Results 10,181-10,200 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Leaders' Questions (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: ——not just myself but all the Ministers, Ministers of State and others who travel over the St. Patrick's Day period. It gives us a focus in capitals and destination all over the world and gives us access around St. Patrick's Day to meet multinationals and tourism operators. We get a huge audience worldwide for this. I understand that people would raise the issue of costs as costs are of...

Leaders' Questions (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: We spend over €50 billion a year in this country on a range of services and there is always some service somewhere in need even though there have been historic increases in current and capital expenditure in every area in the past decade, and far more and far higher than the average rate. I am often criticised in the House about our rate of current expenditure year-on-year which is higher...

Leaders' Questions (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I am glad to see in 2008 that Gordon Brown has decided that what we have for generations seems to be his best political idea. That is a tribute to what we do so well.

Leaders' Questions (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: He would have been a member if he had been around.

Leaders' Questions (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: Recently we saw a number of very successful operations carried out by the Garda to deal with gangland crime. I acknowledge the considerable efforts of the Garda in this regard and I commend it on its successes which clearly prevented further murders and serious crimes. We have had two murders in recent days and we had a number of murders last year also but there was a significant decrease on...

Leaders' Questions (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I do not have the overall figure, but witness protection is an extremely difficult issue, as the Deputy knows, because he has raised it here. I have raised it again with the commissioner. Although he is not convinced, he has enhanced the system. The difficulty is that, even when badly injured, criminals will not participate in normal surveillance and intelligence gathering. This is the...

Leaders' Questions (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: We have allocated €20 million to that activity this year. While it will not solve past murder cases, it will prevent others. A number of such operations take place in the greater Dublin area, not just today but some for the last two or three years.

Leaders' Questions (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I have no problem giving the figure for a ten-year period.

Leaders' Questions (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I am told that in respect of gangland crime, organised criminal gangs mainly involved in drug trafficking, the number of convictions is very low.

Leaders' Questions (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I do not deny that figure and the legislation is not the reason. Gardaí say they have strong legislation, dedicated detective units, high levels of resources and considerable overtime and manpower reserves. They have the special protection programmes. While Deputy Gilmore has an issue on the legislation, the commissioner does not believe they require anything more than they have. The...

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 4, inclusive, together. The total projected cost of the communications unit for 2008 is €344,873 with €135,512 being a direct cost to my Department and €41,872 on average being borne by the five other Departments which have staff seconded to the unit. The cost of the unit in my Department during February was €27,326, with €10,737 being a direct...

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: The unit has five staff over an 18 hour roster and it does not have the capacity to provide regional news items or international news, press cuttings or what is on local radio. The unit monitors the national radio stations and national newspapers. That is what is circulated to both Ministers and officials. I assure Deputy Bruton it has no involvement in party activities. It does not...

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I certainly do not want to see any duplication, but I asked officials in other Departments late last year to look at where it occurs. They informed me that the Departments were spending money on regional newspapers and information that would not readily be——

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: A number of Departments were contracted over the years to newspaper services and outside media monitoring units. We effectively stopped that in 1997. It was a very large cost. The entire media communications unit was cheaper than the cost at that stage. We could extend the service to include regional newspapers, but this is a small unit of five people covering 18 hours per day five days...

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: We would not, because what would happen——

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: It could not be done with five staff. I could save €500,000 from other Departments, but we would have much more staff in my Department. The five people cannot cover local, national and international media and provide the service to all other agencies. It would not be possible to do that with five people.

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I will make two points. Any data or information prepared in Departments, such as reports, is not made available externally. In my period as Taoiseach we have provided large increases in the party leaders' allowances to allow political parties to access these funds. We have also increased funding for the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. If the commission saw any benefits in the...

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: Information has been released hundreds of times following freedom of information requests. It is available.

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: They have been circulated.

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: That is correct.