Results 1-20 of 46 for "direct provision" speaker:Leo Varadkar

Estimates for Public Services 2023: Programme for Government (5 Dec 2023)

Leo Varadkar: ..., and particularly by encouraging more and more credit unions to offer business loans. The Minister of State, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, is very much leading the charge on this. Deputy Troy asked about ending direct provision. To say very clearly, that remains our policy as a Government but, of course, it is not currently achievable given the large numbers of people who have come to the...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (5 Jul 2023)

Leo Varadkar: I do not want to comment on the individual case because I do not know all the information. However, we have a serious issue because thousands of people living in direct provision who have status are working and not paying any rent. That is not a tenable situation because we need those spaces for people who are new applicants for international protection. Single people, in particular, have...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 May 2023)

Leo Varadkar: -----international protection applicants would arrive every year. The world has changed since then, but it remains our policy that we want to move away from direct provision. The Minister is developing proposals for a dedicated migration agency and more State-run facilities; we have some already. The number of staff has increased by 250. There are 250 additional staff in the Department...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (1 Mar 2023)

Leo Varadkar: We will certainly take those suggestions under consideration. The Children's Rights Alliance gave us a B- last year for our plans to end the direct provision system and replace it with a not-for-profit accommodation model, which is Government policy. The report downgraded us to a D this year. That has happened because of a massive increase, a near trebling, in the number of people coming...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Mar 2022)

Leo Varadkar: ...1% or 2% in the course of a few weeks. To put this in context, when homelessness was at its worst, we had about 10,000 people in emergency accommodation. We have approximately 7,000 people in direct provision at present. We now have 10,000 Ukrainians seeking international protection. That figure will probably be 20,000 by the end of the month and 40,000 by the end of the following...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (29 Apr 2021)

Leo Varadkar: ...raised the matter and has some suggestions as to how it could be put into use for the benefit of the community. I am sure he will want to consider them. It is the Government's policy to phase out direct provision and it has committed to doing so but we are realistic that it will take quite some time. We have a housing shortage in this country and there is a real difficulty with capacity...

Written Answers — Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment: Covid-19 Pandemic (3 Nov 2020)

Leo Varadkar: ...than social, recreational, cultural or tourist purposes - operation of hotels or similar accommodation services providing essential accommodation (including accommodation for homeless persons and persons in direct provision, persons who are unable to reside in their usual place of residence due to reasons related to the spread of COVID-19 or otherwise) and related services - hotel or...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Sep 2020)

Leo Varadkar: ...not know at what point the various Ministers were informed. The HSE carries out surveillance testing every few weeks in places where there is a high risk of an outbreak, such as nursing homes, direct provision centres and meat and food processing plants. The HSE is essentially hunting for the virus and testing people who have no symptoms. The number of positive tests that have come...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (11 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: ...young people of colour growing up in Ireland see black and brown school principals, judges and perhaps Cinn Comhairle in the future. Who knows? Visibility and opportunity is very important. On direct provision, as I said in the House previously, I agree that much of the accommodation is substandard and that needs to change. It would not be honest to say that we can immediately end it....

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (4 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: My thanks to Deputy Pringle. As I mentioned earlier, direct provision is very often substandard. The kind of accommodation we want is at the McMahon standard level, where it is self-catering and where people have their own door. Much of direct provision is substandard and that needs to change. We have brought in good examples of accommodation in recent years, but obviously the whole...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (4 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: I answered a similar question on direct provision earlier. On the events we have seen take place in the United States, as I stated, we have witnessed a real absence of moral leadership from the top in the United States. We should have had words of unity, comfort and reconciliation, but we did not get them and that is absolutely wrong. I am sure that if those events had happened in this...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (4 Jun 2020)

Leo Varadkar: ...that we do not want to hear the experts. They have their own press conference every day and I think it is a good thing that is the case. It will not continue forever, but it will continue. On direct provision, I absolutely accept what Deputy Kelly said. Much direct provision accommodation is substandard and that needs to change. Some of it is of a good standard, such as own door...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (7 May 2020)

Leo Varadkar: ...to be a household or bubble. There is no change of definition there. It was always the definition and it is just common sense from a public health point of view. It applies whether someone is in direct provision or not. It does not matter what language a person speaks, his or her household is the people he or she lives with. If that person shares a room, that is his or her household...

Health (Covid-19): Statements (16 Apr 2020)

Leo Varadkar: ...the community. However, many people move from nursing homes to hospitals when they get sick and subsequently die there. The issue of congregated settings, such as nursing homes, homeless shelters, direct provision accommodation centres, and long-term care residential centres, has been always either on the agenda or been a topic for discussion since the Cabinet sub-committee was set up,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Dec 2019)

Leo Varadkar: ...world when other countries refused to do so. We sent our navy to the Mediterranean to help rescue migrants and disrupt human trafficking. We have brought in the new McMahon standards relating to direct provision. These ensure that the quality of accommodation has improved. We have also recognised Traveller ethnicity for the first time, something that was resisted for a long time by...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (12 Nov 2019)

Leo Varadkar: ...and fair society. The Cabinet committee considered a range of social policy issues over the recent period, including childcare; child protection and welfare issues; social enterprise; immigration and direct provision; gender equality issues; Sláintecare and health reforms. In addition to the meetings of the full Cabinet and of Cabinet committees, I often meet Ministers on an...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Cabinet Committees (8 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: ...issues relating to health and Sláintecare, education, children, equality, social inclusion; Irish language, arts and culture; and continued improvements and reform of public services. The issues of Direct Provision and the Irish Refugee Protection Programme are also covered.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (1 Oct 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy and share her sentiments. Direct provision is far from ideal but we will never be in a position, nor will any other country, to provide a house or an apartment to everyone who comes into the country as an asylum seeker. That is just not possible and no country does that. The sad reality is that the alternative to direct provision is what happens in France, Germany,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: ...on this but I will check it out and get back to the Deputy with a reply in the next couple of days, as best I can. Government acknowledges that there are many people who have been living in direct provision for far too long. A lot of that relates to the fact that we have a very slow system for deciding whether someone is allowed to stay in the country or not when they claim asylum....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2019)

Leo Varadkar: ...McMahon on many occasions and I have had the privilege of attending some of the citizenship ceremonies with him. He did a very good piece of work in setting out what the standards should be for direct provision accommodation. We are implementing those standards but they are not fully implemented yet and we acknowledge that. The Department of Justice and Equality, the Refugee Integration...