Results 13,441-13,460 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Housing is recognised as a human right in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which this country signed up many decades ago. I have an open mind on inserting economic, social and cultural rights into our Constitution but we must be careful about adding to the Constitution. I refer to the difficulties we went through in removing the eighth amendment and the ban on divorce.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: When adding to the Constitution, one must get the wording right and at least try to understand how it may be interpreted by the courts in two, ten, 20 or 30 years time. As Deputy Pringle rightly pointed out, 83 countries have a statutory right to housing. In some cases, that is provided for in the constitution of the country. Each of those countries has a level of homelessness which may be...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: ------or make rent cheaper. We need practical solutions and that is what we are doing. The biggest social housing programme in decades is now under way. Some 100,000 social homes will be provided over the next ten years, with 8,000 provided this year and 7,000 last year. Some 20,000 new houses and apartments, many of then in my constituency, have been built across the country this year,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: As the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, pointed out, that list is online.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I acknowledge that not all of the 8,000 properties are houses directly built by local authorities.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Some were built by affordable housing bodies such as the Iveagh Trust, which has been providing housing in Dublin for decades or centuries, but the Opposition-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: ------do not count such houses. Some of the houses were bought directly from developers. Many people in my constituency received social housing that was bought directly from a developer in places such as Waterville. However, to the Opposition such housing provision does not count.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Many people are living in houses with long-term 20 or 30 year leases and have secure tenancies. None of that counts for some members of the Opposition, but it counts for the people living in those houses. I have handed over the keys to people moving into new homes such as those. Those people are not ideological about the mechanism used to provide the houses. Rather, they care about having...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: -----approved housing bodies or through private developers. It can be social, affordable, cost rental or for purchase. The real ideologues are the people who think there is only one way to provide housing and only one mechanism that is legitimate.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: This is a crisis. This is an emergency, and therefore we will try to provide new homes and apartments throughout the country by any and all mechanisms possible, as quickly as possible. That is our policy and that is why we will build 20,000 new homes and apartments this year in Ireland, more than in any other year this decade.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Protest is part of democracy. Provided the protest is lawful and peaceful then it is welcome. I have no objection to anyone taking part in protests to highlight important issues that affect society, because they highlight issues and spur us on to do more to deal with them. That is my view on that. Any protest that is peaceful and lawful should be welcomed in a democracy, and I do. ...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I do not believe the Deputy is an ideologue, I believe she is a populist. Populists present easy answers to complex problems. They replace emotion with reason and they try to demonise and misrepresent their opponents. What Deputy Bríd Smith is trying to do here is a classic example of that.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I lead a Government that contains at least two Cabinet members who grew up in a council home and they are proud to have done so. I also lead a Government that perhaps includes people who are landlords. We should bear in mind that landlords who receive rent supplement and HAP are not receiving subsidies. They are receiving payments that provide housing for people who need it, and until such...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: It is an emergency. I am on record as having said that as far back as January or February of this year, if not long before that. Of course it is an emergency. If it was not an emergency, we would not be spending €60 million a year to put people up in emergency accommodation, we would not have brought in rent caps in urban areas and we would not have brought about fast-track...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: I have acknowledged before that the country faces a housing crisis. I acknowledged many months ago that this is an emergency and because it is an emergency, we have taken emergency actions. Some €60 million is being spent this year on providing emergency accommodation for people who need it, so that they have a roof over their heads. Emergency powers have been brought in to...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: A declaration of something does not build any houses or change any policies. It does not provide any resources. In many ways, that sums up the Sinn Féin policy on housing.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: It is to make declarations and speeches, and to play politics-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: -----but not to put forward solutions that are workable or, in many cases, affordable.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: Sinn Féin has no credibility on housing. Let us not forget that, according to the Simon Community, 200,000 people are homeless in Northern Ireland. I appreciate there are different ways of counting homelessness but 200,000 is a lot of people. We see Sinn Féin councillors all over the country voting down social and affordable housing proposals, including on Dublin City Council and...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2018)

Leo Varadkar: In Northern Ireland, where there is a housing crisis, Sinn Féin walked out of office over a renewable heat initiative and will not go back in.