Results 13,901-13,920 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar
- Questions on Promised Legislation (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: According to the HSE, the number of patients on trolleys in our accident and emergency departments, and adjoining our emergency departments, was 192 this morning. That is 32% fewer than this day last year and 32% fewer than the year before. The good weather may be a factor but it is significantly lower than the last two years. As always, there is enormous variation from hospital to...
- Questions on Promised Legislation (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I am delighted that Deputy Bríd Smith was at the national economic dialogue and that she was able to pick up some aspects of my speech.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: Those figures come from the Central Statistics Office survey of income and living conditions. They show that poverty is falling, deprivation is falling and income inequality is narrowing. I am glad that is no longer disputed by people on the left.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: As can be seen from the figures from last year and this, there will be even stronger-----
- Questions on Promised Legislation (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: The issue of different pay scales within the public service is a somewhat different one to poverty and deprivation-----
- Questions on Promised Legislation (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: -----and income inequality but we will come back to that. I do not know if that report is ready but I will check with the Minister and ask him to write to Deputy Bríd Smith.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: The House will appreciate that no matter a long a speech one makes, there will always be something that one either does not mention or does not mention enough.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: That is a standard criticism of any speech that anyone makes. I am not a person for long speeches. I did, of course, refer on several occasions to Project Ireland 2040 and Deputy Eamon Ryan will know that the biggest-----
- Questions on Promised Legislation (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: -----single aspect of that is €22 billion to be invested in climate actions.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: In respect of making time available for a debate, the Deputy has been back in this House for over two years now and he must know at this stage it is the Business Committee that makes those decisions, not me.
- Leaders' Questions (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I reassure the Deputy that far from standing in the way of change once again the Government is making change happen. This is an important matter, which we broadly agree on. We agree on the importance of our children and young people receiving age appropriate, up-to-date information relating to their sexual health. The question is how we best go about making that change happen. Is it...
- Leaders' Questions (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: We did not oppose Solidarity–People Before Profit's Bill because, as is often the custom in the House, if we are broadly supportive of the general approach and the policy principles, we do not seek to divide the House unnecessarily. I do not, however, believe that primary legislation should be used to change the school curriculum or that politicians should legislate to determine a...
- Leaders' Questions (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: We are reforming and modernising the RSE curriculum. It will be a new, modern curriculum covering areas that I mentioned earlier such as consent, LGBTQ issues and contraception. We will expect every school in the country to deliver that curriculum just as they do for other subjects regardless of the ethos of that school.
- Leaders' Questions (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: Schools that want to give other forms of education, such as religious education or faith formation should do that during a different time of the day.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: There is nothing to publish and nothing to hide. As I have told the Deputy previously we have no formal agreement, written or verbal, with any Independent Deputy. There are, however, several Independent Deputies who generally support the Government and because they generally support the Government, we are happy for them to raise constituency or policy issues with Ministers. If we can work...
- Questions on Promised Legislation (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: It is not a formal written or verbal agreement and there is certainly nothing to publish.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: It is also important to acknowledge that those Deputies who are not part of the Government, such as Deputies Lowry and Grealish and others, do not always vote with the Government. Deputy Martin mentioned Deputy Lowry, in particular. His voting record over the past two years has him voting against the Government on ten occasions, not voting at all on 71 and with the Government on 89.
- Leaders' Questions (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: The Government is very interested in and very welcoming of an open debate on budget priorities. I came from the National Economic Dialogue this morning in Dublin Castle where Government is engaging with unions, employers, NGOs, charities and academic experts. It will run all day today and tomorrow and Cabinet Ministers will attend it over the next two days. It is an initiative Deputy...
- Leaders' Questions (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: We all know that GDP is not a true measure of our economy-----
- Leaders' Questions (27 Jun 2018)
Leo Varadkar: -----because of our very large multinational sector. The way it accounts for intellectual property and other things our GDP makes our economy seem much bigger than it really is. The best way to look at debt and spending-----