Results 8,721-8,740 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Programmes for Government. (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I think Deputy Ó Caoláin misunderstands the purpose of the social housing initiative.

Programmes for Government. (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I will explain the purpose of the social housing initiative. At that time, the normal process of local authority house construction was in existence and the Government spent approximately €2 billion in social housing initiatives. There was great concern because the rate of inflation was more than 20% on first-time buyers; the rate is 1% or 2% today. It was believed that the Government...

Programmes for Government. (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: ——that is not the process. The initiative was——

Programmes for Government. (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: ——to search State-owned lands to determine whether we could get 10,000 houses. People were sceptical that we would be able to provide affordable housing in this way within the programme. We examined all Departments and agencies and attained a number of over 10,000. Some of these houses are under construction, some are operating as swaps and others must go through the formal planning...

Programmes for Government. (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I will answer Deputy Gerard Murphy's question first. I have always held that the decisions of the Labour Court and the Labour Relations Commission should be abided by despite great difficulties and problems. Issues concerning productivity exist which must be achieved through negotiation to make An Post viable. In the public and private sectors, it is good practice to pay on the basis of the...

Leaders' Questions. (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The Deputy mentioned a number of areas. I will deal with the issue of roads before coming to the other two. At least the Government is building roads. Before we came to office, others talked about them and did nothing about them.

Leaders' Questions. (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: Whether it is the bypasses of Portlaoise, Balbriggan, Cavan, Arklow, Donegal, Callan, Nenagh, Blackpool or wherever, we are building roads. We will spend €1.5 billion on main national roads this year. We had a time when we had no overruns because we did not spend anything at all on them, which was a good way of doing it.

Leaders' Questions. (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: That was the first part of the Deputy's question. On the second part of his question, Deputy Kenny would like to make sure and would like me to stand up and make sure that when we reach 20 million passengers going through Dublin Airport, not alone will we have pier D but we will also have a second terminal to cater for them. The answer is yes, we will. His third question is about making a...

Leaders' Questions. (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: At present Dublin Airport has capacity for 20 million passengers and is at 17 million now. It needs pier D by 2007.

Leaders' Questions. (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I opened the terminal, to which the Deputy refers, about three years ago

Leaders' Questions. (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: As I said pier D is required in 2007. An additional terminal is required in 2009. The Government will give all the details of how we feel that should be properly and efficiently accomplished. The main point is that we have a second terminal that will be an efficient terminal and allow the growth of Dublin Airport to develop, which has happened successfully under the Government. We will do...

Leaders' Questions. (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: On the question of equity for Aer Lingus, we made it clear at Christmas that we believe private equity should be allowed into Aer Lingus. The percentage of that will obviously depend on discussions involving the board. However, the Government is in favour of private equity going into Aer Lingus.

Leaders' Questions (Resumed). (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: Today I looked at the figures for the queues over the past week. For non-peak times it took 15 minutes to get through and for the peak times over the weekend it took 25 minutes. There are security issues. There will be 120 additional staff——

Leaders' Questions (Resumed). (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: By mid-summer there will be 120 additional staff on the existing booths and five additional booths to deal with the throughput. We need pier D by 2007 and a second terminal by 2009. That is the position as stated by the Dublin Airport Authority and everybody else out there. When the Government has finalised the best and most efficient mechanism for doing this, we will announce all the details...

Leaders' Questions (Resumed). (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: We will have the second one in plenty of time.

Leaders' Questions (Resumed). (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: Deputy Rabbitte also mentioned roads and the overspend. The report of the Committee of Public Accounts, which the Deputy normally quotes, identified the increased costs when reviewing all the projects last year and not just 30 projects that were cherry picked for the "Prime Time" programme. It stated that 40% was due to inflation, 16% due to failure to cost certain elements at the planning...

Leaders' Questions (Resumed). (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: I will not return to road works since I have only a minute to answer. The position is that the present terminal caters for 20 million passengers.

Leaders' Questions (Resumed). (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: The present terminal can deal with 20 million passengers, and we know that Dublin Airport is growing rapidly. It requires a second terminal by 2009 to be a modern, efficient, properly run and flexible terminal that can cater for its fast-growing needs.

Leaders' Questions (Resumed). (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: That is what we want to provide in Dublin Airport. Pier D is required by 2009.

Leaders' Questions (Resumed). (10 May 2005)

Bertie Ahern: It is to cater for 20 million passengers.