Results 3,561-3,580 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern
- Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: I do not accept that. I agree that voluntary bodies play a big part but they are almost entirely funded by State grants from capital programmes, as is right.
- Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: They do excellent fund raising. The Mental Health Act is considered to be one of the most advanced of its kind. The final part of it only came into operation on 1 November last. That is where the powers are set out.
- Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: That is not true. Legislation has only been implemented since 1 November this year. Deputy Sargent's accusation is totally wrong.
- Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: Is Deputy Sargent saying the Mental Health Act that has only come fully into operation since 1 November this year is a nonsense?
- Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: That is not what they are saying. With the greatest respect, for the Deputy to make a comment like that, he just does not know what he is talking about.
- Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: On the disabilityââ
- Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: A monitoring and implementation group is in place this year for A Vision for Change. The legislation and standards are in place.
- Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: A total of â¬2.4 billion has been invested in the area of intellectual, physical and sensory autism. Practically all that money has been spent on staff. The money is used to employ professionals. It is not a case of billions of euro being thrown around the place. Staff are employed to help the needs of these people on a daily basis. It is right that we invest this money in services for...
- Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: It is. A total of â¬2.4 billion has been invested this year inââ
- Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: Staff are working in the areas of intellectual, physical and sensory autism and mental health.
- Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: The State is investing in these areas. As I pointed out several times this morning, we need to do more in this area. We need to increase staffing levels to the 1,800 posts that were set out in the action programme. We also need to spend â¬150 million dealing with it in the coming years. I meant to pick up on a point made by Deputy Rabbitte earlier on the figures he gave. He is aware that...
- Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: We are currently spending â¬850 million on special needs in the education system. It is right that we do that at an early stage. Previously, we did not do that, as we had no money. When I first became Taoiseach there was probably a handful of people in the education system dealing with special needs, now there are thousands. It is right that we have done that. In less than a decade we...
- Departmental Bodies. (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 4, inclusive, together. The role of the cross-departmental team is to identify and assist in progressing and resolving issues related to infrastructure planning and delivery, ensuring that they are adequately prepared for consideration by the Cabinet committee on housing, infrastructure and PPPs and, where necessary, by Government. This preparation has...
- Departmental Bodies. (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: Regular updates have been made on different aspects of Transport 21. On some occasions they referred to roads and on other occasions they referred to rail. Regarding the mainline rail projects referred to by Deputy Kenny, most of the intercity carriages on the Dublin to Cork line have been delivered. When the trains have completed their commissioning process they will enter in service...
- Departmental Bodies. (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: For a number of years there are detailed reports on the impact of trucks on to the M50. As the Deputy is aware Dublin City Council has made a number of changes this year on how it will be operated, zoned and ringed and the type of trucks to be allowed on it. Originally all types of vehicles were to be pressed on to the M50 but it will now be five axle trucks. That is not the entire volume...
- Departmental Bodies. (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: There are detailed assessment figures worked out by the RPA. The reason the RPA is not putting those into the public domain is because of the experience elsewhere on large tendering projects of international firms. All of the firms that will be tendering for this work are large international firms. They have different expertise. To show our hand would not be wise. That is the only reason...
- Departmental Bodies. (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: The entire housing section in the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government deals with housing, but it is mainly the affordable parts of it that are discussed by the cross-departmental team. There is a range of affordable housing mechanisms, the shared ownership scheme, the 1999 affordable housing scheme, Part V and the State-local authority lands element and the...
- Departmental Bodies. (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: The legal obligation under Part V can be satisfied by way of a cash contribution only if the local authority considers it appropriate, taking account of its housing needs. It is important to remember that payments received by local authorities through Part V agreement are ring-fenced. The allocation received in the Book of Estimates is substantially increased for housing next year and...
- Departmental Bodies. (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: The runway issue was not discussed and I do not want to give answers off the top of my head. In the normal course, I would have thought that a cost-benefit analysis would be done.
- Departmental Bodies. (6 Dec 2006)
Bertie Ahern: It was not discussed, so perhaps the Deputy could take it up with the line Minister. On Part V, approximately 100,000 planning applications for housing units were extant in the system and it took a number of years for them to go through. Many developments in the past four or five years had earlier planning permissions and did not come under the requirements of Part V. This year has seen a...