Results 16,381-16,400 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar
- Questions on Promised Legislation (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: This will probably be a matter for the HSE national service plan for 2018 but the Deputy might put a Topical Issue question to the Minister for Health of the Minister of State with responsibility for disability who might be able to give a more detailed answer.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: On behalf of the Government, I acknowledge that there is a deficit in the availability of respite care for those who need it. From our constituency clinics, we all appreciate the extent to which a day or two a week or a week or two a year can be a lifeline for families and carers who need a break themselves. It is something I am conscious of and it will be discussed at the Cabinet...
- Questions on Promised Legislation (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: The fair deal scheme needs as much as it has. I do not know if it would be possible to transfer funds from the fair deal scheme to home help. What is being considered, it may be at consultation stage or it may have completed that, is to set up a scheme similar to fair deal for home help and home care packages. The fair deal scheme works very well. People who need a nursing home and are...
- Questions on Promised Legislation (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I has not been discussed by Cabinet yet. I understand that the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Damien English, hopes to have it brought to Cabinet before Christmas.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: There is an automatic medical card for children with cancer, I do not think that it applies to adults.
- Questions on Promised Legislation (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: Adults are means tested in the first instance and after that, they can be given on discretionary grounds, for terminal illness or, I believe, on emergency grounds in certain circumstances. Professor Frank Keane undertook a detailed review on this matter and determined that it would be unfair to select some diagnoses and not others, that there could not be an automatic right to a medical card...
- Questions on Promised Legislation (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I have already answered that question in my response to Deputy Michael Healy-Rae. The cataract waiting list has fallen from 10,300 to 867 and those waiting more than a year and a half have fallen from 1,694 to 421, which is a 75% fall in people waiting for ridiculously long periods of time. Our implementation model around eye care is starting to make a difference. Part of this is more...
- Questions on Promised Legislation (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I offer my condolences to the family and friends of the cyclist the Deputy mentioned. We are all affected by road safety and by deaths on the road and most of us, or our families, would know somebody who lost their life on the road. There are more and more people cycling, to work and recreationally, and that is very encouraging. The bike to work scheme, which the Deputy was involved in...
- Questions on Promised Legislation (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: It is out for public consultation. Letterkenny, which is twinned with Derry, is indeed north of the Galway-Dublin line, as the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will know. We want to avoid a repeat of the pointless, disastrous, unnecessary and useless national spatial strategy we had with Fianna Fáil in office. It started off quite well, with a number of growth centres and cities, but turned out...
- Leaders’ Questions (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: The audit was not done before I became Minister for Social Protection. Perhaps it was done subsequently. I will check up on that. It is certainly something that I raised regularly in meetings with the Irish Hospital Consultants Association and the IMO. They would always deny it and say that it was a very rare practice. I do not think it can be denied any more. The Deputy will know that...
- Leaders’ Questions (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: Whether they were working or not could not be proven.
- Leaders’ Questions (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: There was some controversy at least. I do not think it would be a huge imposition on our hospital consultants to clock in so that we at least know they are on the premises and are not in private hospitals when they should not be. We are doing exactly what was recommended in the Sláintecare report. We have established a group under Donal de Buitléir to examine how we can...
- Leaders’ Questions (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I know how difficult it is for people to find new accommodation in the current environment. If substantial refurbishment is not genuinely required or urgent, those eviction notices should be withdrawn. The people living in that development should be given adequate time to find new accommodation if they can do so and they certainly should not be evicted before Christmas.
- Leaders’ Questions (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: It is not a loophole, it is the law. Sometimes houses, apartments and duplex buildings need refurbishment. Sometimes they are not safe as there are fire safety issues. Sometimes roofs need to be repaired. There are occasions on which houses and apartment buildings require substantial refurbishment. I do not know if it is the case in this instance and whether the substantial refurbishment...
- Leaders’ Questions (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: I saw the programme last night and it was a very interesting piece of high quality investigative journalism, examining statistics and following individual consultants in the course of their work. I would like to say I was surprised by the outcome but there has been anecdotal evidence for a long time in the health service of a minority - perhaps not a majority - of consultants not fulfilling...
- Leaders’ Questions (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: Yes, I have confidence in the Tánaiste but, no, I am not satisfied with the fact that on a number of occasions - at least two in the past week - I have been given incomplete information from the Department of Justice and Equality. My role is to account for the Government to the House and it is not something I like to see happen. On one occasion it was with regard to the ODCE and it...
- Leaders’ Questions (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: On the Opposition side, Deputy Martin has at least accepted that-----
- Leaders’ Questions (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: -----that the Tánaiste had no hand, act or part in-----
- Leaders’ Questions (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: -----the Commissioner's legal strategy. She did not know about it until after the fact, which was after opening statements, when it was already under way.
- Leaders’ Questions (22 Nov 2017)
Leo Varadkar: The Deputy is trying to move the goalposts.