Results 1,281-1,300 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Advertising (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: -----but where we cannot do so, we often advocate going to the local authority or a body such as Threshold. That can be very helpful to people in terms of giving them the advice they need. We can certainly take that into consideration. As regards Renault, we do not have any plans to ban fossil fuel advertising. We will certainly consider any Private Members' legislation that comes...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Advertising (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 5, inclusive, together. In the past ten years, the Department of the Taoiseach has incurred expenditure of €3.7 million on advertising with RTÉ. The bulk of this expenditure relates to Government Information Service, GIS, campaigns in 2020 and 2021. All expenditure is placed through a media buying company procured through an Office of...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: In May 2014, a report of the Government-established non-statutory inquiry – the Guerin report – was published and was critical of Mr. Shatter’s conduct as Minister for Justice and Equality. The Government acknowledges that Alan Shatter's conduct as Minister was subsequently vindicated by the O’Higgins commission in its report, which was published in May 2016....

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: Regarding the number of people who are in emergency accommodation, we do collect numbers on how many are in domestic violence refuges and so on. Those numbers are available. When it comes-----

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I will stand corrected if we do not, but we certainly know the number of places available in the refuges. I do not know how we could collect numbers on how many people are couch surfing, for example, but it is the case-----

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: -----that the emergency accommodation figures are only people who are in State-provided emergency accommodation. On nursing, what can we do? As the Deputy knows, we are increasing the number of nurses employed in the health service all the time. I think we have about 6,000 or 7,000 more nurses and midwives working in our public health service than we had three years ago when this...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I am very sorry to hear that that gentleman received such a big bill. There are a number of options. One is the one the Deputy mentioned, which is to pay the bill over a period by instalments. Another option is to contact the community welfare officer, who may be able to make an exceptional needs payment in that scenario.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: We are experiencing a lack of taxis not just in rural areas but in urban areas too, particularly at evening time. The matter is raised a lot. I am sure there is more we can do to encourage more people to get into the industry and to take up the business of becoming taxi drivers. I do not remember the exact detail of proposal of the former Minister, Mr. Daly, but I will look at it again and...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising the really important issue of road safety. We need to remember that the roads belong to all of us, not just motorists but also cyclists and pedestrians. It is worrying to see the number of injuries and fatalities happening on our roads. I will certainly speak to the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and the Garda Commissioner...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: My understanding is that money has been allocated this year for emergency works where fire safety is an issue. I will have to double-check with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, the amount and how it can be drawn down. Realistically, I expect that it will be next year before we will have legislation on the scheme, but if we can do that sooner, we certainly will. This is an issue the Government...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: No part of the country is entitled to any particular amount of money. It depends on the projects and other factors. I will certainly look into the data. I do remember looking at some similar data in the past, but those data did not include projects of under €20 million or the national broadband plan, and it is not right to exclude those things because often it is the projects under...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I am not quite sure if that was a question. I think it was the CEO of ESB not Irish Water. I cannot see the photograph from here so I may be wrong.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I will check up on that issue for sure.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy for raising issues relating to Western Care Association. The HSE, in conjunction with the board, has in recent months commissioned a service-improvement programme. It will address all the HIQA recommendations which have been accepted and, indeed, welcomed. The Government is committed to providing services for people with disabilities which will empower them to live their...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I will be happy to come back to the Deputy in detail on the specific projects he raises. I know from my visit to west Cork in the past couple of days there has been huge investment in the area. The Deputy knows in the town of Bandon the amount of work that has been done to install flood relief. We all remember the floods in Bandon. Under the previous Government and this one, millions of...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I think I answered that comprehensively yesterday. The allocation for the project is €1.433 billion. That allocation was made in 2018 and has not been increased since. It will cost more than that, as I said in the Dáil yesterday. We cannot say how much more it will cost at this stage because we are disputing the multiple claims for more money made by the contractor. It is...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I do not know the amount of the request.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: You can ask him.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I am happy to rephrase if it is helpful. If I said "plenty" or "lots of", I am happy to use the term “some”. I was specifically asked about cases of people in emergency accommodation for several years. I know some of those cases because I am trying to help those people. In some cases, people have been offered accommodation and have turned it down. There are people on the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (12 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: This is something we are working on, both in terms of funding in the short term for emergency works that need to be done in relation to fire safety and a wider scheme, which will require legislation and which we will put in place to help people who need defects in their apartments repaired. That will be done with retrospection.