Results 2,601-2,620 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Order of Business. (5 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: If the Deputy has information on an individual Bill on which there is an EU decision and tables a question to the relevant Minister, the Minister will answer detailing what is happening on it.

Order of Business. (5 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: If Deputy Sargent gives me information on the legislation, I will try to give it.

Order of Business. (5 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: Then the Deputy should table a question to the relevant Minister.

Order of Business. (5 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: Consultations are taking place between the Department and the relevant stakeholders. I do not have a date for it, but I understand they are endeavouring to secure as much agreement as possible on every aspect to improve the Bill.

Order of Business. (5 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The reason for that is the Minister has successfully organised a voluntary scheme where we are now getting agreements with the industry on alcohol advertising and Department wishes to hold off the introduction of legislation pending the outcome of these voluntary agreements. For the first time ever, there is an active campaign by the drinks industry to promote sensible drinking habits and...

Order of Business. (5 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: It is paying for the advertisements.

Order of Business. (5 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The heads of the Bill have been approved and the legislation is due to be published in the middle of next year.

Order of Business. (5 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The heads of the animal health Bill, which is to consolidate and update the Diseases of Animals Acts, were approved a considerable time ago. The Bill has gone for drafting but we do not have a date for it. I have no information on the second issue.

Order of Business. (5 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: Next year.

Order of Business. (5 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I was talking about that today. There are international agreements for seafarers and what the Deputy suggests is not easy to do. As I stated this morning, it is probably not practical. We are looking at some of the other issues such as the protection of employment. With regard to seafarers, the advice I have been getting from both inside and outside the system is that it is not practical.

Order of Business. (5 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The heads of the Bill have been approved and it is in the final stages of drafting. It is hoped to have the Bill early in the new year.

Order of Business. (5 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The social welfare and pensions Bill will be before the House as usual.

Seanad: Northern Ireland Issues: Statements. (6 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I am very pleased to have this opportunity to address Seanad Éireann following some very significant developments in the peace process. On 28 July, when the IRA announced an end to its armed campaign, I said that its words must be borne out by actions and on 26 September, we saw verified actions when General John de Chastelain announced the completion of IRA decommissioning. Finally, the IRA...

Leaders' Questions. (12 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The new set of controls on which the Government decided will ensure that major IT projects in all areas are managed to best practice and standards. It will look back on projects. A new cross-departmental peer review is being introduced with immediate effect to cover existing and new major projects. Anything that is ongoing, therefore, will be examined, including the projects mentioned by the...

Leaders' Questions. (12 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: As the Tánaiste said yesterday and I said last week, it is a fact that, despite intense opposition to our proposal to bring together the 11 health boards, we established the Health Service Executive——

Leaders' Questions. (12 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: ——to allow us correct the ways of the past and deal with these issues in a proper way. Deputy Kenny is right to say that people with design and international expertise were engaged on the e-Cabinet project. The point I made last week is that we did this for under €5 million because we needed the outside expertise to come in only to do some of the design work. We do not have those kind...

Leaders' Questions. (12 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: In many cases consultants come in where the public service does not have the expertise to undertake a job. That expertise is necessary. Where members of the public service have the expertise they do that work under the guidelines set by the Department of Finance. It is not the case that whenever someone comes in waste is created. The impression people attempt to give that every time a...

Leaders' Questions. (12 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: There are excellent services in this State and we have more teachers, nurses and staff.

Leaders' Questions. (12 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: It is good that we are able to spend €40 billion and we do not have to borrow that as we did before.

Leaders' Questions. (12 Oct 2005)

Bertie Ahern: We do not have a national debt higher than that of Ethiopia, we have one of the lowest in the world and we should be proud of that.