Results 16,501-16,520 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna - Questions: Brexit Staff (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I will start by replying to Deputy Micheál Martin. I am not sure where the figure of 11 comes from. He may be double counting or counting two different units together. As I have often said, staffing within the Department is entirely a matter for the Secretary General. It would be inappropriate for me to get involved in it and I do not do so.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Brexit Staff (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I often see articles in the newspaper about me requesting staff, etc. That is never the case. Staffing-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Brexit Staff (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Staffing in the Department, as is the case with every Department, is entirely a matter for the Secretary General. The Deputy was a Minister for 14 years or something like that and he well knows-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Brexit Staff (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: In respect of the 25 who are working in the international affairs unit, the Deputy should bear in mind that is 25 working in the Department of the Taoiseach. There are lots of other people -hundreds in fact - working on international affairs, on Brexit and on issues relating to Northern Ireland within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Additional people in the various agencies -...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: In fairness, I have been accused as well. I am happy to stop it.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I will do my best. I agree completely with Deputy Howlin on this matter. Let us stop the bickering around this.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I would absolutely love to stop the bickering around health care reform. Let us not forget that the first accusation was made against me and my Government that we were not committed to Sláintecare. I explained that we were but that a lot of work needs to be done, as the report itself acknowledges, including on detailed costings, the reviews the report proposes and the unanswered...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The leadership in that regard must be shown by the Opposition because that is where the bickering almost always starts when it comes to these issues.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Regarding the matter of 24-7 PCI in the south east, it is the settled policy of Government to decide the location of national specialist services on the basis of the best scientific advice. It is not a closed question. It depends on the best scientific advice. If that were to change, a different decision could be made. I ask the House to bear in mind that medical science changes also.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Services exist now which did not exist ten years ago. Services that exist now may not exist in ten years time. Science changes as do population, demographics and lots of other things. One can never close the door on a decision like this. The second mobile cath lab is there on a temporary basis and the decision is that an analysis will be carried out towards the end of the contract on what...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: A decision will be made at that point as to whether it should continue. I acknowledge the enormous distress hospital overcrowding causes to patients who are required to wait for long periods on hospital trolleys for admission to a regular ward. I acknowledge also the distress it causes for staff. Having worked in three emergency departments, I know a little about that. I also have had...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Brexit Staff (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The Department of the Taoiseach has an amalgamated international, EU and Northern Ireland division headed by a second Secretary General, who also acts as the Irish sherpa for EU business, including Brexit issues. Staff resources vary from time to time but currently amount to approximately 25 full-time equivalent posts across the full range of policy areas. The work of the division...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Deputy Howlin's remark that there are no allocations for Sláintecare in the budget is incorrect. There is an allocation to establish the health reform office. One of the recommendations in the Sláintecare report was that one of the first actions to be done is the establishment of such an office to work on the implementation plan for Sláintecare. Sláintecare is a plan...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: -----from January. On the emergency cardiology issue - specifically 24-7 primary percutaneous coronary intervention, PCI, which I believe is what the Deputies mean - a report was done on that matter by Dr. Herity, a Northern Ireland-based cardiologist and expert in the field. He determined that it would not be safe or sustainable to provide 24-7 primary PCI in University Hospital...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The sense I get from members of the Opposition is that they are accusing the Government of somehow paying lip-service to supporting Sláintecare, even though we are actually taking it seriously and doing some of what is recommended in it.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: It seems to me that the Opposition parties are actually paying lip-service to it. If we look at the Opposition pre-budget plans we can see that they did not provide anywhere near enough in health-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I have not even finished the sentence. I confirmed this with the academic authors of the report. They recommend that an extra €1 billion would need to be allocated for health in year one. For next year Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party certainly did not-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Secondary to that I have-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I have not heard members of any party saying that they accept the report hook, line and sinker because were they to so do, they would have to answer some of the follow-up questions, the most obvious of which being from where would all the money come. The report states it should come from a mix of measures such as co-payments and social insurance-----

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (15 Nov 2017)

Leo Varadkar: -----so a party that says it is signing up for this report hook, line and sinker should answer that question. What co-payments are wanted, how much would they be, what social insurance contributions would they agree-----