Results 1,901-1,920 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Leaders' Questions. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I said "Yes".

Leaders' Questions. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I will try to stay within the time allocated. I tried to be clear on this. The review the Minister announced on budget day relates to all the tax relief schemes. Residency is not a tax relief scheme.

Leaders' Questions. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I pointed out to the Deputy that a separate appraisal is being undertaken by the Revenue Commissioners on residency. That report will also be given to the Minister for Finance this year.

Leaders' Questions. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The tax exile matter is not a tax relief scheme.

Leaders' Questions. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: It is being reviewed by the Revenue Commissioners. I gave the Deputy the answer.

Leaders' Questions. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I said the Revenue Commissioners have confirmed they are monitoring the application of the non-residence rule. They will report to the Minister. I cannot be clearer than that.

Leaders' Questions. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The Revenue Commissioners are carrying out a review and they will report back to the Minister who will take action if he believes there is a need for change. If there is no need for change, then he will not take action. That is the position. Regarding shipping, I do not know if a case is under investigation or if there is any abuse. The rules are clear and the Revenue Commissioners have...

Leaders' Questions. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: As the Deputy knows, a criminal investigation is taking place on waste and on the monitoring of refuse in the Blessington area of west Wicklow. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has informed me the quickest way to achieve a clean up and get action in this area is to use section 55 of the Waste Management Act. That requires those responsible under the Act to clean...

Leaders' Questions. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I do not have enough time to deal with this whole issue. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government disagrees totally. He believes the Deputy misunderstands section 55.

Leaders' Questions. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: Section 55 requires the person responsible to clean up the site. On the Deputy's point about it being pre-2002, section 60 makes specific directions that it is covered, regardless of the time period. If section 55, which gives directions, does not cover it, section 60, which covers all sites, applies.

Leaders' Questions. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: That is the view of the Minister and the company mentioned earlier denies that it is responsible for the dumping.

Leaders' Questions. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: That is a matter for the monitoring process which follows. Section 55 requires the guilty party to clean the site fully and if it is an old site section 60 covers it. The Minister can and has made specific directions.

Programmes for Government. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 4, inclusive, together. Progress on the implementation of the programme for Government is kept under constant review. For every full year that Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats have been in Government, we have published an annual progress report. The second annual progress report of this Administration was published on 1 August 2004. Work is...

Programmes for Government. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I have reported on the implementation of An Agreed Programme for Government across several areas. Which questions may I answer? I do not wish to break the ruling of the Chair.

Programmes for Government. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: That is not a problem. I just do not wish to break the rulings of the Chair. Our report details every area of our commitments in the programme for Government — health, education and the broad areas of the economy. We have covered many of them. They are not all finished but as in the last programme, we intend to get near to completion by the end of the programme's five year term. I can go...

Programmes for Government. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I am trying to pick up the Deputy's individual questions. He focused on only one area but I can stray outside that area to say we have honoured, and continue to honour, our commitments on infrastructure through the national development plan, and the EU and Northern Ireland on which we regularly answer questions.

Programmes for Government. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I was trying to stay within the rules.

Programmes for Government. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: We have not and we are not going to reach 0.7% of GNP by 2007 as I certainly would have liked.

Programmes for Government. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I take the Deputy's point that we have to work to set a new target and we will do that. The Deputy will accept we have put enormous resources into this area. One of the few downsides of the high economic growth in recent years is that even though we have put in record sums of money it still has not done much in terms of the percentage figure.

Programmes for Government. (25 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: We had it worked out when I made the commitment. Let us remember what happened in 2002 when economic growth fell back to 1%. The lower the rate of economic growth the quicker one reaches the target. If there were four or five bad years in the economy and we still put in the resources the percentage would bounce back up the line as happened in a few countries. The fact is we have put in record...