Results 1,801-1,820 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Written Answers — Fairtrade Products: Fairtrade Products (17 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: Fairtrade tea and coffee is served during meetings held in my Department. My Department will continue to seek opportunities to use Fairtrade products.

Written Answers — Dublin-Monaghan Bombings: Dublin-Monaghan Bombings (17 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: Arising from the recommendations in the report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights on 31 March, 2004, a commission of investigation into certain aspects of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974 has been established, with Mr. Patrick McEntee, SC, as sole member. With regard to the Dublin bombings in 1972 and 1973, the joint Oireachtas committee...

Written Answers — Meetings with NGOs: Meetings with NGOs (17 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: In the course of my work, I meet many organisations regarding various aspects of Government policy, although individual Ministers have primary responsibility to meet the organisations relevant to their own areas. I would estimate that I meet with approximately two such organisations on average each week although the number of meetings in 2004 was lower due to other commitments associated with...

Written Answers — Departmental Properties: Departmental Properties (17 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: No assets worth more than €100,000 have been sold by my Department since 1997.

Written Answers — Departmental Properties: Departmental Properties (17 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: No land or buildings have been disposed of by my Department in the past ten years.

Leaders' Questions. (18 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The Government will discuss these matters today and make a decision shortly, whether today or next week. Dublin Airport Authority is quite clear about the site that it wants and Fingal County Council does not disagree. It believes it is the proper site and the correct location. The authority has always been clear about the issue. A second terminal is needed because the numbers passing through...

Leaders' Questions. (18 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: Nobody in 1991 said that private money was a huge rip-off because many people thought that the Roche family was insane to put money into something that might not work. Of course, now everybody sees it the other way around. One cannot have it both ways.

Leaders' Questions. (18 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I will answer the question that Deputy Kenny asked.

Leaders' Questions. (18 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: We are not looking at what might be the issue this year or next year, but forward to ten or 15 years, which is the right thing to do. With regard to the airport, it would have been cheaper a number of years ago to build it to accommodate 30 million people, but everybody said the maximum figure before 2010 would be 10 million or 12 million. We should not play games with this issue. The reality...

Leaders' Questions. (18 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: When the Government makes a decision, there is a process by which it is announced. That process will be followed in this matter. I do not intend to provide a trailer of the decisions that will be made — I will not get into that. Pier D is to be finished by 2007 and the terminal by 2009. The capacity will be 30 million passengers. On current projections, by the end of this decade we will be...

Leaders' Questions. (18 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The first part of the Deputy's question relates to the terminal. We are talking about one new terminal, not one for this and one for that. Obviously the Deputy is not following the story. We are talking about a second terminal under the control of the Dublin Airport Authority. We are talking about a terminal that will allow Dublin Airport grow and have capacity for 30 million passengers by...

Leaders' Questions. (18 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: His own party policy, enunciated by him, is that strategic investment in the company is needed for future growth and job creation. The fact is that in the modern world in which we all live, if we want to attract business here — we are a modern country and probably the largest trading country in the OECD — we have to look to the future of Aer Lingus and the airways. There are two key...

Leaders' Questions. (18 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I am glad Deputy Rabbitte has clarified that he has no difficulty with capital injection into Aer Lingus. If I took him up wrongly on that I apologise but now we know that Labour Party policy is to allow equity capital into Aer Lingus and I welcome that. When the board of Aer Lingus receives advice, makes its decision and concludes how best to do this, it will be for the development of Aer...

Leaders' Questions. (18 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: Even the Deputy does not believe that raiméis but he has to say it.

Leaders' Questions. (18 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: That is extreme left, even further left than I would ever dream of going. Deputy Higgins knows that none of that is fact. Aer Lingus wants to grow and maintain jobs. The staff and trade unions in Aer Lingus have no objection to equity being put into Aer Lingus. How it is structured and formed are concerns for them but the concept that Aer Lingus can stay as it is and not expand when aircraft...

Leaders' Questions. (18 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: Deputy Joe Higgins knows that we operate in a global deregulated world. A management buy-out that would have taken 100% of Aer Lingus away from the staff with no State involvement, and putting in a capital injection with Government remaining as a shareholder and part of the strategic plan are entirely different. Deputy Rabbitte has drawn that distinction, which is one that I accept also. In...

Leaders' Questions. (18 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The Government has invested in Aer Lingus, putting substantial resources into the company in the 1990s, only a decade ago. We have also worked with Aer Lingus on the survival and redevelopment plans. The Government will remain part of the company. Equity injection is not a wholesale sell-out, but aims to build the airline for the future. Ireland is an island nation and while it may be small,...

Tribunals of Inquiry. (18 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 5, inclusive, together. The costs incurred by my Department during the first quarter of 2005 in respect of the Moriarty tribunal amounted to €670,094 and the costs to 30 April 2005 amounted to €976,139. The estimated costs for the tribunal for 2005 amount to €4 million. However, provision for an additional €6.5 million has been made to cover...

Tribunals of Inquiry. (18 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: As regards the Deputy's first question, I cannot be certain and I cannot control it totally. However, in the negotiations that were instigated by the previous Minister for Finance on all the tribunals, he set down a new schedule of fees that would take effect subject to negotiations that the Office of the Attorney General would have with the various chairpersons of all the tribunals. In the...

Tribunals of Inquiry. (18 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: Deputy Rabbitte makes a valid point about the tribunals. I assure him this was not my intention — as anybody who looked at the record would also conclude — when I participated with others in setting them up, although obviously I had responsibility as Taoiseach. As some of my staff have shown me a number of times, at that stage all of us indicated that two years seemed to be an awful long...