Results 12,621-12,640 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar
- Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. We have managed to recruit an additional 5,000 teachers in the past two years, which is a considerable level of recruitment. That is not to take away from the fact that, on occasion, certain schools will have difficulty recruiting certain teachers. There are difficulties when it comes to certain subjects.
- Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: In an era of full employment, there are few areas of the public or private sectors where people are not struggling to find staff.
- Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: As regards pay, we have a pay deal with the public service which involves full pay restoration for anyone earning up to €40,000 by the end of this year and up to €80,000 by the end of 2020.
- Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I am afraid that I do not have any information on that. The SCA falls under the remit of the Minister for Finance who is in Washington. I will ask him to correspond with the Deputy.
- Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: As I understand it, companies will pay tax where they are resident but I had the opportunity to watch Deputy Pearse Doherty's exchange at the finance committee with an official from Permanent TSB. I brought that to the attention of the Minister for Finance. If there is a loophole which somebody is exploiting, we will close it if we can. The Minister is examining the matter.
- Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I am delighted the Deputy has raised his matter. I had thought People Before Profit and the Socialist Party were against tax cuts. If we were to index tax credits and tax bands to anticipated wage growth, we would have had to cut taxes by much more than we did in the budget. I had thought the Deputy was criticising us for cutting taxes. Now, it appears her position is that we did not cut...
- Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: It is rather perverse. I agree with her that we did not cut taxes enough-----
- Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: We did not cut taxes by enough. If we have more say over the next budget, we will cut taxes more. The answer to the Deputy's question is "Yes".
- Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: It is an important point. The ESRI report is based on something called the hypothetical wage index budget. There are, of course, other ways to index: one can index against inflation or one can not index at all. Depending on which model is used, one gets a different outcome. Essentially, what the ESRI report says is that there are increases in pensions, increases in welfare, cuts to income...
- Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: The facts are that because of those measures, because of wage increases, including the minimum wage increase, because of income tax cuts and USC cuts and because of pension increases and welfare increases - all in this budget - everyone will be better off in cash terms next year. People will be better off even when we take inflation into account.
- Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: No, I understand it. That is the difference.
- Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: The Deputy is well aware I am not involved in contractual matters of any nature, whether they relate to individual employment contracts or contracts related to a building scheme.
- Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I will certainly ask the Minister for Health to give the Deputy any information he can. I imagine it relates to the enabling works rather than the main contract.
- An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: -----in which case we are in full agreement.
- Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: You need a mace, a Cheann Comhairle.
- Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: The project is on track and has planning permission. It is ready to go to the initial works, which is the enabling works around the car park and the pharmacy. It is a significant investment, in the region of €300 million to €400 million, to build a state-of-the-art co-located maternity hospital on the campus of St. Vincent's University Hospital, which will be followed in turn...
- Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I would be happy to examine any proposals the Deputy has on that matter but I imagine coming to a legally robust definition of reckless lending could be difficult.
- Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: If it was wrongly done it could result in many people not getting credit.
- Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: It could also result in a lot of people not getting credit, so one would have to get the balance right.
- An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (11 Dec 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I have no objection to that, a Cheann Comhairle. The Business Committee would have to-----