Results 4,921-4,940 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Leaders' Questions. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: As Deputy Joe Higgins knows, house price increases are primarily driven by the increase in demand for housing which has resulted from the unprecedented growth in recent years in the population and the economy. Now that we have stopped mass emigration by working class people, unemployed trade unionists and those who lived in working class communities who had to seek refuge in Australia,...

Leaders' Questions. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: There are issues of affordability. Deputy Higgins asked what the Government is doing. Some €4 billion has been invested in the programmes of affordable housing for this year and next year and 15,000 households will benefit under the affordable housing schemes in that period. The affordable schemes partnership will accelerate the delivery of affordable housing in the greater Dublin area...

Leaders' Questions. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The only way we will reduce house prices is to increase supply above demand.

Leaders' Questions. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: This Government has brought supply from 30,000 to 80,000 in a short period. The Deputy wants me to highlight the Government's measures but will not listen when I respond. Deputy Joe Higgins knows that an enormous number of people are receiving assistance on social housing and rent supplements.

Leaders' Questions. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Some 15,000 units will be delivered by various affordable schemes this year and next year. More than 70 sites have been identified for State and local authority owned land.

Leaders' Questions. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Part V will produce up to 10,000 houses under the partnership agreement. The initiative delivered 1,500 under Part V and this year it is estimated that 2,250 will be produced.

Leaders' Questions. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The total capital provision for social and affordable housing this year is €2 billion — more than double what it was five years ago. That includes €1.4 billion Exchequer provision, an increase of 13% on last year. Some 6,000 local authority houses will start this year, including units provided under various schemes. The needs of some 14,000 households will be met by a range of social...

Leaders' Questions. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The next strategy of the affordable homes partnership is under way. Des Geraghty and his colleagues are doing an excellent job of promoting that. Legislative proposals for additional powers under the partnership are being developed. The housing framework policy, Building Sustainable Communities, includes policies to ensure an effective private housing market, increased supply and reformed...

Leaders' Questions. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Deputy Joe Higgins loves asking questions——

Leaders' Questions. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: ——but never wants to listen to answers. He would love to return to the days of——

Leaders' Questions. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: ——pathetic poverty when de Valera and Lemass built social houses, when no other houses were being built. People were living in council houses and had to emigrate because they had no jobs and no future.

Leaders' Questions. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: That is the great tradition Deputy Higgins and his merry warriors want to bring back. We are building at a greater rate than the United States, Europe or the UK. We are providing new homes to the working class and young people at a rate matched by no country in Europe.

Leaders' Questions. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Approximately 20 new homes are produced annually per 1,000 of the population compared to an EU average of five. We are providing houses for our young people at four times the average rate.

Leaders' Questions. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Does Deputy Higgins wish to drag us back to a time when people had no salaries and no jobs? He has a failed ideology and the most hopeless policy pursued by any nitwit. He is a failed person who was rejected and whose political philosophy has been rejected. He will not pull people back into the failed old policies he dreamed up in south Kerry when he was a young fellow. Now go away.

Official Engagements. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 16, inclusive, together. I received a personal invitation from the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to attend the United Nations special summit on AIDS in New York in early June. The Secretary General expressed his gratitude for the important advocacy role Ireland has played with our European partners and for the significant resources we have...

Official Engagements. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: On the first two questions, I reiterate our commitment to increase expenditure on HIV and other poverty related diseases to €100 million per year. This is a target we can achieve. It is a considerable support from this country to the HIV campaign. We are to the forefront of the campaign and recognised as such for the efforts that we, as a small country, have put in. Through our missionaries...

Official Engagements. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: If such countries do not have to repay debts, they can use the money they save for their health and social programmes and, therefore, there is a direct return. I do not agree with including other costs, but that is a fair and legitimate cost. I do not agree with the tied aid cost or other imaginative mathematical equations used by other countries. I thank the Deputy for his support in this...

Official Engagements. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I hugely support volunteerism at home and abroad. All our main NGOs constantly seek volunteers and leave arrangements are made for those who travel. I would broadly support examining anything that helps in this regard. In principle, without examining the practicality, I favour anything that encourages people and makes it easier for them to provide their expertise for a period abroad. A number...

Official Engagements. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: We will definitely examine this.

Official Engagements. (21 Jun 2006)

Bertie Ahern: In recent years, a number of the relevant groups and bodies have raised this issue directly with me. They pointed out to me the areas of discrimination and their difficulties in receiving treatment. In the main such treatment is provided through the hospital network. It is the policy of the Department of Health and Children and, by extension, of the HSE, that arrangements should be made for...