Results 7,821-7,840 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (20 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The information requested by the Deputy is outlined in the Tables. Department of the Taoiseach: Departmental staff at all grades Grade No. of Staff Male Female Secretary General 1 1 0 Second Secretary 1 1 0 Assistant Secretary (A/Sec) 4 3 1 Principal Officer (PO) 14 11 3 Assistant Principal (AP) 31 11 20 Higher Executive Officer (HEO) 27 8 19 Administrative Officer (AO) 13 7 6...

Written Answers — EU Directives: EU Directives (20 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The Department of the Taoiseach has no Directives awaiting transposition. My Department does however have a role in monitoring the transposition of EU Directives. Minister of State Noel Treacy chairs an Interdepartmental Coordinating Committee on European Union Affairs. The Committee keeps under review, and works to ensure coherence on, the full range of issues on the EU's agenda. The...

Written Answers — Departmental Communications: Departmental Communications (20 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: While there are a number of channels available, which can be utilised by people with hearing disabilities to communicate with my Department, such as email, website feedback forms, post and fax, we do not currently have facilities for people with a hearing disability to phone my Department. We have, however, recently received proposals from our telecom suppliers for the installation of...

Written Answers — Decentralisation Programme: Decentralisation Programme (20 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Since the introduction of the decentralisation programme, 10 former members of staff from my Department have been assigned to decentralised posts. The Deputy will be aware that the Department of Finance is responsible for the overall decentralisation programme. The Deputy will also be aware that there are no proposals to decentralise my Department or any of the bodies under its aegis.

Written Answers — Interdepartmental Committees: Interdepartmental Committees (20 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I chair the Cabinet Committee on Social Inclusion and the membership includes the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Ministers for: Education and Science; Enterprise, Trade and Employment; Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs; Finance; the Environment, Heritage and Local Government; Health and Children; Social and Family Affairs; and Children. and the...

Leaders' Questions (21 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: He will probably start in 1950.

Leaders' Questions (21 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I will try to reply to the Deputy's questions in the order in which he asked them, although I know he was meant to ask only one question. On prisons, we have reformed the prison system and built new prisons.

Leaders' Questions (21 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: No, we got away from the revolving door that existed when the Deputy's party was last in government——

Leaders' Questions (21 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: ——when nobody served his time and when prisons were just holiday camps. Offenders were imprisoned for just a few days and then let out again; that is the way it was.

Leaders' Questions (21 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: On class sizes, we have employed 8,000 extra teachers in primary schools since 1997 and the pupil-teacher ratio is now down to 27:1 or 28:1. There has been an enormous improvement in respect of disadvantaged children and the class size in this respect is 13 in secondary school. This is as good as any international standard.

Leaders' Questions (21 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: A considerable number of primary schools have under 20 per class.

Leaders' Questions (21 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: There is one teacher for every 28 pupils. The voting machines——

Leaders' Questions (21 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: ——worked quite well in the last election — they worked excellently. Fine Gael is afraid of them and wants to return to paper and pencils. Even though we are a country of technology, Fine Gael would rather go back to the old way — a haon, a dó, a trí and use the pencils. Ireland is the largest exporter of technology and everybody is using it with their bank cards, etc. Fine Gael...

Leaders' Questions (21 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Which one did I miss?

Leaders' Questions (21 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Was it the 600,000 extra jobs or was it delivering our tax policies? Was it bringing almost full employment to the country or having the best economy in the world?

Leaders' Questions (21 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Was it cutting the national debt to 25%?

Leaders' Questions (21 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Deputy Ring should leave Deputy Kenny alone in Mayo and not be hassling him.

Leaders' Questions (21 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I have answered the issue of prisoners. We had a major problem with early releases but now we do not have that problem — the statistics and facts back that up.

Leaders' Questions (21 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I know Deputy Kenny admitted last week that if he has the opportunity he will do away with remission for prisoners. I do not know if the Labour Party would support that if it is ever with him in government, but prisoners will note that remission for ordinary prisoners will be taken away if Deputy Kenny has an opportunity to do so.

Leaders' Questions (21 Mar 2007)

Bertie Ahern: On class size, there are almost 5,000 more primary school teachers than in 2002 and 8,000 more teachers. Class sizes have reduced dramatically, with the average primary class size falling to 24. With the unprecedented increases in support staff, there is now one teacher for every 17 primary school children, down from one for every 22.