Results 2,401-2,420 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: ——for investment in such projects over the lifetime of the strategy. In all of the other areas we have spelt out what are the targets and what action is needed to deal with them. If this is not in one document, it is taken collectively in the four documents I have mentioned.

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: We will look at all proposals. The proposals made yesterday include a mechanism to check annually that we are delivering.

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Deputy Sargent will see this when he gets the proposals. The strategy includes a wide range of measures over and above those already in place from the review, as the Deputy must acknowledge. Fifteen per cent of electricity is to be generated from renewable sources by 2010 and 33% by 2020. It does not have to be a 3% figure in every year. It is an average figure.

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Biomass is to contribute up to 30% of energy input at peat stations by 2015.

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: There will be a shift to public transport as a result of Transport 21 investment and the rebalancing of VRT and motor taxation. I would have expected the Green Party to favour revised building regulations which aim for a 40% improvement in thermal performance. The grants for renewable energy heating available under the greener homes scheme have been an enormous success. The strategy also...

Leaders' Questions (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: ——for the period after the 2012 commitments. It is laid out for the long term. I hope the Green Party will take a look at it so that they will be able to get their heads around how it might work.

Code of Conduct for Office Holders. (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 4, inclusive, together. The code of conduct for office holders was drawn up by the Government pursuant to section 10(2) of the Standards in Public Office Act 2001, following consultation with the Standards in Public Office Commission, and published in July 2003. On two occasions since the code was launched, I have provided office holders with additional...

Code of Conduct for Office Holders. (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Public servants generally, particularly those in the departmental system, never involve themselves in political material or political drafting. Therefore, the answer to the Deputy's first question is "No". That has always been the position, even outside election periods. On the Deputy's second question, those reports arise from an omnibus parliamentary question put down to all Ministers on...

Code of Conduct for Office Holders. (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: That legislation started in the Seanad and there is no reason it should not get through.

Code of Conduct for Office Holders. (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: As I understand it, if constituency facilities are involved or facilities related to one's capacity as a TD, they are apportioned so everyone would pay. If it is related to one's public office role or departmental role, it does not apply. That is how I understand it.

Code of Conduct for Office Holders. (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: As I understand, all these matters are being worked out by the commission and we are all bound by the same rules.

Code of Conduct for Office Holders. (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: As I said in my original reply, I see no reason to review the code because there have been only two determinations in the six years since we started the process and declarations are made on an annual basis to the Standards in Public Office Commission. Every Member and office holders, in particular, have to make a detailed declaration every year.

Code of Conduct for Office Holders. (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The issue we debated on that and other occasions was that after an election it was the practice of all Governments, whether they changed, to fill positions on State boards. There may be some urgent ones but I do not think that generally such boards should be packed in that interregnum period. On filling positions on boards as they arise, on a daily or weekly basis, they have to be filled...

Code of Conduct for Office Holders. (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: My view is that people should use common sense in these matters. There is nothing to stop the positions from being filled in the interregnum period but I do not think it requires a code. If we start putting everything into codes——

Code of Conduct for Office Holders. (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Well, we are moving in that direction.

Code of Conduct for Office Holders. (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The Government Chief Whip tells me that if the Bill is not in the Seanad it is going to the Seanad and it will be dealt with there.

Code of Conduct for Office Holders. (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The Bill has passed——

Code of Conduct for Office Holders. (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I think Deputy Rabbitte should withdraw his comment that I come in here every day telling blatant fibs.

Code of Conduct for Office Holders. (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: If the Deputy is not going to withdraw it, that is all right.

Code of Conduct for Office Holders. (3 Apr 2007)

Bertie Ahern: If the Deputy does not want to withdraw it, that is fine, a Cheann Comhairle. One would not believe anything he says either.