Results 12,441-12,460 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy is offering a false and bogus solution, and that is wrong. It is disrespectful to nurses and midwives to offer a false and bogus solution.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: A pay rise is not just one-off. A pay rise is recurring and has to happen every year. The Deputy is suggesting is to settle it this year but then take the money back off them next year. That would be wrong.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: It would not just be a case of settling this claim. There would certainly be knock-on claims. We had that indication already from other unions. The Deputy's policies are so obviously a return to austerity. She does not want us to pay down our debts. She wants us to borrow more money-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: -----to finance pay increases. It was those kind of mistakes that caused the situation seven or eight years ago in which people could not even imagine the possibility of pay rises and we were talking about pay cuts.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The kinds of policies the Deputy pursues, namely, increasing debt and financing pay increases through borrowed money, are exactly the types of policies that land us in austerity.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I am not sure where this question fits in with promised legislation.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: It is probably an issue that should be raised by way of a special notice question to the Minister for Health. The cost of the project is €1.433 billion. I gave that figure to the House yesterday, but there are caveats to that, particularly in regard to construction inflation. The programme for Government commitment is to build the hospital and we will build the hospital.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The three hospitals - Temple Street, Crumlin children's hospital and Tallaght children's hospital - will come together as a single hospital on three sites on 1 January, which is only two weeks away. The satellite centre in Blanchardstown is almost finished and children will attend that by the middle of next year. Enabling works have started in Tallaght and the facility will be open in 2020....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I absolutely agree that we need diversity in port access. We have a very successful and well performing port in Dublin, but there are others too and they are expanding. For example, the Port of Cork has major expansion plans under way, as do Shannon Foynes deep water port and Rosslare Europort. It is important and factual to point out that the investment happening in Dublin Port, Shannon...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: That is how it works. It is not the case that taxpayer's or Government money is being given to Dublin, Cork and Shannon Foynes ports and not to Rosslare Europort. It is that Dublin Port, the Port of Cork and Shannon Foynes Port are so commercially successful that they can fund infrastructural developments from the fees they charge port users. The same applies to Dublin Airport, for...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: -----the name of which I forget, but it would require primary legislation here and at Westminster to change it.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Anglo Irish Bank was not bailed out by a Fine Gael-led Government but by a Fianna Fáil-led Government. We did not give it any extra money; we did not give it a red cent. In fact, we liquidated it, or the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, as it was called at the time. At the end of the liquidation there was, unexpectedly, money left over, which now goes to the creditors, including the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: -----but it is well deserved and they work very hard for it. They are very professional. It is, however, less than the figure for gardaí, for whom the average salary is about €70,000. We have a real difficulty with the current pay claim and need to be honest and upfront with the country about it. The claim is for a 12% increase in pay, parity with physiotherapists,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: We would have to borrow it. When we start to borrow money to fund pay increases, we go back to where we were before. We do not want to make those mistakes again.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: It is important to recall what happened. Anglo Irish Bank was a bad bank that went bust and caused enormous damage to the country. It was bailed out by a previous Government of Fianna Fáil and the Green Party to the tune of €30 billion and we will not see very much of that money ever again. The Fine Gael-Labour Party Government that replaced that Government adopted a different...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Our Brexit contingency planning for both the central case scenario of a deal and the no-deal scenario requires upgrading works to be carried out at Dublin Airport, Dublin Port and Rosslare Europort in recognition of the fact that Rosslare Europort is a major national asset as a port that can be used as an alternative to Dublin Port and one through which there is a lot of trade between Ireland...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The N11 has been improved and the new Enniscorthy-New Ross bypass will be completed in 2019. The Oilgate to Rosslare Harbour project has not yet been done, but it is going to plan and the Government is continuing the work which the Deputy helped to initiate in improving road access to Rosslare and County Wexford more generally. Irish Ferries' decision to consider moving the WB Yeatsto the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: This is about sequencing. It is not about secrecy. The European Commission will produce its papers today and we will have a paper this evening. It is a paper I have not seen yet because it is not yet finished precisely because we must have the European Commission paper first. I hope or expect to get it between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. today. Once I have read it and shared it with Cabinet, I...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: It is not ready yet.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Never mind roll-over Leo, I am starting to wonder where Mary Lou is these days.