Results 16,981-17,000 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Financial Resolutions 2018 - Financial Resolution No. 4: General (Resumed) (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: We on this side of the House - Fine Gael, the Independent Alliance and Independents - believe in improving living standards for people who work hard, get up early in the morning, work at night, and work weekends and shift work because we believe that work should pay, and we make no apologies for saying so. It is one of our objectives and part of our value system. Moreover, because we...

Financial Resolutions 2018 - Financial Resolution No. 4: General (Resumed) (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Budget 2018 is taking place at a time when we are making good progress in a range of areas under our control. At the same time, as we look beyond our shores we see uncertainties, risks and a rapidly changing global economy. Thankfully, we have moved beyond crisis management and are now in a position where we can plan for the future. However, regardless of the choices we make, our journey...

Financial Resolutions 2018 - Financial Resolution No. 4: General (Resumed) (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Consider the benefits over a year or two of the USC and income tax reductions, the benefits of the pay increases that we have negotiated with public services, the pay increases in the private sector, the increase in the minimum wage as well as the reduction in the cost of living by reducing prescription charges and introducing subsidised child care. When one takes all of them together, one...

Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy is welcome to believe what he wants to believe and he can spin this any way he likes. He is doing a lot of spinning in respect of this. I discussed it with the Secretary General obviously before I appointed him - or before I asked if he would be available to be appointed. I certainly discussed it with the Secretary General before I approached him and he was formally appointed by...

Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Subsequent to that he was involved in the 1916 commemorations, which were again hugely successful. After that, he was approached to head up Creative Ireland. It is exactly the same thing that would have happened with Creative Ireland and the 2016 commemorations.

Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: This was a big Government project. It was something that we wanted to do and somebody in-house was asked to do it.

Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I reassure Deputy O'Sullivan that we are certainly not ignoring Sláintecare. We very much support as a Government the principles behind it but it requires a bit of work. It requires proper costings for a start. We do not accept the costings in the report and they need to be done. The Labour Party seems to have accepted an obvious one in its alternative budget, which is the cost of...

Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: It is absolutely not our policy to ignore it; our policy is to develop a road map to implement it. The Minister for Health has been tasked with doing that and we will discuss it in more detail at the special Cabinet meeting on Friday. I have asked him to develop a roadmap to do exactly that before the end of the year. However, it requires development, which needs to be built on. I had the...

Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: It is approximately one third of the cost proposed in the Sláintecare report. I could just as easily accuse the party of abandoning two thirds of the report but I will not do that. It is a good report. The Government accepts the principles behind it but it is not, on its own, a roadmap to reform our health service and to provide the universal health care that we want to be provided...

Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I would be happy to arrange for the Deputy, someone from my Department and the Minister for Employment and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty, to sit down, go through this and see if there is something we can do. I suspect there is not. The law needs to be changed in this area. Trustees are there to look after the interests of the members and not to look after the interest of the...

Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: We published the detail of the cost of the unit in the budget because I wanted to be as transparent about this as much as I could be. We put the cost out there. There will be six staff. The total cost, most of it being for information campaigns, will be €5 million in a full year. It will be cost neutral because it is being fully funded from my Department's existing administrative...

Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: First of all, LIHAF is not a failure. It is Government money provided to give sites access and make them developable. I would have thought that - even from Deputy Boyd Barrett's point of view - he would have thought it an essential role of the State to provide public infrastructure to sites for housing. That is what LIHAF does. It connects the roads, brings in the water services and does...

Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: -----and that is what we continue to do. If I turned around in this House and suggested that public roads and infrastructure should to be provided by private developers, I imagine that Deputy Boyd Barrett would also be against that so it is one of those situations where we just cannot win no matter what we do.

Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I gave a few examples of new announcements that were made yesterday in respect of the new housing finance vehicle. That will lend the money to developers to build on commercial terms. This body will have €750 million, it will use the expertise of NAMA, and it will lend the money to builders to build houses and they will then pay it back. We anticipate that it will not only produce...

Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I do not believe anyone in this House wants to see a situation where people do not receive the pension they had expected. I know that this has happened to a lot of people across the State, and not just in this particular scheme. It has also happened across the private sector where pension schemes have had to reduce the promised benefits because there just was not enough...

Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I read Sinn Féin's documents. On page 7 of its document on health, Sinn Féin recommends an increase in health spending of €403.55 million a year.

Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Before that, Sinn Féin recommends a further €100 million in capital spending. In Sinn Féin's alternative-----

Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: -----budget strategy, it recommends that we spend €503.55 million extra on health next year-----

Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: -----which it believes is less than is needed to stand still and which is actually less than we are providing. Sinn Féin has been exposed. It wants health cuts.

Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy has a big problem because that is just not what his document provides for.