Results 4,121-4,140 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Now more than 23 or 24 million people use it. This project is being carefully thought out, carefully planned and will be carefully operated through the system. I assure Deputy Kenny that the assessment will be transparent because it involves a huge amount of public money.

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: As he rightly said the project is required and will carry in the order of 20 million or 30 million people. We have to put it out to tender in a careful way and that is the way we will proceed.

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Without getting into an argument the difference with the M50 is that the work has already commenced. It is in three phases and the work is under way.

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Obviously when a contract is under way in the first phase, one knows the price. The second and third phases have been priced also. Based on the assessment, the feasibility study and the cost analysis done by the RPA we will go to the market before Christmas. Then we hope to see, although we can never be certain, interest from serious international operations. Not many companies in the...

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The Deputy began by mentioning the ESRI report and I would have been glad to debate it but he did not ask a question on it so I will leave it aside.

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: We thank the ESRI for its contribution to the debate. The Government will continue to do the right things to help the economy.

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: We will not tax more, spend more or put up school fees. Some 14,000 applications have been made to the Residential Institutions Redress Board. Earlier estimates of the final cost by the Department of Education and Science, and of the board itself, were lower than this. The Department's estimate prior to the establishment of the board was €610 million, including legal and administrative...

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Yes, the taxpayers will pay for it, as they did for Army deafness and other issues. Let us be honest about the point at which Deputy Rabbitte and I differ on this matter. He believes I should have taken the money from the church but I do not. I do not believe the church should have coughed up another €500 million. I accept Deputy Rabbitte's view and he should accept mine. The Irish...

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I make no apology to this House or to anyone else about the way we did it. We made an apology and said that we would give substantial payments to these individuals, many of whose lives were wrecked. In addition, many of their family lives were non-existent because of what had occurred. The position is that we are paying them and I stand over the decision. I do not believe for a second...

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Deputy Rabbitte is not going to have it both ways. I have listened carefully to his points.

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The figures compiled in the Department of Education and Science and at various times by the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Residential Institutions Redress Board range from 6,000 to 9,000, but 14,000 applications have been made. The State was responsible for these institutions and either ran them or contracted religious orders to do so.

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I have listened to the Deputy's leader, so the Deputy should listen to me.

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The State placed——

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I am trying to answer the Deputy's leader. The State placed the children in these institutions.

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Please allow me to answer the Deputy's leader. The State placed the children in these institutions and was responsible for them. If it had been fought in court, the State would have been jointly liable and——

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: ——the State's deeper pockets would have ended up paying the full bill. That is what would have happened legally.

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I am answering Deputy Rabbitte's question.

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: He takes that much time every day, as a matter of interest and outside of Standing Orders.

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Some 14,000 of our citizens were abused in one form or another in State-run institutions. The Deputy cannot say they should be given their due entitlement but that we should not have done it this way. There was no other way but to apologise, which we did, set up a redress system, which we did, and put in a system which would give them fair recompense for what happened to them. That was a...

Leaders' Questions (24 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Deputy Joe Higgins knows I have considerable sympathy for the arguments around this and I think he also knows I met the group he mentioned at the bash in Tyrellstown, when it raised the points made by the Deputy. I met similar groups in other places. Three things have happened since then. Two weeks ago I reported to the House that the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local...