Results 461-480 of 1,981 for speaker:Conor Lenihan

Diplomatic Relations and Immunities (Amendment) Bill 2005: Report and Final Stages. (15 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: That is for the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. I would like to know everything and oblige the Deputy as far as possible but it is a matter for that Department.

Diplomatic Relations and Immunities (Amendment) Bill 2005: Report and Final Stages. (15 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: It may not be necessary to pass legislation to accede to the Vienna conventions. That is the best legal advice we have at present but the issue is being explored and we have sought confirmation from the Attorney General. It is a fine call but, as the only member of my family not to become a lawyer, I am not particularly conversant with the legal issues involved.

Diplomatic Relations and Immunities (Amendment) Bill 2005: Report and Final Stages. (15 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: Within the next few months, the Attorney General will confirm whether legislation is needed to accede to the convention. However, the advice of my Department's legal officers is that such a provision may not be necessary.

Diplomatic Relations and Immunities (Amendment) Bill 2005: Report and Final Stages. (15 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: If I was not sufficiently clear in my reply to Deputy Higgins, I will be more explicit for the benefit of Deputy Durkan. The advice I received from the legal advisory section in the Department of Foreign Affairs is that legislation will not be required. However, in line with usual practice for these matters, we are consulting the Attorney General to ensure that he is of the same legal view.

Diplomatic Relations and Immunities (Amendment) Bill 2005: Report and Final Stages. (15 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: We are the lead Department in terms of international legal issues but, in keeping with our approach to joined-up Government, we have to confirm it with the Attorney General. Our in-house legal opinion is that we will not need legislation and that is good news because, if the Attorney General confirms our view, it will be a matter of months before we accede to the Vienna conventions. The...

Diplomatic Relations and Immunities (Amendment) Bill 2005: Report and Final Stages. (15 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: The Government amendment to section 6 of the Bill was agreed upon on Committee Stage. The Labour Party's proposed amendment to section 6 would involve its replacement with a differently worded provision which would have substantially the same effect. As I stated on Committee Stage, the main difference in the proposed amendment is that, whereas the Bill deals with the matter by the textual...

Diplomatic Relations and Immunities (Amendment) Bill 2005: Report and Final Stages. (15 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: I would like to do so but at the risk of causing offence, the Deputy may be overstating the case. It is not the case that a Supreme Court decision in respect of Leontjava and the Director of Public Prosecutions actually exposed a defect. What is happening here is that, on the advice of the Attorney General, we are moving to rectify a potential defect that might emerge at some point. It is not...

Diplomatic Relations and Immunities (Amendment) Bill 2005: Report and Final Stages. (15 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: The Attorney General decided that in terms of best practice, it was best to delimit the areas whereby immunities and privileges can be granted by a Government and that they should be specified, rather than unspecified. That is what we are doing here. It is a tidying up operation. It has not been occasioned by a crisis, constitutional, legal or otherwise. The Leontjava case brought into relief...

Order of Business. (21 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: That could be open to many interpretations. The Taoiseach has been accused of many things on the floor of the House.

Decentralisation Programme. (22 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: Under the Government's decentralisation programme, the development co-operation directorate of the Department of Foreign Affairs, currently based in Dublin, will decentralise to Limerick. This is scheduled to take place during the first quarter of 2007 and will involve the relocation to Limerick of 124 posts. A total of 26 posts in the directorate, including that of director general, are...

Decentralisation Programme. (22 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: I have great pleasure in defending my senior colleague, the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern. He did not seek in any fashion to threaten staff and that would be a very wrong assumption for the Deputy to make. The Department has taken very strong proactive measures to minimise the threat raised by the Deputy of corporate loss of memory. Specific measures have been taken to protect the development...

Overseas Development Aid. (22 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: Capacity building is recognised by both donors and developing countries as a critical priority for the attainment of the millennium development goals. This is strongly reflected in numerous recent international policy statements and reports such as the Paris declaration on aid effectiveness, the Commission for Africa report and the report of the UN millennium project. Within Africa, the...

Overseas Development Aid. (22 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: I will answer the last question first. We have additional staffing resources. I was delighted to work with my senior colleague in our Estimates campaign with the Minister for Finance. We achieved 20 extra staff for the development and co-operation division. That was some achievement in the current circumstances. I hope most of those staff will be devoted to the area of audit and evaluation...

Overseas Development Aid. (22 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: Regarding capacity issues generally, we will spend much more money in the expanded aid programme on scholarships and fellowships in particular. This year we hope to double the number of people on our scholarship programmes from 60 to 120. Similar to the situation that pertains to AIDS funding, I do not see it stopping there. I do not see the €50 million we doubled to €100 million this...

Overseas Development Aid. (22 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: I made those remarks on the donor countries, not the recipients.

Overseas Development Aid. (22 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: I agree. I thank Deputy Allen for his remarks. The principle of our aid programme is to focus on poverty and those in greatest need. It would be shocking and terrible if we punished the poor for the misdeeds of their government. That is an outrageous suggestion. It is nonsense for any NGO, charity or anyone pretending to assist Africa to suggest we should cut and run at the first sign of...

Overseas Development Aid. (22 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: There is an onus on this House and on me, as Minister, to justify the programme to the people, who have justifiable concerns that perhaps our money could be misdirected, wasted or maladministered by a partner country. The Government is involved in headline budget support in very few, if any, countries. We have moved into headline budget support only in a small way. All the funding from Irish...

Overseas Development Aid. (22 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: I hope to publish the White Paper in July, subject to the approval of the Cabinet, which will move fast on it.

Written Answers — Decentralisation Programme: Decentralisation Programme (22 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: I have not met Dóchas on this specific issue but I am aware of its concerns with respect to the decentralisation of the development co-operation directorate of the Department to Limerick. These concerns were set out in a letter received from Dóchas to which my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, replied in detail on 31 January. In this letter, the Minister stated that...

Written Answers — Overseas Development Aid: Overseas Development Aid (22 Feb 2006)

Conor Lenihan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 77 and 104 together. Ireland's total bilateral aid to Ethiopia in 2005 amounted to €35 million. It is expected that the total funding to Ethiopia in 2006 will be at approximately the same level. Ireland's support to Ethiopia is focused on addressing the basic needs of the rural poor. Ireland does not provide general or direct budget support to the federal...