Results 12,901-12,920 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed): European Council Meetings (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 11, inclusive, together. I attended a series of European Council meetings in Brussels on Wednesday 17 October, and Thursday, 18 October. The regular meeting of the Council on the morning of 18 October focused on migration, internal security and external relations issues. On migration, we discussed the implementation of decisions agreed at the June...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I do not have the timelines, but I will ask the office of the Minister, Deputy Ross, to correspond with the Deputy on the matter. The fundamental point made by him is correct. The population of Cork is going to grow by 50% between now and 2040. That cannot happen in conjunction with a reliance on cars, which is why Project Ireland 2040 contains hundreds of millions of euros for BusConnects...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I am afraid that I do not have any information to hand on that project, but I can certainly ask the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy McHugh, to correspond with the Deputy on it. Perhaps the Deputy might raise it as the subject of a parliamentary question or a Topical Issues matter.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The review is being carried out by the Revenue Commissioners. It has not yet gone to the Government and no Government decision has been made on it. I am not happy about how it transpired in the last couple of days because it has caused enormous, unnecessary concern for people who fear they may be losing their flat rate allowance for expenses. It appears as if it is something for which the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: When one looks through the list of flat rate allowances for expenses, it is clear that a review is necessary. There are all sorts of anomaly within it. A male cardiac technician receives a different flat rate allowance for expenses than a female cardiac technician, for example. Someone who works for CIÉ on a bus or a train receives a flat rate allowance, while someone who works on a...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy will know as well as I do that share prices go up and down. It was over €5 earlier this year and has fallen considerably since then. There are many reasons for that. We have no plans to sell any more shares in AIB currently, but over time or at the right time when the share price is good we intend to divest the Government stake in AIB further and use that money to pay...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I acknowledge that there are some very long delays for people applying for carer's allowance and carer's benefit. A process has to be followed. Obviously, someone has to apply. There is a means test element to the process as well. An applicant needs a medical report establishing that the person requires full-time care. It is always going to take a few weeks to process applications but it...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I know the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Doherty, is working on that to see if we can speed it up. She has made some changes to the application for domiciliary care allowance and the change has reduced the time to four or five weeks. Perhaps we can follow the same model for carer's allowance and carer's benefit. The Department can pay back-pay once the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I appreciate that people would rather not have to go through it that way.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Deputy Curran makes a valid point. We can have perverse situations whereby someone gets an increase in pay or in a welfare payment and as a result loses entitlement to a medical card or a grant and then, in net terms, ends up worse off. Overall, of course, people are better off but we can have individual cases where people end up worse off. The income limits are under review. They do...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I wish I knew because a number of Government sources have not seen the report. The only people in the Government who have it are the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, and I.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I have no idea how that kind of thing transpires, but the position is as it was yesterday. The report is with the Attorney General and he may need to redact parts of it for reasons of commercial sensitivity. It has been given to individuals who are not members of the Government and are named in it to allow for their opinion.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: It is my intention to publish the report as soon as I can, preferably in the next couple of days. I ask for the Ceann Comhairle's indulgence on one point. The leader of the Opposition repeated the idea again that somehow last October I committed to a carbon tax increase in the recent budget. I have heard a few people make that false claim. I will now read out what I said in August.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I stated that we were going to do some work on the carbon tax.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I said that we were very much of the view that if we were going to meet our climate change obligations, we would have to grasp the nettle in increasing the carbon tax over the next couple of years, but very much recognising that some people who are in poverty and those who are most vulnerable can be the worst affected by that, so there would have to be compensatory measures.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I said we would be working on proposals to set a price for carbon and then bring the tax up to that over a period of time. We would, I said, need to talk to the main Opposition party about that and agree at Government but I thought it a necessary part of our climate change obligations. What I said in August is what I said here. I never said or committed to a carbon tax increase in the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: He did.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: No, he did not.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Does the Deputy accept that I did not say carbon tax would go up in the budget?

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Nov 2018)

Leo Varadkar: What is Fianna Fáil's policy on carbon tax?