Results 14,361-14,380 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar
- Order of Business (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: There will be a €2 billion investment in BusConnects and improvements to our bus services as well as many other very worthy public transport projects.
- Order of Business (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: There is no legislation promised on that of which I am aware but I will certainly double check with the Minister.
- Order of Business (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: It is a pilot scheme so we will have to see how it works out. The real intention is to avoid having to refer children to the HSE in the first place. Children will receive speech and language therapy in schools and preschools, thus avoiding them having to be referred to the HSE and ending up on a waiting lists. Perhaps I did not explain it very well earlier.
- Order of Business (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: Opinion polls have been wrong in the past. The opinion polls for the Seanad referendum always showed a strong majority for its abolition and that did not happen. I caution against any complacency.
- Order of Business (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: Deputy McGrath can cool the conspiracy theory. The people who have voted so far are postal voters.
- Order of Business (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: There is early voting on islands and also some nursing homes. I do not know if they voted today or if it will be the following day, but that is the norm. Regarding the allegation that a French student was put on the register-----
- Order of Business (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: -----I understand that it has been refuted. One thing that is very encouraging is the huge number of young people who registered to vote in recent weeks. It indicates that young people want to have a say in this referendum and it is young people who will be more affected by laws that we make in relation to the termination of pregnancies. No matter how they vote, I am really encouraged...
- Order of Business (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: The Cabinet agreed this morning to give the Minister for Finance authorisation to draft the Bill to which the Deputy refers. The rainy day fund will be established in 2019, so-----
- Order of Business (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: Yes, next year. Therefore, the legislation will obviously need to be in place sometime before the end of next year to allow the fund to be established, with €1.5 billion going in from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, and €500 million being added per year. To answer the Deputy's question very frankly, a balance is required. Yes, we absolutely need to invest in...
- Order of Business (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: While I appreciate the Deputy's earlier remarks, and I know many people who have been campaigning, and talking to people would probably share her sentiments, we should wait until the people speak-----
- Order of Business (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: -----before we move to legislation. The referendum is only a few days away now. The public will vote on Friday; we will know the result on Saturday. Should the people decide to delete the eighth amendment, Article 40.3.3°, from our Constitution, the Government and I hope the Oireachtas will support us in this regard. We will legislate along the lines we have proposed in the general...
- Order of Business (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I do not have an up-to-date note on the Act in front of me but I will ask the Minister for Education and Skills to write to the Deputy with an update on the sections not commenced and when we propose to commence them. With respect to services, there have been two very significant improvements under way in the past few months. The first is the new pilot to provide speech and language therapy...
- Order of Business (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: Speech and language therapy will be provided in schools, meaning children will not need to go on a Health Service Executive waiting list. It might be the way forward for many children who need speech and language therapy. There is also an additional €10 million to be put into respite, allowing us to open approximately 12 new respite homes across the country. That will be very much...
- Order of Business (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: Some of the data were made available by CervicalCheck on 5 May. It provided statistics across the three labs currently being used indicating a similar positive predictive value in each of those labs but differences in terms of high-grade lesions, low-grade lesions and so on. I am told by the people who know about these things that it is not straightforward and the data must be put together...
- Order of Business (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: We do not want bits of information that people may misinterpret. It is important that when we get the facts, we get all of them. We do not have all of them yet.
- Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: If it is revenue neutral and if it will not cost the Exchequer anything then obviously it does not require a money message but I will need more than the afternoon to examine the Deputy's numbers and determine whether his claim is true that it will not cost the Exchequer anything. The Deputy has form in this regard. He was, of course, a Minister in the Government that promised us the...
- Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: As is absolutely the case, if it is Exchequer neutral and if it does not cost the Exchequer anything it will not require a money message, so obviously we will examine the Deputy's claim to see whether his numbers add up. I would have reservations about any scheme that caused us to have to reduce or limit public expenditure in other areas. Even the richest country that wants to balance...
- Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I agree with the Deputy on one point. I know there is enormous and growing public concern about the impact that plastics are having on our environment. I think anyone who saw "The Blue Planet" or any of the programmes like that can see the impact it is having, particularly our marine and maritime environment. I know the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy...
- Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I can assure the Deputy that I have never been entertained by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, at least not in the form of libations or food and drink. It has entertained me in other ways on a number of occasions, but not in the way the Deputy thinks. Every Government Department has an entertainment budget. My own Department, for example, may provide refreshments or a lunch...
- Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (22 May 2018)
Leo Varadkar: -----head of state or government. That is entirely appropriate. When a person is invited into one's house one very often offers refreshments, and I believe it would be poor of us, as a country, not to do so. It may extend to the kind of refreshments we put on at national commemoration events, such as the very successful one we had in Tipperary only a few months ago where a very nice spread...