Results 6,521-6,540 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Order of Business. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: It is due to be published this year.

Order of Business. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I do not believe it was promised last year.

Order of Business. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The legislation is still under discussion and will take some considerable time to complete.

Order of Business. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The Tánaiste advises me that the legislation will be before the House this session. The scheme to pay out should be in place this summer.

Order of Business. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill is due to be published this summer. Regarding the first issue, there is no proposal for change.

Order of Business. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The matter should be taken up in a question to the Minister. This issue was cleared yesterday and would need to be debated with the Minister.

Order of Business. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The Deputy should put a question to the Minister. Some of these issues did not come up previously, while some are old. It is best to put a question to the Minister.

Order of Business. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: To the best of my knowledge, that is all that is provided for in the Bill. The Minister stated he would have it in approximately one month.

Order of Business. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: What legislation?

Order of Business. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I am not aware of either, so I will have to get a note for the Deputy.

Disability Act 2005. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The personnel of my Department continuously try to be helpful in assisting and recruiting people with disabilities. Whenever they get the opportunity they try to be helpful in terms of mobility within the Department and its accessibility for people with disabilities. The definition is set out in the 2005 Act: "[D]isability" in relation to a person means a substantial restriction in the...

Disability Act 2005. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: Disability covers several areas. It is mainly dealt with by the Department of Health and Children, but also Social and Family Affairs; Transport; the Environment, Heritage and Local Government; Communications, Marine and Natural Resources; and Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The main group working on the national disability strategy comprises the Minister of State at the Department of...

Disability Act 2005. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The people who come within the disability category under the Civil Service code have quite a considerable impairment. Not just anyone is put into that category, as the Deputy knows. I can provide him with the breakdown in my Department of the various ailments, without giving individual details. I believe I have given that information previously.

Disability Act 2005. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: My Department does not have another target. However, it will take any opportunity to increase the amount. The figure of 3% has been in place for some considerable time. As the number of staff in Departments increases, it is more difficult to achieve that 3%. Departments always try to maintain that figure, and increase it where necessary. People move between Departments through promotions and...

Social Partnership. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 to 23, inclusive, together. As the House is aware, I met a delegation from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on 4 January 2006. The meeting was positive and it was agreed that there would be further engagement at official level with a view to finalising a structure on a possible talks process over the following days. Subsequently, the Secretary General of...

Social Partnership. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: That is the role of the NESF and the reason the Oireachtas is involved in it. It exists to proof the work that arises from the partnership process, as well as from other reports and from the Government's views on such matters. As the report points out, in recent years the number of people suffering from consistent poverty has more than halved from 8.3% to4.1%. It also pointed out that the top...

Social Partnership. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: It acknowledged the progressive nature of social policy in the past five or six budgets. It makes this point clearly and the statistics bear this out. For example, it notes that for people earning the average industrial wage, the effective tax rate has fallen from approximately 27% or 28% to 15%. Nowhere else in the organised world has been able to achieve this. Moreover, it points to other...

Social Partnership. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I do not have a problem in so doing.

Social Partnership. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I propose that the remaining supplementary questions be carried forward to tomorrow.

Social Partnership. (7 Feb 2006)

Bertie Ahern: On the ten-year strategy, recent agreements have demonstrated that in a number of areas one will not achieve sufficient policy changes or implementation within a short period. One is better off staying consistently with the major issues. They do not change that much from agreement to agreement. Perhaps a few new ones are added, as is the case with employment protection this time. Most of the...