Results 2,441-2,460 of 11,242 for speaker:Noel Dempsey

Proposed Legislation. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: Section 5 of the 2006 Act provides that if a person whose blood alcohol concentration is found to be between 80 mg and 100 mg accepts that fact and takes the fixed penalty he will be fined €300 - I think that is the fine - and will have to hand up his licence. Instead of going to court where he would be disqualified for 12 months he would be automatically disqualified for six months. That...

Proposed Legislation. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: We have to make a change to the Road Traffic Bill to make it feasible because there was a difficulty about the five-----

Proposed Legislation. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: It will be ready sometime in the autumn.

Proposed Legislation. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: This is the subject of a later question but the Deputy will be delighted to know, because he usually celebrates all our successes, all the actions listed for 2007 have been completed. A total of 24 actions of the RSA, which is the lead, or joint lead agency are under way and most are completed. A range of other actions across the road safety strategy, some of which were not due until 2010...

Appointments to State Boards. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: My Department is proceeding with preparations for the establishment of the Dublin Transport Authority during 2009. A key part of those preparations is the recruitment of a CEO. The necessary recruitment process has now been concluded and I expect to be in a position to announce the outcome in the near future. The annual salary for the CEO post will be €211,363. In accordance with section...

Appointments to State Boards. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: It was difficult to keep up. With regard to the composition of the authority, I do not anticipate the need to change the criteria for people who will go on the DTA when it changes to a national transport authority. The same types of skills - a wide experience in transport, industrial, commercial and financial land use, planning or environmental matters and the organisation or workers and...

Appointments to State Boards. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: We hope to have the Commission for Taxi Regulation absorbed into the national transport authority as quickly as possible. There are considerations regarding transfers of staff and so on that will have to be taken into account, and some industrial relations matters will also have to be dealt with, along with pensions and so on. It will happen as quickly as possible because we want to build...

Appointments to State Boards. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: It is expected to have it completely rolled out at the end of 2010 and early 2011.

Appointments to State Boards. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: If the Deputy had given me some notice I could have informed him on that issue. I have had similar complaints from Bus Éireann in Deputy Broughan's area and from other Deputies. Nearly every time I went to investigate, I found that the company had started a service which was in direct competition with an existing service that was licensed. It was told it could not do so under the terms of...

Appointments to State Boards. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: I agree with the Deputy's other points. We had a discussion on the DTA Bill and I wanted to get the DTA element through at the time. The Deputy rightly pointed out that we would return to this issue and I indicated that I would introduce proposals for a national transport authority. We are doing this because it is important to get the land use and transport.

Road Traffic Offences. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: Some 36 fixed charge offences under the Road Traffic Acts are covered by the Garda fixed charge processing system. If a person makes a payment of up to €80 within 26 days, or a higher payment of up to €120 within a second period of 26 days, a prosecution will not be proceeded with. Some 31 fixed charges also attract penalty points. An Garda Síochána operates the fixed charge system...

Road Traffic Offences. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: The Deputy raised this matter on previous occasions and has pursued it quite vigorously in the interim. As a result of issues he raised on a previous Question Time, I asked the officials of my Department to examine the position. They did so, in consultation with the various interested organisations, and it is our intention to bring forward proposals which can be discussed in the context of...

Public Transport. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: In recent years, private bus operators have shown a much stronger interest in the provision of bus services and are now well established in parts of the national bus market. They compete with Bus Éireann on most of the major national routes in and out of Dublin and provide some limited services within the Dublin metropolitan area. The provision of public bus services on specific routes or...

Public Transport. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: I am not aware of any such approaches being made. However, there are a couple of companies which operate in Ireland, the parent companies of which are located abroad. One of the latter has its headquarters in Singapore. I met representatives of that company when I visited Singapore, either last year or the year before, to examine its transport system. I am not aware of any formal...

Public Transport. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: Approximately 600 licences are on issue in respect of public bus passenger services being provided by private bus operators throughout the country. In the first half of this year there has been an increase of over 40% in the number of applications. The total number of applications received for the first six months of 2009 was 152. Applications for annual passenger licences during that...

Public Transport. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: Yes. In addition, difficulties continue to arise in cases where State bus companies or private operators make prior applications. In such circumstances, one application must be processed before the other. Of the 336 cases received up to 7 July of this year, 72% have been processed, that is, an offer has been made to the relevant operator.

Public Transport. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: The matter to which the Deputy refers is extremely specific in nature. If he tables a parliamentary question in respect of it, I will endeavour to obtain the information he requires. If it took two years to process the application - I have no reason to doubt the veracity of the Deputy's claims in that regard - then information must have been outstanding and this prevented the making of a...

Public Transport. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: Yes, I am sure there is one or more.

Public Transport. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: The Deputy should drop a note to me and I will try to give him any information I can.

Public Transport. (9 Jul 2009)

Noel Dempsey: Public service contracts with the CIE companies are due to be in place by early December. My Department will consider the inclusion in those contracts of provisions relating to emission standards to be met by buses and rail rolling stock and the implementation of the recommendations of the Deloitte report relating to the bus companies. A number of initiatives have already been undertaken...