Results 3,961-3,980 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Leaders' Questions. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Hopefully they will generate the same interest as the huge number of hotels we have seen built in Killarney, Dublin, Cork and Wexford, so they will be able to continue.

Leaders' Questions. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: In the meantime, the Government will work with the trade union interests and the workers to try to make the best decisions for their interests and protection in the future.

Leaders' Questions. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I answered this question and I have sent correspondence to Deputies on this case. Marie Therese O'Loughlin is a fine person. Most Members of the House at one stage or another have spoken to her. Many officials have also spoken to her and to me regarding this case over many months. I answered questions on the detail of the case. There is no point in going over old ground to confuse the issue...

Leaders' Questions. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I have every sympathy for Marie Therese McLoughlin——

Leaders' Questions. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Marie Therese O'Loughlin. I am duty bound to comply with the procedures. I cannot make up laws or switch laws on my feet to suit cases. I made this point several times to several Deputies and Senators to convey the message. The position is that the two Departments have extensively examined all of their records, files and archives to see whether inspections were carried out at the Regina Coeli...

Leaders' Questions. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: If the Deputy listens to what I was about to state——

Leaders' Questions. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The Deputy did not listen. He heard the first word.

Leaders' Questions. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I said there were no inspections in the home that was part of the hostel, and there were not. The records were extensively checked through an enormous amount of effort by officials in both Departments to see whether inspections were carried out in the mother and baby home that was part of the hostel. Approximately 30 Deputies have asked me questions on this matter and I asked the Departments...

Leaders' Questions. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I am giving the Deputy the position. Apart from that, hostels are specifically excluded from the legislation passed by this House. It is unfair and unreasonable for Deputies to go out to Marie Therese and suggest something can happen when it cannot. The point I have made, and of which I think the Deputies are aware, is that I cannot say what applications have been made or mention other...

Social Partnership. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: On the issue of the protection of employment standards, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions made it clear since last summer that in the next talks, it wanted it to be the major issue. At meetings with it in September and in writing to it in October, I gave a commitment that we would accept that. In a rapidly changing labour market, the issue brings with it new challenges in the area of...

Social Partnership. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: This is not the most uncompetitive country in the world. In many of the areas——

Social Partnership. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Sorry. I thought the Deputy was speaking generally. Obviously, the issue of energy will come up as part of competitiveness because every country in the world, particularly in Europe, is looking at their dependency, especially on Russia. Those assessments are going on here. The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Noel Dempsey, has been involved in assessments from...

Social Partnership. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The Deputy will appreciate that I do not agree with him. In reply to the Deputy's last question on pay levels, the reason our competitiveness is out of line is because our pay levels, when set against our main competitors, are much higher across practically all professions and strands. The Deputy referred to hard-pressed workers. In most of these sectors they would be thankful because the...

Social Partnership. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I am simply giving the facts provided by the ESRI, which would never give anything other than the complete truth in this respect. As I stated yesterday, the Government has examined the existing incentives for people to generate wealth and the Minister for Finance has named those whom he believes should be eliminated. As we had that debate yesterday, there is no need to go back over such...

Social Partnership. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: ——where they are not selling.

Social Partnership. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: In several parts of the greater Dublin area, as well as in Cork.

Social Partnership. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: There has been a slow take-up in affordable housing. Thankfully however, the affordable housing initiative, which has taken place under the aegis of social partnership, has facilitated far more co-ordinated activity in these areas. Hence, I do not accept the Deputy's point.

Social Partnership. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The Deputy has referred to social housing. I referred to affordable housing, which has just been raised.

Social Partnership. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: In the bleak 1980s, one had to provide social housing. However, as the Deputy can recall, there was no great difficulty in so doing, because so many people emigrated.

Social Partnership. (8 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: However, 80,000 families take up houses every year.