speech. The fact that young people are taking action, protesting and going...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: That is why I ask the Deputy to listen to what the students are saying and why they say his policy on carbon charging is wrong. He should ask them what they think of it.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: No, we are not going to introduce free public transport. Many public transport services, particularly at peak times, are already operating at capacity; therefore, making public transport free would not enable any more people to use it.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: The reason the Deputy does not want to trade statistics is that she does not want to talk about facts.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: No amount of individual stories, no matter how genuine they may be, will change the facts. It is a matter of fact that in each of the past four years, the rates of consistent poverty and deprivation have been falling in Ireland. Deprivation rates have fallen for lone parents and child poverty rates have fallen from 12.8% to 12.7% in 2014 and to 11.5% in 2015, 10.9% in 2016, and to 8.8%,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----better wages and better salaries. USC is being reduced and access to affordable and subsidised childcare is widening-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----the cost of medicines is being reduced and we are capping rents. I accept that more needs to be done.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: We are doing more and will continue to do more. On the Deputy's specific question, there is a living wage in the United Kingdom and in Northern Ireland, which is a place she will know well. That living wage is actually lower than our national minimum wage in Ireland. We have a minimum wage in Ireland which is the second highest in the western world. It is calculated independently by the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Sinn Féin wants to change it in such as a way that it is calculated without any reference to employers. Sinn Féin wants to exclude small businesses from having any role in contributing to how the minimum wage is calculated. Sinn Féin wants to disregard the impact on the Border counties of a huge differential between minimum wages North and South. We have a minimum wage in...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: At the best of times being a parent is an enormous challenge in having to provide for oneself and one's kids. It is particularly difficult for lone parents who do so without the support of a partner, without a second income and without someone to share in the burden, cost and time taken by childcare. To answer the Deputy's question, we are helping all parents, but especially lone...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2019)

Leo Varadkar: While Deputy Martin is prancing about the place, wagging the finger and telling us off, we are actually doing things.