Results 8,741-8,760 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Order of Business (23 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I have a short reply. For our part the Government Chief Whip will do his best to accommodate the Sinn Féin representatives. Generally, the Whips must try to do that. I cannot give assurances as it is a matter for the Whips. Certainly, they will endeavour to try to address the matter.

Order of Business (23 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: That legislation is due next year.

Order of Business (23 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: As I have not seen the booklet, I do not know what is in it. I have not thought about the legislation either.

Order of Business (23 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The Chief Whip tells me it will be next year.

Order of Business (23 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The draft general scheme of the nurses and midwives Bill, which will modernise the regulatory framework in that sector and update and amend the Nurses Act 1985, is at an advanced stage. The legislation is due in 2008.

Order of Business (23 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: No legislation is promised. The judgment will be examined by the Department, as always.

Order of Business (23 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I cannot answer the Deputy's question until the examination has been finished.

Order of Business (23 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: It is due next year.

Order of Business (23 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I will have to check that for the Deputy. I will let her know.

Written Answers — Departmental Reports: Departmental Reports (23 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: My Department's Output Statement was completed and was circulated to the Select Committee on Finance and the Public Service on 4 April last. It has been publicly available in response to requests thereafter and it has now been published on the website in association with the Department of the Taoiseach Annual Report.

Written Answers — Departmental Reports: Departmental Reports (23 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Last December, the Government approved the initiation of a major Review by the OECD of the Irish Public Service. The objectives of this Review are to benchmark the Public Service in Ireland against other comparable countries and secondly, to make recommendations as to future directions for Public Service reform. This required a holistic, system-wide assessment of the Public Service which...

Written Answers — Ministerial Travel: Ministerial Travel (23 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: In line with the Civil Service Code of Standards and Behaviour, issued in accordance with Department of Finance circular 26/2004, benefits from this scheme may be retained by individual civil servants in recognition of the fact that official travel is disruptive to personal and family life. The use of frequent flyer schemes by Ministers in my Department is consistent with this policy.

Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (23 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: My Department has spent €156,700 on stationery in 2007 to date, of which €32,000 was spent on paper. Over 96% of paper purchased by my Department is recycled paper.

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley announced before the summer that the previous position would be reviewed——

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: He does not influence the decisions on planning issues, such as on capacity. Deputy Gormely took the view that we should look at the modern technologies and the new systems being used in the Nordic countries and if we did that we would not need the number of incinerators that had been previously listed. There are four major applications for incinerators in the planning process. Based on...

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: In his view, some of the proposals that were previously examined did not take account of the most modern technology and if we go with the most modern technology we would not need the number of incinerators that had been envisaged.

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: It does not mean that. As the Deputy knows there are contractual commitments and a considerable amount of work has been completed on the Poolbeg incinerator. However, that does not remove the need to look at modern technology for that incinerator. That is the point the Minister has made. We have seen where in at least one case and possibly two, the capacity of the proposed incinerators...

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: We should take account of the most modern technology. That is the point the Minister made.

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: We want to move away from landfill. We should take account of the most modern technology available and as we have not started to build the incinerators, why should we use technology that is six or seven years out of date? That is a valid point for the Minister to make.

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Ten years ago, when I took over as Taoiseach, the pension was €70 and we have brought it to €200. As we promised, we will bring it to €300 in the lifetime of this Government. On the issue of our tax commitments, we intend to implement our policies over the five-year period as we have done in the past two Governments. We published the Green Paper on pensions last week, in fulfilment of...