Results 721-740 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Leaders' Questions. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: What Deputy Ó Caoláin said at the start of his contribution is correct — we have to move forward. As I said in reply to Deputies Kenny and Rabbitte, what would be enormously helpful in that is the answers to the questions and issues we put yesterday. If we can make progress on those, we can all move forward. I am always amused at how things change. A few weeks ago I was under some...

Leaders' Questions. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The Deputy is interrupting because he wants me to answer a question. The question is whether we continued right up until the robbery. The Deputy knows what happened then and what was the British Government's view on the paper then.

Leaders' Questions. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: We will continue to try to engage but if the Deputy is trying to say that Prime Minister Blair was trying to make a deal in Christmas week, which allowed criminality or decommissioning to go ahead, that is not the case. The Deputy knows that is not the case and he knows the official who deals with that matter and how let down that official is today.

National Economic and Social Development Office. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 9, inclusive, together. The priorities of NESDO for the coming year are to promote complementary programmes of research, analysis and discussion by its constituent bodies, the NESC, NESF and NCPP, and to continue to provide shared administration and support services for those three bodies in order to obtain best possible value for money. It will submit...

National Economic and Social Development Office. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The national implementation body, if it has not done so already, is proceeding to ask An Post to go back to the Labour Court in relation to the reintegration of SDS into the company. I have a note, which states that the implementation body has met and has considered the difficulties in An Post in relation to SDS. It has called on both parties to suspend industrial actions and to lift the...

National Economic and Social Development Office. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: Hopefully, that will be responded to positively so they can go to the court and, in that case, avoid the industrial dispute.

National Economic and Social Development Office. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I do not have a time. I spoke to the relevant officials at lunchtime and at that stage, they had set about having a meeting with the national implementation body. The statement I have here is either being issued, or will be issued shortly.

National Economic and Social Development Office. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: It would have been better if management and unions had resolved all these issues in advance and had looked at some of the best practice of the national centre for partnership and performance. The national implementation body works out of my Department, or at least it is engaged by my Department under social progress. It engages itself in many disputes but does not get into the issues of...

National Economic and Social Development Office. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The national action programme on racism will be launched tomorrow. It is a plan for the future on which work has been done for some considerable time. The fourth periodic report of the National Economic and Social Forum was published in November. It reviews the work published by the forum and covers a number of issues, including lone parents, the reintegration of prisoners, equality issues,...

National Economic and Social Development Office. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: Most of the work undertaken by the NCPP and the Forum on the Workplace of the Future involves active engagement with ICTU, IBEC and FÁS in the implementation of reports. The NCPP is an academic initiative in terms of research but it is also actively involved in implementation with the co-operation of trade unions and employers. Membership of the centre is comprised of trade unionists.

National Economic and Social Development Office. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The Government provides the funding.

National Economic and Social Development Office. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: On the Deputy's first question, although the NCPP and all these other organisations are working under the umbrella of social partnership and their work is available to all, it is correct that they are not as actively involved in non-unionised workplaces. The NCPP always makes its case studies, data and models available to such workplaces. However, a difficulty arises if it is not invited to...

National Economic and Social Development Office. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: Yes. The Deputy's second question relates to the report of the National Social and Economic Development Office which sets out recommendations for developments in the health area. Most of the issues mentioned by the Deputy, including that of the common contract, are matters that are either under way or under discussion. The report points out the importance of seeking resolutions to these...

National Economic and Social Development Office. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The NESC report on housing was published before Christmas. It has issued a number of reports, including those entitled Creating a More Inclusive Labour Market, Care of Older People and Early Education, all of which deal with topics that were selected as priorities. It has begun work on studies on anti-social behaviour, cultural citizenship and the delivery of public services. It is also doing...

National Economic and Social Development Office. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The housing one was published just before——

National Economic and Social Development Office. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: It is working on the other ones. I will send the Deputy a complete list. I believe it has published approximately six reports in the past few months. I will get the Deputy the list.

Freedom of Information. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 to 12, inclusive, together. All requests received in my Department are processed in accordance with both the 1997 Act and the 2003 Act and their implementation is kept under constant review. A total of 45 requests were received last year, one of them in November, compared to 142 requests received in the previous year. Some 24 of the 45 were granted in whole...

Freedom of Information. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: As I stated before, a fee of €15 for making an FOI request when the cost is in the region of €425 cannot be considered a major deterrent to responsible use of the Act and is modest in terms of the administration of the service. The Minister for Finance is responsible and I am not aware of any proposals he has for making changes. The seven requests were probably ones where no information...

Freedom of Information. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I am almost certain it is a case of no records existing, and I have not seen any such cases. Sometimes maybe the records are incomplete. It is taken very seriously in Departments if records go missing and immediately detailed searches take place. Most FOI requests relate to current information and do not go back years requiring officials to go to storage boxes. Normally there is no difficulty...

Freedom of Information. (26 Jan 2005)

Bertie Ahern: Overall guidelines are set down. Liaison takes place between the information officers in each Department. In my Department the officials follow those rules. The amount of money taken in by my Department for the whole year was €525. In all cases a genuine effort is made even with historical records, which are not requested as frequently now. The figures were high early on because people were...