Results 3,721-3,740 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Leaders' Questions (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Almost 1,000 new buses have been brought into operation in the past few years.

Leaders' Questions (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: There will be a further 100 buses brought in by the end of January and this, along with——

Leaders' Questions (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I was trying to get silence for Deputy Higgins. It is unfair that everyone interrupts on his question. I will try to move quickly in order that other Members will not keep interrupting. There will be 100 new buses by the end of January.

Leaders' Questions (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: As for the bus corridors, Dublin Bus and CIE continue to increase the number of corridors. The port tunnel will open and while it will put more traffic onto the M50, it will remove dramatically thousands of vehicles from the streets that use them for rat runs at present.

Leaders' Questions (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Members should never forget that one reason for the port tunnel was to remove five-axle trucks from the streets and residential estates. They were trampling through residential areas and through where the hard-pressed working people were buying houses.

Leaders' Questions (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Thankfully, they both go to work and live in houses.

Leaders' Questions (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: As for the ongoing work, almost €1 billion is being spent on the M50, which is hugely important to Deputy Higgins's constituency. This work is well under way. As the Deputy is aware, the project will be in three phases and I outlined what is entailed to Deputy Rabbitte two weeks ago. If one considers initiatives such as the tunnel, which will open in a month's time, the 100 buses, the...

Office of the Attorney General. (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I do not wish to go back over the entire history of this project, which has been going on for the past decade. As I said, the first release of the CD-ROM format was in December 1998 in respect of Acts from 1922 to 1997. As Deputy Sargent stated, we do not use our technology as the authoritative legislative base. I do not think anybody does that, other than perhaps——

Office of the Attorney General. (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: ——Tasmania.

Office of the Attorney General. (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Perhaps in the long term it is what we should do, but people are still using the Acts as they are. Since then, the Office of the Attorney General has arranged for the publication of the Statute Book on the Internet for the past six years and it has been updated on three occasions. Therefore, there have been companies other than the South African firm involved in it. The more recent updates...

Office of the Attorney General. (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I do not consider it is waste. The cost of €1 million to put on CD-ROM all our legislation since the foundation of the State, from 1922 to 1997, including the chronological tables, is not great in technology terms. Unfortunately, there was an error in it which must be rectified and the project team has been working on that. It has moved on to examine many other successful aspects of the...

Office of the Attorney General. (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: As regards Deputy Rabbitte's first question, during the update process of the statutory instrument project it was established that a systematic error had occurred on a selection of data contained in the Acts and statutory instruments. The error was caused by the insertion of hyper-links, or direct clickable links, to reference parts of the Acts or statutory instruments during the process of...

Office of the Attorney General. (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I am advised there is no such difficulty because it was not seen as the authentic version of the legislation and this is the case in common law countries. While the intention is to have each Act since 1922 stored in the correct form, as passed in this House, along with chronological tables and statutory instruments, it is not the authoritative version used in judgments in this and other...

Freedom of Information. (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 5, inclusive, together. I propose to circulate in the Official Report the information requested by the Deputies on the statistics regarding freedom of information requests received in my Department. All freedom of information applications received in my Department are processed by statutorily designated officials in accordance with the 1997 and 2003 Acts...

Freedom of Information. (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The Deputy asked a number of questions about the type of applications which are made. A majority of the applications received by the Department of the Taoiseach comes from journalists. The second biggest percentage of applications comes from members of the public. Very few sections in the Department are excluded under the legislation. The last examination by the joint committee of the...

Freedom of Information. (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Do I understand correctly that the Deputy is referring to personal information about an individual?

Freedom of Information. (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: There is no restriction under the Act on the transmission of personal information about an individual. There is no cost in such circumstances. If an individual wants to find out what is in a former civil servant's file in the Department of the Taoiseach, for example, he or she is entitled to access that information. There are no restrictions in that regard, to the best of my knowledge....

Freedom of Information. (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: In 2006, an additional 130 bodies and groups were brought within the scope of the Freedom of Information Act. The bodies under the aegis of my Department, with the exception of the Law Reform Commission, are already within the scope of the Act. The question of extending the freedom of information legislation to the Law Reform Commission is currently under consideration. There has been no...

Freedom of Information. (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: No. All of the agencies under my Department are covered. I do not think it would make any difference, with the exception of the National Archives Act 1986. Section 8(4) of that Act is the only section we withheld and it is the only section that would cause difficulty.

Freedom of Information. (28 Nov 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I will finish with Deputy Sargent's question. Over 1% have been investigated by the Information Commissioner since the Act was introduced almost nine years ago.