Results 4,101-4,120 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I will address both issues. Obviously, I cannot comment on the circumstances of a case that is before the Supreme Court but, when the case concluded in the High Court last March, I made it clear that the Government had asked the State Claims Agency — the statutory body which deals with legal fees — to approach the issue of costs in a measured and sensitive way. The woman lost her case...

Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: They are two separate cases, as the Deputy knows. I am not responsible for the lady pursuing the case to the Supreme Court — that is her right, so I have no comment to make about that. However, when the issue arose following her High Court case I made it very clear on the record of this House that we had asked the State Claims Agency, the statutory body that deals with these cases, to...

Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I am answering the Deputy's question. I was not going to get into a position of saying we would put a cap on the number of people who could enter the redress system or a cap on the money going out. We did not do that. These were people we were entitled to look after. We have all heard horror stories about these people and we need to be sincere about what we did.

Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: If I did not honour those commitments, I would have been in here week after week saying why I did not. The fact is I honoured the commitments and we will finish that process. The State is not liable for abuse by teachers or others — they are not State employees. In one case the State was liable jointly for children it took into care and in the other case it was not.

Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: If Deputy Rabbitte is stating the State should have no responsibility to fight cases where it knows it has a strong defence, that would be an extraordinary thing for any state to do.

Leaders' Questions (25 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I have made clear what we would try to do for this lady after the High Court case and I am not in a position to make any further comment on the matter until after the Supreme Court case.

Written Answers — State Property: State Property (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: An updated version of the booklet dealing with the National Flag entitled "An Bhratach Náisiúnta" was produced by my Department in May 2001. At the time, copies were placed in the Oireachtas Library and a copy was sent to all schools in the country. The National Flag and the European Flag are correctly positioned over Government Buildings in accordance with this publication which states...

Written Answers — Freedom of Information: Freedom of Information (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The statistical information sought relating to Freedom of Information requests received in my Department is contained in the table below. 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 to date a number of FOI requests received 146 142 45 61 47 b amount of money received in application fees n/a â'¬315.00 â'¬585.00 â'¬1005.00 â'¬690.00 c amount of money received in information retrieval fees...

Written Answers — Tribunals of Inquiry: Tribunals of Inquiry (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The proportion of the cost of each tribunal under the aegis of my Department made up of legal fees, and the amount of money spent on legal fees in respect of tribunals in each of the years since 1997, is set out below. Moriarty Tribunal Total Costs Legal Costs Legal Costs as a % of Total Costs € € % 2006 to 30 September 3,151,758 2,682,171 85 2005 3,437,023 2,788,040 81 2004...

Order of Business (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The Ombudsman (amendment) Bill has 18 heads. They have all been completed and work has progressed satisfactorily on the legislation. It is due for introduction in the spring session. The heads of the carbon fund Bill were approved just before the summer break at the end of July. The Bill is still listed for early 2007. It is with the Parliamentary Counsel at present.

Order of Business (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The heads of the Bill were completed on 27 June. It has been submitted for drafting but is not expected until the middle of 2007.

Order of Business (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I have always been sympathetic in respect of this matter. If we deal with the longer Bill, which refers to the e-consultation process, it will take a long time. It would be desirable if we could try to agree to take the relevant section separately. I have said this to the Department and the Minister and I will ask the Whip to pursue it. If we proceed the other way——

Order of Business (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I do not believe so.

Order of Business (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I do not want to mislead the Deputy in this regard. We have said previously that if there was a system in the world that provided for roadside testing for drugs, or narcotics in any form, we would legislate for it. The fact is that there is none anywhere in the world; there is no such system. There have been a few trial systems in various countries over the past decade or so but none has...

Order of Business (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: No heads have been drafted and it is not possible to indicate at this stage when it will be introduced. The Bill is to provide powers of inspection to individuals mandated by electronic contractors. To be frank, I do not believe the Bill has progressed very far.

Order of Business (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Next year.

Pupil-Teacher Ratio. (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: It is the chestnut season.

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I totally reject what Deputy Kenny said about the performance of the Minister for Transport. Under the Minister's watch we are seeing one of the best ever roll-outs of infrastructure. We are seeing this on all the main roads — the road to Belfast which is done, and the roads to Cork, Limerick and Waterford. Some €1.5 billion is being spent on roads infrastructure. On the rail...

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: In 18 of the last 19 contracts, the procurement and the contract system are coming in on time and on budget. Therefore, the first part of Deputy Kenny's assertion does not hold up and I should not bother to comment on it. On the second issue, the cost assessment analysis has been done on the metro. There will be a further cost assessment analysis when we go to the market on the basis of...

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: One does not take a major infrastructural project and spell it out before testing the market and the interest from various parts of the world. That would be a nonsense. While the RPA has done careful assessments and will continue to do so I agree it is a huge project. I heard the same arguments a few years ago here about Luas, that we would never build it, the project would hit a brick...