Results 2,061-2,080 of 16,849 for speaker:Dermot Ahern

Garda Recruitment (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: In regard to senior gardaí, I obtained during the past year a number of derogations from the moratorium in respect of public service appointments. For example, on 26 May 2009, the Government approved the appointment of three chief superintendents and ten superintendents. Previous derogations culminated in the sanction of 170 promotions in February 2010. On 2 February, 28 sergeants were...

Garda Recruitment (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: Fine Gael are at it day-in day-out. It continues to criticise the Government for reducing this and that but does not come up with suggestions in terms of what should be cut. I decided when I took up this portfolio that I would have to cut in some areas in order to prioritise crime and that is what I have done. Investment in respect of garda numbers, CAB and addressing gangland crime has...

Garda Recruitment (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: On the existing panel, I understand approximately 150 applicants are available for recruitment. These are trainees who are called strictly in order as placed on the panel. There is also an additional 200 people on the panel who have not completed medical, physical and vetting tests. The issue of how many will be brought on from this panel to the new one is dependent on the number of...

Prison Building Programme (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: In 2006, the Irish Prison Service launched an EU-wide tender competition for the design, construction, finance and maintenance of a new prison development by means of a value for money public private partnership. The Léargas consortium was appointed as the preferred bidder for the project in April 2007. An environmental impact assessment in respect of the development was published in...

Prison Building Programme (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: I question the Deputy's seriousness when it comes to addressing the problems in the Prison Service. His party has objected to this project at every twist and turn. The Government will make a reasonable decision when it has received the best advice from outside experts and advisers in the National Development Finance Agency. It was clear in the prevailing economic circumstances that the PPP...

Prison Building Programme (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: Deputy Rabbitte says he is very interested in penal policy, yet when his party was in Government it cancelled the prison building programme. Not one prison cell was built during his party's involvement in Government.

Prison Building Programme (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: We can only judge people on their priorities when in Government.

Prison Building Programme (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: Deputy Rabbitte said his party left government with a surplus. Deputy Rabbitte and the Labour Party Minister for Finance decided the priorities.

Prison Building Programme (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: The Government in which Deputy Ruairí Quinn was Minister for Finance decided not to build one prison space during its lifetime. When we came into office in 1997, we started a prison building programme and we have built 1,750 prison spaces since then. We will be opening another 200 prison spaces in Wheatfield Prison in the very near future. That is our record. We will then build another...

Prison Building Programme (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: However, I doubt very much if whoever was responsible went around saying he had €30 million to spend asking if someone could come up with land. I doubt very much if that happened.

Prison Building Programme (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: Our priority is to have Thornton Hall built as quickly as possible. I am not in a position to say the timescale until I get Government approval. If I do, Deputy Rabbitte will be the first to hear the timescale. In view of the prevailing current and future economic circumstances, we are building Thornton Hall on a more realistic basis. In my own view and the view of the officials who...

Prison Building Programme (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: If Deputy Rabbitte wants a lesson in economic management, history will show that more than 600,000 extra people got jobs during the lifetime of the Governments of which I was a member.

Prison Building Programme (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: I come back to the net point of the record of prison building. The record of Deputy Rabbitte's party is that one of its first decisions in Government was to stop the prison building programme. In 1997, because there was a crisis in the prison building situation, we started a prison building programme. One cannot build prison spaces overnight. It takes time. The tender process for the PPP...

Prison Building Programme (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: Those guidelines also mandate that these commercially sensitive details be kept confidential.

Prison Building Programme (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: That is all hypothetical because it is not how happening.

Prison Accommodation (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: My first concern as Minister for Justice and Law Reform is public safety. In that regard the fact that the number of serious criminals behind bars serving two years' imprisonment or more increased by over 600 between 2007 and 2009 is a cause of commendation of An Garda Síochána whose vigilance has resulted in the arrest and successful prosecution of these offenders. This trend has been...

Prison Accommodation (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: I will not go over the record of the Opposition in Government-----

Prison Accommodation (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: Despite the perception the Deputy sometimes peddles, we are not putting girl guides into prisons. More than 80% of those in prison are there for sentences of 12 months or more. They are not people languishing in prison who should not be there. Dangerous people are in prison who should not be on the streets. There has been a dramatic increase in the numbers going into prison, a result, it...

Prison Accommodation (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: I suggest the Deputy goes to Mountjoy to see for himself. I spoke to the new Governor and can assure the Deputy that the situation that pertained previously will no longer pertain in that prison because I am assured by the new Governor and management that changes will be and are being made there in the way the prison is being run. Since the Deputy gave those figures of 70 above the...

Prison Accommodation (30 Jun 2010)

Dermot Ahern: Exactly, in regard to the accommodation. He was the only person who raised any issue of accommodation with me. Nobody raised accommodation in an adverse way. I strongly suggest to the Deputy, and to Deputy Rabbitte, that they be reasonably objective and perhaps go to Mountjoy. I invite them to do so to see the situation there. That said, as a Government we accept it is not right that a...