Results 1-20 of 29 for and segment:7439453

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: We need all types of development in Ireland, including in our cities: housing, office buildings, hotels and student accommodation. We will have a population of 6 million by 2040. It is therefore not a case of either-or; we will need all sorts of development in our cities. While the block to which the Deputy refers has no housing in it, An Bord Pleanála just the other day approved...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: We do not have a far right in Ireland. We have a far left but the far right and the far left are like a horse shoe: when one goes so far in one direction, one pretty much ends up in the same place. One of the recommendations of the cross-party committee on climate action was that we adopt a just transition model and have just transition task forces. There are ways in which we can...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Brendan Howlin: ...those will be impacted by it - not by giving everybody a cheque in the post but by ensuring that the most vulnerable are completely protected. We can do that by ensuring their houses are insulated and they have alternative fuels but that is for another day. On Monday, the International Energy Agency urged the Irish Government to publish more transparent emissions target. The agency...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: ...is coming from in saying that all the revenues from carbon tax should be ring-fenced to assist the most vulnerable whether it is through the fuel allowance or helping them insulate their homes and so on. I understand where he is coming from. There is a difficulty with that model and this is something that arises so much in policy making. When all the money goes to the most vulnerable,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: True but ring-fencing all of it for the vulnerable and forgetting about the people just above the threshold, the middle class and low-income families is not just either. That is why we do not agree with Deputy Howlin's assessment.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Maureen O'Sullivan: I wish to raise the implications of the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government's decision to increase building heights in Dublin. This decision was made without any regard to the setting, the impact on land values or any sense of home or quality of life. What it has done is open a space for developers whose Celtic tiger excesses and irresponsibility had drastic consequences in...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: ...that Dublin City Council is reviewing the SDZ for that area. I would expect the council to take all issues into account, including the impact on existing residents, their residential amenity and all of the factors that should be taken into account in planning. On a general note, I support the policy of us going higher in our cities, not just in Dublin but also in the Tivoli docklands...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Maureen O'Sullivan: I think there is a space for high rise but Dublin is not New York or Chicago. Dublin has a particular historic and cultural aspect to it. Let us not be hypocritical about this. Height increases have nothing to do with housing. Regardless of whether or not they are appropriate for family living, they have nothing to do with housing. It is time we move away from terms like "social and...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: The Government has not yet made a decision to accept a bid or to appoint a preferred bidder. If and when it comes to the point of being able to do that, there will be several months-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: -----while contracts are drawn up and, during that period, I have no doubt that the committee and Parliament will want to scrutinise the matter in detail.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is a small mercy that we were not reliant on the Taoiseach and his Government for rural electrification because there would still be debate about Ardnacrusha power plant. We would still be in the dark, lighting candles and hoping for the best. The Government used the wrong procurement process. The process was supposed to generate a dynamic of competitiveness and yet there is a sole...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: I cannot give the Deputy a precise date, nor have I ever. Due diligence has to be undergone, Cabinet Ministers have to be briefed, the Cabinet has to meet, a decision has to be made and a preferred bidder has to be appointed, or not. Deputy McDonald questioned my beliefs. I am of the view that Sinn Féin would probably have opposed rural electrification if it had been around during...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Will Sinn Féin put forward an alternative? It has tried to by proposing that the ESB do it and the ESB pulled out. Sinn Féin proposed that a public company be designated to do it. That is contrary to European state aid law, under which tendering is required. I have no doubt that Sinn Féin is opposed to rural broadband and that it would try to stop the project if it got into...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Brendan Howlin: The nationalist far right surged in the recent general election in Finland. The tactic of those involved was to promote a whole new level of misinformation and outright lies about climate change and the necessary policies to tackle it. Greenpeace and others have dubbed it Finland's climate election. There has been similar climate scepticism as part of US President Donald Trump's call for...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: ...it is exactly the model that Deputy Howlin supports but the Government absolutely supports the principles of just transition. We anticipate that the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, will bring forward the all-of-Government climate cation plan in May. I agree with Deputy Howlin's broad assessment regarding the politics of climate change and I...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Micheál Martin: One gets the sense the Taoiseach is managing this from a public opinion perspective and from a political perspective. By the way, two of the original bidders did not actually bid in the end; they gave outline indication. It was asserted all along it would be €500 million. Industry sources are saying the cost to build out the network is approximately €1.5 billion. The...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: Not to my knowledge, but the decision has yet to be made by Cabinet. The decision that will be made by Cabinet in the next couple of weeks is whether to accept the bid and to designate this bidder as the preferred bidder, at which point contracts will have to be drawn up and signed, and that will take a few more months after that. The contract is not only to build this network; the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: In terms of investment in infrastructure, we should bear the following in mind: in the past 20 years in Ireland, we have invested €40 billion in our roads connecting our cities by motorways, bypasses, local, regional and national roads all over the country; in the past 20 years in Ireland, we have invested €10 billion in our sewerage and water network - perhaps we should have...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: With every day that passes, the process surrounding the national broadband plan becomes ever more reminiscent of the debacle that now surrounds the cost of the national children's hospital. When I pressed the Taoiseach on this here yesterday, he admitted and confirmed for the first time that the cost of the broadband plan could reach €3 billion, despite the original cost estimate...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2019)

Leo Varadkar: At the time, I stated bluntly and explicitly that one of the reasons we were not in a position to make a decision is because we did not know whether there would be a crash-out Brexit last week and the Government could not make major financial decisions with the risk of that hanging over us in the past couple of weeks.