Results 7,061-7,080 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Order of Business (13 Dec 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I understood after the Cabinet meeting the other day that we had still a good chance of introducing it tomorrow.

Order of Business (13 Dec 2006)

Bertie Ahern: To the best of my knowledge, as of last night it was fairly close to completion.

Order of Business (13 Dec 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The Minister is helping me on this one.

Order of Business (13 Dec 2006)

Bertie Ahern: No. The legislation was taken off the list.

Order of Business (13 Dec 2006)

Bertie Ahern: As I will be at the European Council tomorrow and Friday, with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you, your Office, the Clerk of the Dáil and all the members of staff here in the Houses of the Oireachtas every good wish for the Christmas period and to thank them very much for their co-operation throughout the year and for the long hours they...

Order of Business (13 Dec 2006)

Bertie Ahern: We work hard and I can appreciate the job we all are doing. What the public think about us sometimes is unfair, but we all do our best to serve the public. I certainly admire my colleagues with whom I must deal every day. Even if we are fulfilling our parliamentary duties of being at loggerheads on this, that and the other matter, it does not take from my respect for them. I thank my...

Order of Business (13 Dec 2006)

Bertie Ahern: As long as I am alive to see another one.

Written Answers — Dublin-Monaghan Bombings: Dublin-Monaghan Bombings (13 Dec 2006)

Bertie Ahern: At the request of the Sole Member of the Commission of Investigation into the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings, Mr. Patrick MacEntee SC QC, I have granted a further extension of the timeframe for completion of the Commission of Investigation's report to 14 February, 2007. On each occasion, that the timeframe has been extended, Mr. MacEntee has written to me and provided an interim report, as...

Written Answers — Consultancy Contracts: Consultancy Contracts (13 Dec 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The amount spent on consultants in each year from 1997 to 2005 and to end of November 2006 is as follows: Year Expenditure € 1997 328,825 1998 637,336 1999 149,811 2000 304,012 2001 779,673 2002 771,098 2003 313,694 2004 435,861 2005 147,155 2006 (to end November) 48,576 These consultancies in the main related to the modernisation of the Civil Service, both as it relates to my...

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (13 Dec 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Currently there are 117 staff (from an authorised complement of 120) in the Office of the Attorney General, which includes the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to the Government. Of these, 44 are barristers and 11 are solicitors.

Leaders' Questions (31 Jan 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Deputy Kenny asked me three questions. Our figures differ a little. On his first question regarding patient waiting times, the HSE, which has responsibility for all 50 hospitals, continues to report significant improvements in the numbers of patients awaiting admission compared to the same period in previous years. The average number of patients awaiting admission during the December to...

Leaders' Questions (31 Jan 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Figures released by the HSE show that in the first six months of last year, 10,368 operations were postponed, not cancelled. That figure represents 2% of the total number of 527,000 patients who were treated in acute hospitals in the first six months of last year. While it always regrettable to postpone operations, they are postponed for a variety of reasons, including emergency cases...

Leaders' Questions (31 Jan 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Deputy Kenny will continue to make those points but we are spending a lot of money in this country.

Leaders' Questions (31 Jan 2007)

Bertie Ahern: We are paying 140,000 people in our health service to work hard and they are working hard. Deputy Kenny is correct in that the spare capacity in most acute areas of the health service is very tight. That always has been the case and I would say it will continue to do so. As we increased bed numbers by 1,500 and used the National Treatment Purchase Fund——

Leaders' Questions (31 Jan 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I am answering Deputy Kenny. We have used the National Treatment Purchase Fund to treat many of the people on waiting lists. Opposition Deputies should not try to paint the picture that the people who were on the waiting list five years ago are still waiting. There will always be people on waiting lists.

Leaders' Questions (31 Jan 2007)

Bertie Ahern: As long as people——

Leaders' Questions (31 Jan 2007)

Bertie Ahern: ——are ill, people will be on waiting lists, so do not paint the picture that it is always the same people. A person may be in for an operation today and somebody else will be on the list tomorrow.

Leaders' Questions (31 Jan 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I am replying to the Deputy's leader. We have increased capacity in practically every hospital in the country. Last year, the HSE contracted from the private and nursing home sector more than 1,000 beds, concentrated particularly but not only in the Dublin area. This year, it plans to contract 360 beds with the private sector, more than 220 of which will be in Dublin, and it proposes to...

Leaders' Questions (31 Jan 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I am answering Deputy Kenny. The Deputy can raise it the next day the Minister for Health and Children is taking questions. That is what they are doing, but they are still seeing more patients on an inpatient basis, more on an outpatient basis and more under the National Treatment Purchase Fund. I know it is a rising population, but they are getting more resources to do this and people...

Leaders' Questions (31 Jan 2007)

Bertie Ahern: No, there are more.