Results 1,301-1,320 of 16,849 for speaker:Dermot Ahern

Leaders' Questions. (9 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: Does he refer to the Democratic Left wing of the Labour Party?

Leaders' Questions. (9 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: It is plagiarism.

Leaders' Questions. (9 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: He cannot remember.

Written Answers — Northern Ireland Issues: Northern Ireland Issues (9 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: I am aware that Mr. Gerry Adams visited South Africa from 18-21 October last at the invitation of the South African Government. The embassy played no substantive role in organising the programme for the visit. Its involvement was limited to a lunch at the residence of the Irish Ambassador on 18 October. Guests at the lunch included members of the Irish community, NGO representatives and South...

Written Answers — Consultancy Contracts: Consultancy Contracts (9 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: I propose to take Questions Nos. 250 to 254, inclusive, together. The Department of Foreign Affairs does not participate in the Gartner executive programme and, accordingly, the issues of internal audit scrutiny, value for money, membership and numbers of companies competing for this service do not apply. I can confirm that no officials of this Department have attended as VIP guests at the...

Written Answers — Consultancy Contracts: Consultancy Contracts (9 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: In the time available it is not possible to review the detailed specifications of every contract entered into by the Department since 1995. To the best of my knowledge, no contract has overrun financially for the reason specified by the Deputy. I should explain to the Deputy that for the period 2000 to 2004 alone, the Department entered into contractual arrangements with approximately 500...

Undocumented Irish. (10 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 3 together. Immigration has become a highly sensitive and divisive issue in the United States since the tragic events of 11 September 2001. As a result, the position of our undocumented citizens in the US has become progressively more difficult. The quality of daily life for those affected has worsened with constant stress and anxiety as well as sadness...

Undocumented Irish. (10 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: I acknowledge the work Deputy Allen's party and all parties have done on this. The Kennedy-McCain Bills are on one side of the spectrum and other proposals exist on the other side of the spectrum, which are very restrictive. In recent times the United States administration has made suggestions on how this matter might be addressed. President Bush has not commented specifically on this other...

Undocumented Irish. (10 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: Defending the rights of Irish citizens abroad is part of the remit of my Department. There is nothing more I can do to defend the rights of undocumented Irish in the United States. I have been in the United States six times in the past nine months, albeit on other business on some occasions but I raised the issue of the undocumented Irish every time. Last week, I had a meeting with former...

Undocumented Irish. (10 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: That causes grave concern. I accept that such people contribute greatly to the US economy, as undocumented people generally do. Those who argue against the Kennedy-McCain measure, suggest that the 11 million undocumented people must return whence they came in order to apply for legal resident status. That is a totally impractical suggestion, however, because the US economy could not deal with...

Human Rights Issues. (10 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: Torture is among the most abhorrent violations of human rights. It undermines the inherent dignity of the person and is, therefore, unacceptable and unjustifiable. Ireland, through a range of legal and policy measures, has signalled its recognition that freedom from torture is a right which must be protected and promoted. Among the conventions to which Ireland is a party are the European...

Human Rights Issues. (10 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: We utterly condemn torture that is meted out in contravention of any of these conventions. When media reports have raised the specific issue of the use of Shannon, I have repeatedly instructed my officials to raise the matter with the US authorities. We have been given categorical assurances on this matter. It is the same situation as pertained over the past 50 years about the use of Shannon,...

Human Rights Issues. (10 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: Two days ago, Human Rights Watch released a statement providing additional background data about allegations that were supposed to have been made against two unnamed European states. Human Rights Watch said that aircraft alleged to have been involved in the transportation of prisoners by the CIA landed in airports in seven EU member states, namely Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal,...

Human Rights Issues. (10 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: We have jurisdiction only in this territory. We can do nothing else. We can condemn torture if it happens elsewhere, and I would condemn it in Poland and Romania, where it is suggested it happens. No evidence, however, has been tendered to date to lead to a substantial belief, as is required under the European Court of Human Rights, in this issue. I encourage anyone to bring forward credible...

Decentralisation Programme. (10 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: A whole system was decentralised to Pakistan.

Diplomatic Representation. (10 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 and 67 together. I was appalled by the reported statement by President Ahmadinejad on 26 October on the existence of the state of Israel. Officials of my Department immediately contacted the Iranian Embassy in Dublin to convey the Government's clear view that the reported comments of the President were entirely unacceptable. The ambassador of Iran was not in...

Diplomatic Representation. (10 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: The Iranian ambassador is not in residence in Dublin. Previous to the President's comments, we were made aware from newspaper reports of the detention but we only received official word in the past week to the effect that he is no longer the ambassador. I note the Deputy's response to the Iranian President's comments. The EU response was issued last Monday. It was a very strong response from...

Diplomatic Representation. (10 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: The Deputy has put the issue very well. As I have said, the result of the UN summit and the review conference on NPT was nothing short of a disgrace and I said as much in my statement on behalf of Ireland at that time. It was, and is, hypocritical for the larger powers, that already have nuclear arms, to put a strong emphasis on non-proliferation when in fact, the NPT is also a disarmament...

EU Directives. (10 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: The Government attaches priority to the transposition of EU legislation into Irish law. My colleague, the Minister of State with responsibility for European Affairs, Deputy Treacy, chairs an interdepartmental committee which meets regularly and has as one of its functions the monitoring of this transposition. The Government is committed to attaining the agreed transposition target of 1.5% as...

EU Directives. (10 Nov 2005)

Dermot Ahern: Between 2000 and 2005, Ireland was supposed to transpose 1068 directives and has, to date, transposed 1045, which is not a bad record. In fact, if one looks at the figures for when this Government came into office, we are now three times better than we were at that time, in terms of the percentage. In 1997, the transposition deficit figure was 5.4%, which was probably one of the worst in the...