Results 14,801-14,820 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar
- Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 to 9 together. Cabinet committee B last met on 26 March and while the date of its next meeting has not yet been scheduled, it is likely to meet next month. The committee covers the areas of social policy and public service reform, including education, children, social inclusion, Irish, arts and culture, and continued improvements to and reform of public...
- Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: The stability programme update, SPU, will be published this afternoon. The Minister for Finance is doing that in line with new procedures. He will then consult with the budget oversight committee thus giving the Oireachtas an opportunity to engage with him on the SPU. We do not yet have a date for the summer economic statement but there will be one and it will be in the summer. It will be...
- Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 5, inclusive, together. Cabinet committee A covers issues relating to the economy, jobs, the labour market, competitiveness, productivity, trade, the Action Plan for Rural Development, the digital economy and pensions. There has been significant progress on these issues since the start of the year, including the publication of the roadmap for...
- Order of Business (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I am afraid that I do not have a note on that issue in front of me. What I do know, though, is that sometimes we have to send people abroad to treat rare conditions or for specialised treatment. It is not a matter of money. It is very expensive to send people abroad for treatment, but we do it because sometimes specialised treatment can only be provided in specialised centres in areas with...
- Order of Business (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: This is a matter that has been discussed many times in the House and was given detailed consideration by the Government and an expert group established under Professor Tom Keane. The group came to the conclusion that it would not be a good idea to allocate medical cards based on diagnoses. It is worth reading the report and understanding exactly why the group came to that conclusion.
- Order of Business (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I am very sorry to hear about the experience of the woman that Deputy McGrath describes. Needless to say, I do not have any information on individual cases. For reasons of confidentiality and other matters it would not be appropriate for me to discuss them anyway, but if the Deputy wants to pass on the information to me I will make sure that it is passed on to the relevant authority.
- Order of Business (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I understand there are two questions on this being taken. If the Deputy believes it requires more than that, I suggest he and his colleagues use their Private Members' time for it.
- Order of Business (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I did but I would give a very long answer about this.
- Order of Business (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: It is clearly a matter for the United Kingdom to hire customs officers as it sees fit. I do not know if they are replacements as there are border and customs checks already in the United Kingdom-----
- Order of Business (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: They are in the North too for people and goods coming from outside the European Union. I am not sure if they are additional staff or replacements. I did not see the advertisement but I had heard that it was only open to British passport holders and, in line with the Good Friday Agreement, applications to the role should also be open to Irish passport holders as well. The Good Friday...
- Order of Business (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: It is a matter for the Business Committee.
- Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: Sometimes when I hear the Deputy preaching from his perch on the edge of the Chamber, I almost forget-----
- Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: -----the fact that he was not just elected to the Dáil in 2016. He was, of course, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources for four and a half years. He had responsibility for this area for four and a half years when he served in office with Fianna Fáil during that disastrous Government which led the country to bankruptcy, never mind individual enterprises....
- Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I am not in a position to advise the Deputy on what questions he should ask Facebook. He is intelligent enough to develop his own questions. In terms of legislation and regulations, he should be aware that the Government is bringing through legislation on data protection. The GDPR legislation is far reaching and deals very much with privacy and data protection issues. It is real action by...
- Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I am not really sure what the Deputy is asking, but I note that he used the term "cast aspersions back". Obviously, in his mind it is okay to cast aspersions, but it is totally indefensible or unacceptable for me to dare to respond or cast them back. That is the double standards one so often gets from the Green Party. It does not just disagree with you; it is also better than you. That is...
- Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: The report of the Oireachtas committee is under consideration, but the Deputy must bear in mind that taxpayers' money is the peoples' money. The report recommends a different way to collect the television licence fee which would require people who do not have a television to pay a television licence fee. We must bear in mind that when we talk about public funding, we are talking about...
- Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: Figures were supplied to me on funding for local roads in Tipperary. There is an increase this year to €21 million for regional and local roads, which is up from €18.4 million last year.
- Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: For national roads there has been an increase from €2 million last year to €13 million this year. The Deputy will be aware the local improvement scheme for laneways was reintroduced last year and the allocation for Tipperary is €625,000. That is up from €237,000 for last year. There are increases under all of those headings for Tipperary. It is also important...
- Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I ask Deputy Lowry - and everyone else - in their interactions with council officials to ask them how much of the resources have been deployed so far this year. As I said, €417 million is available for local and regional roads this year and I understand only a fraction of that has been spent. I understand why that is, namely, because of the bad weather, but we want local authorities...
- Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2018)
Leo Varadkar: I had the opportunity over the Easter recess to get around the country a little bit. I was in Limerick, Galway, Deputy Lowry's own county of Tipperary, Laois, Meath, Kildare and north County Dublin. The Deputy is correct that the issue of the condition of local and regional roads has been raised with me by citizens everywhere I go and that many such roads are in very bad condition: there...