Results 5,201-5,220 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Order of Business. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: It is the e-government Bill and I understand the Bill will be brought to a committee. Work is progressing on the Bill.

Order of Business. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The land conveyancing Bill is due later this year. It will give effect to the Law Reform Commission's report on modernisation of the land laws and conveyancing law.

Leaders' Questions. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: All these cases were part of, or were associated with, the Troubles and they are all sad. In the time available, I will not be able to go through each one. In regard to the central point about the Finucane case, Mr. Barrett was released yesterday after serving less than four years, under the terms of the early release scheme under the 1998 Agreement for all prisoners who had been involved in...

Leaders' Questions. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has been in correspondence regarding the late Eddie Fullerton, a councillor in Donegal, whom I knew. It is correct to say Geraldine Finucane and the family accept the release of prisoners, as does every other family. We support the Finucane family's call for a full inquiry. The family does not lack international or Government support....

Leaders' Questions. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: We will continue to work on this. I assure the House that we will maintain our consistent efforts to highlight, and fight for, the case of the Finucane family, ably led by Geraldine Finucane and her sons.

Regulatory Reform. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 5, inclusive, together. Significant progress has been made since the publication of the OECD report on regulatory reform in Ireland. The focus of our efforts in progressing regulatory reform is now on implementing the White Paper on Better Regulation, Regulating Better, which was published in January 2004 in response to the OECD's report. It sets out six...

Regulatory Reform. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The survey was commissioned on foot of the comments on the original White Paper. The organised business groups — the representative groups — say they have no problem with regulations or the burdens of the regulatory process as they see them, but they believe they must be of some value or use and that they must be streamlined. They want to try to move away from red tape and have a more...

Regulatory Reform. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: On Deputy Kenny's first point, I do not know exactly how many of the OECD's recommendations were implemented, but I know it is a large number. This is helping in the work in that there has been direct engagement over the past year. Senior business people and senior representatives of IBEC and the chambers of commerce are involved in the setting up of new regulations for business, which is...

Regulatory Reform. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: They have the resources and their friends in the countries around them have the rest. They have enormous muscle until an alternative is found, which hopefully will happen. The only way to deal with the problem is for Europe to act in a collective fashion. Otherwise, it is quite obvious what will happen. I fully support Chancellor Merkel's opinion on this and as the Deputy knows from his own...

Regulatory Reform. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: On the general question, this arises out of a report we did some years ago in conjunction with the OECD, which did the groundwork and the fieldwork. It looked at how to keep the economy competitive and how not to be restrictive in areas, while allowing competitiveness to develop for the benefit of business, specifically, and consumers. To answer Deputy Boyle's question, it is not so much...

Regulatory Reform. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I do not have the names, but they are senior representatives of IBEC, as well as an interdepartmental group of officials, under the direction of an assistant secretary of my Department.

Regulatory Reform. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Yes, I will. There is no problem with that.

National Security. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 to 10, inclusive, together. The National Security Committee is chaired by the Secretary General to the Government and comprises representatives at the highest level of the Departments of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Defence and Foreign Affairs and of the Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces. The committee meets as required and will continue to do so....

National Security. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The Office of Emergency Planning and the working groups on emergency planning are all co-ordinated under the various emergency services involved in all our contingency plans. The contingency group is chaired by the Minister for Defence, meets frequently and is under his control. It is working well and has set up a superstructure pulling together the people from each area. It is deemed not...

National Security. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The National Security Committee is comprised of senior officials of Departments, the Garda and the Defence Forces and is a high-level forum for mutual awareness and consultation on issues of security. Any issue of security is raised at it and followed through, back to the line Departments. Sellafield is, obviously, an issue of concern. The committee provides for exchange of information and...

National Security. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The Office of Emergency Planning deals with that, but obviously Departments, in particular, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, have a major role to play. The National Security Committee discusses any issue or intelligence it receives. If it has information, it passes it on to the relevant sources, but does not as a group meet individuals or governments. The...

National Security. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: On the general point, most of the information we get on international terrorism usually comes from Europol or Eurojust. Substantial information is transferred from them. With regard to not being informed on rogue aircraft, there is an agreement, which is renewed annually, with the Department of Foreign Affairs on procedures for dealing with such events or any breaches of the agreement. The...

Departmental Expenditure. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: When I am due to speak in Dáil Éireann or I am about to be interviewed for television, I make the normal preparations that are standard for all those who participate in television programmes, just as successive Taoisigh have done since the introduction of the televising of Dáil proceedings in 1990. The rates paid to the providers of the service are in line with current SIPTU rates. The...

Departmental Expenditure. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: When Deputy Gormley is Taoiseach some day——

Departmental Expenditure. (24 May 2006)

Bertie Ahern: ——he will find that the services of two people who are paid on a per diem basis are made available in the Department of the Taoiseach. Their services are usually made available two days a week — they are usually the Dáil days. One of the staff in question has been there since the start.