Results 7,621-7,640 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Strategic Management Initiative. (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Usually I have nothing to do with this question, which is decided entirely at the level of the Civil Service.

Strategic Management Initiative. (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Under the 1924 Act, taoisigh are responsible for all actions of all 350,000 civil servants every day and everywhere. I had therefore better not say that I am not responsible. It is not about that, as I will try to explain. The Deputy will be familiar with good customer service and the various subgroups in the Departments, each of which has a departmental charter. Civil servants are meant...

Ceisteanna — Questions (Resumed) (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The review is not a substantive audit of sectors, such as health, education and local government. It is, rather, focusing on the connectivity between various sectors, as I told Deputy Rabbitte, including central and wider sectoral areas. It is examining the effectiveness of arrangements through which Government objectives are translated into outputs and outcomes by means of collaboration by...

Ceisteanna — Questions (Resumed) (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Account will be taken of the NESF report and any other previous work, which will feed into the OECD's work. In the first instance, the OECD is consulting with the high-level steering group which is at Secretary General level. That group, comprising Secretaries General across Departments, including the Revenue Commissioners, has been set up to oversee the review. The driving force behind...

Ceisteanna — Questions (Resumed) (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: If the group has views on practices in any of these areas it can provide them in the report. There will be no restrictions and there is nothing to stop the group giving its views on embargos or other matters. The Deputy asked about Mr. Appleby who is in the process of getting additional staff. He has 36 staff at present and is getting additional numbers. The reason he is not getting them...

Ceisteanna — Questions (Resumed) (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: He has 36 so it seems extraordinary that he could want another 20; one would not receive such an increase in any Department. He will have to wait his turn because we have given priority to the labour inspectors and other commitments under Towards 2016. We have waited a long time for these so a new organisation can wait a few more years if the staff are required.

Appointments to State Boards. (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 to 11, inclusive, together. The information sought by the Deputies concerning the names of the persons appointed by me to State boards and agencies under the aegis of my Department, together with their occupations and dates of any such appointments, since June 1997 is set out in a schedule which I propose to circulate with the Official Report. The relevant...

Appointments to State Boards. (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: They are all my friends.

Appointments to State Boards. (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: No, thank God. Some such appointments must be checked with the Taoiseach under statute but I am afraid I read about most of them. Most of the people appointed by the various boards and bodies under my Department arrive via nominating bodies and I have a minor influence in such cases.

Appointments to State Boards. (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I do not control the NESC, the NESF, the Oireachtas, the farmers, trade unions and employers. I always try to encourage the appointment of more women but if I made suggestions other than that on who to appoint I would not get my wish. It is usually a hard job to find relevant people to take up positions on some of the other boards under my aegis, such as the National Statistics Board. I...

Appointments to State Boards. (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Appointments to boards are made on the basis of the knowledge, expertise and experience individuals can bring to a board. In many cases appointments are made on the basis of nominations by relevant groups, such as social partners, and the individuals involved agree to serve out of a sense of public duty rather than monetary considerations. In most boards there are no monetary...

Appointments to State Boards. (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I do not agree with it and do not think it is a good idea.

Appointments to State Boards. (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: It can be seen in the schedule that I have appointed to boards more card-carrying members of the Labour Party, who were paraded in prominent positions at that party's conferences, than residents of Drumcondra. There may be four or five such people from Drumcondra but I have appointed people who write Labour Party policy documents, who parade to Deputy Rabbitte's office and constitute his...

Appointments to State Boards. (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: All of the Deputy's Labour Party colleagues are good people. I deal with them every day.

Appointments to State Boards. (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: A handful of poor people from Drumcondra are beleaguered because they have known me for 40 years but that is how it is. It is not practice and I do not agree with packing boards on the eve of a general election. The practice has been that after a general election people tend to pack boards. I do not agree with that practice and have always tried to avoid engaging in it. My record in that...

Appointments to State Boards. (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Regardless of the posts I have held over the years, I have not done what politicians in the House did in the past, which was to stick people into boards.

Order of Business (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: It is proposed to take No. 2, Statute Law Revision Bill 2007 [Seanad] — Second Stage; No. 22, Carbon Fund Bill 2006 — Second Stage (resumed), in accordance with the Order of the Dáil of 14 December 2006; and No. 3, Consumer Protection Bill 2007 [Seanad] — Second Stage. It is proposed, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, that: (1) the Dáil shall sit later than 8.30 p.m....

Order of Business (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The Voluntary Health Insurance Board (Amendment) Bill is almost ready and will be available this session. The Immigration and Residence Bill may be taken a few weeks later than the VHI legislation but is also due in this session. The Electoral Bill was brought to Government yesterday. I am not sure when the Minister will publish it but we concluded it yesterday.

Order of Business (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The beginning of the summer session.

Order of Business (28 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I am not sure when the Minister will publish the Electoral Bill but it should be available in the next few days. The same should be true to the VHI legislation. The immigration legislation is the only one of the three Bills which might drift into the Easter break.