Results 541-560 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Order of Business (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: The social housing (miscellaneous provisions) Bill will come before the House in the middle of 2008. Preparation of the heads of the George Mitchell scholarship fund Act 1998 (amendment) Bill is ongoing. The heads of the alcohol products Bill, which seeks to protect children and adolescents from over-exposure to alcohol advertising, have been approved. The Minister has received the first...

Order of Business (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: The dental Bill will come before the House later this year and the health (long-term residential care services) Bill will be dealt with during this session. The Health and Social Care Professionals Bill was passed last year.

Order of Business (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: That is a different Bill and work has commenced on a draft and discussion document. Preparation of a regulatory impact analysis and public consultation of all proposals should be later this year.

Order of Business (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I could go through the Bills individually but work is ongoing on all of them. The nurses and midwives Bill has gone for consultation. Following advice from the Attorney General, the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2007 was enacted as a matter of urgency to confirm the existing bodies established under the Health (Corporate Bodies) Act 1961. Consideration is now being given to the...

Order of Business (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: It will come before the House during this session.

Order of Business (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: The electricity (transfer of transmission assets) Bill is to provide for the transfer of ownership of electricity transmission assets from the ESB to EirGrid. Analysis and discussion is under way on all dimensions, including legal and financial aspects, to ensure optimum outcomes on foot of the transfer process for both the ESB and EirGrid.

Order of Business (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: The Government is anxious to move on this issue, as is the Ceann Comhairle. The Minister of State is anxious to reform the committee in question. I think Deputy Kenny and I could get a lot of agreement on the issues.

Order of Business (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: It would be more effective to do this in the Dáil reform committee because we have to get agreement. If the issue went to the Committee on Procedure and Privileges, it would go on and on.

Leaders' Questions (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: To answer the last question, we are examining last weekend's decision. The Government has to take its own action because the whole system of the JLCs, which are statutory bodies, as Deputy Gilmore and I fully understand, was established under the Industrial Relations Act and their role has always been to fix the minimum rates of pay and the regulation of employments. The system was...

Departmental Bodies. (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I propose to answer Questions Nos. 1 to 5, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on housing, infrastructure and PPPs last met on 12 December 2007. The next meeting is scheduled for 12 March 2008. The Cabinet committee is supported in its work by a cross-departmental team of senior officials from relevant Departments. The role of the cross-departmental team is to identify and assist in...

Departmental Bodies. (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I always answer that but the Deputy ignores it.

Departmental Bodies. (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I have listened to the arguments of businesses on the matter of broadband. There are now 800,000 broadband subscribers in the country, including 90,000 mobile subscribers. At the end of September last year, that represented an increase of 81% on the previous 12 months. We may have had a slow start with broadband but it is clear that the market is growing rapidly. If we maintain the...

Departmental Bodies. (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I will raise both of those issues with the Ministers, Deputies Eamon Ryan and Mary Hanafin. There is a map-chart of the 10% of areas that remain to be done and the State will have to undertake that. I do not claim to be an expert but the problem as I understand it is that some of those blackspots are a bit like the Black Valley in Kerry all those years ago.

Departmental Bodies. (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: As I understand it, some of the blackspots——

Departmental Bodies. (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: ——where the national broadband scheme does not work are also areas where wireless does not work. That is the difficulty so they have to operate some other technology. From meetings, I am aware the private sector shows no great interest in some of these areas for obvious reasons so it has to be done under the national broadband scheme. I do not want to get into the detail of the...

Departmental Bodies. (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I will not answer for the traffic committee of Dublin Corporation. I left that behind me 20 years or more ago so I will not deal with that. I was in Brussels last year when there was a three-car crash. Brussels has many highways and roads but that caused a six-hour closure of the entire city.

Departmental Bodies. (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: On the more serious issues, Deputy Gilmore made a point on the national development plan. The answer, as he knows, is that 20 years ago this country was working on CSO figures which showed that by 2010 we would have a population of approximately 3.4 million if we were lucky, but we have ended up with a population of 4.3 million and going the other way — 1 million more people. Dublin...

Departmental Bodies. (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I used to be.

Departmental Bodies. (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I think that Bill will be in the House this session. If you ask me, other cities, for example, Paris, Rome and Athens, seem far more aggressive and have a range of plans, and we must do the same. The bus corridors that have been rolled out have been a success.

Departmental Bodies. (13 Feb 2008)

Bertie Ahern: There are 100 more buses on them this year. The number of buses is increasing. The bus corridors have proved a success. They are opposed by many people in many places, but I have always supported them. Work has been done on the quays and the tunnel is the biggest engineering job we have completed. It has been highly successful, despite all the games played with regard to leaks and...