Results 8,061-8,080 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The accident and emergency consultants' point does not hold up in this regard. This is what currently happens in co-located hospitals and there are no accident and emergency services in these hospitals at present. This has worked in many hospitals, such as the Mater Hospital, St. Vincent's Hospital and in Cork, for many years. The aim of the initiative, to transfer private activity from...

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: We are speeding it up. We are allowing the private sector to build in these locations. Several other hospitals were cleared some years ago and jumping through all of the hoops creates much of the difficulty, alongside a rising population.

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I have made this admission several times. There has been a substantial increase in the number of beds, it is in the region of 1,482, but it is not enough. This provides a quick way to build and to move private patients from public hospitals to private hospitals on co-located sites with joint clinical governance. If I thought this process would bring about a two tier health system or create...

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I will not argue with Deputy Rabbitte.

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I will not. I do not see how private patients in public beds help public hospitals.

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: It is preferable that a private patient be treated in a private hospital on a co-located site. I do not see how this can damage the health service

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: This system has existed for some 100 years on a number of sites of co-located hospitals in the country.

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I will not go through the entire document as Deputy Sargent is reading it but it sets out in a detailed way the comprehensive measures we have put in place to enable us to meet the target set under the Kyoto Protocol. All of the preparatory work in this respect sought to set out how this could be achieved. The national climate change strategy requires co-ordination throughout the Government...

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The strategy addresses measures across all sectors of the economy and encompasses energy, agriculture, transport, the residential sector and the commercial sector. It includes measures that have been enacted through the national development plan, Transport 21, the White Paper on energy and the bio-energy action plan, in addition to a series of measures to put Ireland on a path to a low...

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: It is not just one issue; they all have to be looked at collectively. I assume the Green Party welcomes the fact that we have put all these updated documents into the strategy.

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: In light of the recent agreements of EU leaders to reduce emissions to at least 20% below the 1990 levels by 2020, the strategy looks beyond Kyoto. Deputy Sargent is right that this is a challenging task and we must take a longer term view. This was done, particularly in relation to renewable energy targets and investment in public transport to ensure the country is better positioned to...

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: ——for investment in such projects over the lifetime of the strategy. In all of the other areas we have spelt out what are the targets and what action is needed to deal with them. If this is not in one document, it is taken collectively in the four documents I have mentioned.

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: We will look at all proposals. The proposals made yesterday include a mechanism to check annually that we are delivering.

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Deputy Sargent will see this when he gets the proposals. The strategy includes a wide range of measures over and above those already in place from the review, as the Deputy must acknowledge. Fifteen per cent of electricity is to be generated from renewable sources by 2010 and 33% by 2020. It does not have to be a 3% figure in every year. It is an average figure.

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Biomass is to contribute up to 30% of energy input at peat stations by 2015.

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: There will be a shift to public transport as a result of Transport 21 investment and the rebalancing of VRT and motor taxation. I would have expected the Green Party to favour revised building regulations which aim for a 40% improvement in thermal performance. The grants for renewable energy heating available under the greener homes scheme have been an enormous success. The strategy also...

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: ——for the period after the 2012 commitments. It is laid out for the long term. I hope the Green Party will take a look at it so that they will be able to get their heads around how it might work.

Order of Business (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: It is proposed to take No.14, motion re referral to joint committee of proposed approval by Dáil Éireann for a Council decision on the establishment, operation and use of the second generation Schengen information system; No. a22, statements on the nurses dispute — on the Supplementary Order Paper; No. 1, Foyle and Carlingford Fisheries Bill 2006 — amendments from the Seanad; No. 22,...

Order of Business (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: There is more than enough legislation and as everybody can see we have been trying to get it through in the past few weeks. We have announced several infrastructural initiatives. We included €1 billion in the national development plan following the arrangements made between Chancellor Brown and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen. In recent weeks we added more than €400 million and...

Order of Business (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I am told there is no legal difficulty.