Results 3,101-3,120 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Leaders' Questions (14 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: As a rule, anything that helps to curb under age drinking or misuse of drugs in any form would have my support. I do not know the extent to which Deputy Kenny thought this through, although I generally support what he is saying, but he continually mentioned random and voluntary checks. A random check of its nature is not voluntary in the normal way.

Leaders' Questions (14 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: If a board of management——

Leaders' Questions (14 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: If the board of management, the school authorities, the parents and the children agree — in these cases as the children are minors their parents would need to agree — it would be something we would be in support of. However, one would need to clarify how random it would be. Normally in our laws, cases or protocols random and voluntary are two separate things.

Leaders' Questions (14 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Yes.

Leaders' Questions (14 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Already in education and community needs there is the rehabilitation for drug misusers, which has become a central part of focus in education. There is a range of available treatments, particularly now the treatment options for cocaine, which is a major problem in some communities. There are the needle exchange programmes, the reduction services, the emerging needs fund that was devised to...

Leaders' Questions (14 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: If I have a few moments silence I will answer Deputy Rabbitte. There has been an upward trend in inflation for the past four or five months and it could go up for at least another one. That is the projection of the CSO. I am not going to make a guesstimate on what that figure will be precisely. The second point is that under Towards 2016 we have revised the anti-inflation group, which did...

Leaders' Questions (14 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The House will accept that it is the CSO that decides these issues, not others. The items are down 1.6% and are at their cheapest level since December 2002.

Leaders' Questions (14 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: According to the Consumer Strategy Group report clothing prices decreased significantly in recent years. Items not previously covered by the groceries order declined by 0.1% in December but have, however, increased by 2.3% since removal of the order in March. These include mainly fresh meat, fish and vegetables where the real prices are historically more variable due to a less constant cost...

Leaders' Questions (14 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The combined groceries order and non-groceries order items declined by 0.1% in December and have declined by 0.3% since March.

Leaders' Questions (14 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: If one looks at some of the other increases that have caused difficulties in recent times one will see that car insurance is down 45%, which has had a huge impact.

Leaders' Questions (14 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: As I stated yesterday there are areas where the prices are up mainly due to lack of competition.

Leaders' Questions (14 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: CSO figures are the figures we use so let us not try to use other figures. The CSO figures are the basket of figures we use for measuring inflation. I said at the outset that the figures were up for the past five or six months and that half of the increase, excluding energy and interest rates, 2.1%, is the rate of inflation. The price of the overall basket of food items has been very low....

Leaders' Questions (14 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: It is 2.1%. The regulator has decided to do the same as the airlines and other groups have done. I am not sure if the Labour Party supplies Deputy Rabbitte's car but the Government supplies mine. When I was on holidays last August the price of petrol was €1.25 per litre whereas it is now 99c in competitive garages. That is a big decrease. The regulator has taken that into account as...

Written Answers — Parliamentary Questions: Parliamentary Questions (13 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I replied to 941 Parliamentary Questions in 2006. Some 714 of these were oral questions and 227 were written questions. It is not possible to distinguish the cost to my Department of answering these Parliamentary Questions from the overall administrative cost associated with the operation of the Department more generally. The full cost in answering these Parliamentary Questions would also...

Written Answers — Regulatory Reform: Regulatory Reform (13 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Apart from the four Restatements displayed on the Office of the Attorney General website, the former Statute Law Revision Unit in that Office in association with relevant Departments had prepared drafts of further Restatements. However, due to pending amending legislation and other reasons, the draft Restatements were not brought to certification stage although some Departments displayed...

Leaders' Questions (13 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: If the 4,000 teachers to whom I referred had, since 2002, been placed into mainstream classes, the ratio would have been reduced to 20:1. The case was well made that disadvantaged children and those with disabilities should be placed in smaller classes. Many such classes contain 15 or fewer pupils. Was it right to give people with fewer chances — namely, those who are disadvantaged,...

Leaders' Questions (13 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Was it not better to look after the disadvantaged——

Leaders' Questions (13 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: It was not possible to do it all.

Leaders' Questions (13 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: We would not have been able to produce——

Leaders' Questions (13 Feb 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Will the Green Party Members stop interrupting?