Results 9,021-9,040 of 13,375 for speaker:Pat Rabbitte

Rural Development. (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: Question 77: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs his views on whether his Department's allocation of €425 million, or a 6% share of the €7 billion total provided under the rural development national strategy, is an equitable share; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7702/07]

Rural Transport. (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: Question 90: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the funding he will be providing for rural transport in 2007; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7703/07]

Strategic Management Initiative. (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: Question 3: To ask the Taoiseach the terms of the reference of the review of the public service that he has asked the OECD to undertake; when it is expected that the review will be completed; the expected cost of the review; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1352/07]

Strategic Management Initiative. (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: The Taoiseach is never so happy as when speaking about this problem. I do not know whether that is because I cannot understand it. I will reserve judgment until I read his answer, which I could not understand either.

Strategic Management Initiative. (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: Perhaps that is part of the problem. Since when did the OECD have any expertise in this area? Is it recruiting consultants in Ireland? I will reserve judgment until I read the Taoiseach's answer, but I am still not clear what the review will do. Perhaps he might put it into simpler English. Does it take the OECD to provide citizens with the opportunity to dial someone in the public...

Strategic Management Initiative. (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: That kind of thing is driving citizens demented. I believe that I recently read that some bright spark in the public service wanted to dig out the Chamber and install a new one for us with plywood and modern gadgetry. I sincerely hope that the Taoiseach will not permit that. There is absolutely no need to dig out the Chamber just because someone wishes us to be an intelligent island at the...

Appointments to State Boards. (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: Question 10: To ask the Taoiseach the appointments made to State boards or agencies since June 2002; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3860/07]

Appointments to State Boards. (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: After all that I am not clear on whether the Taoiseach has changed his policy from the one he expressed during his difficulty last year. He said "I appointed them because they were friends, not because of anything they had given me". Has the Taoiseach changed his view in this regard and does he still have friends who have not yet been appointed to something? I will frame my contribution in...

Appointments to State Boards. (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: The Ceann Comhairle is absolutely correct in this regard and I accept his point entirely. Is there anybody in the Drumcondra retinue who has not been appointed to one agency or another? What is the answer to Deputy Sargent's question on whether it is the intention of the Taoiseach and his Ministers to make appointments on the eve of the general election? Is that practice to be continued on...

Appointments to State Boards. (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: I never knew I had Fianna Fáil sleepers all around me.

Appointments to State Boards. (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: The Taoiseach will be in a slightly different position after the coming election.

Order of Business (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: Three guillotines have been proposed.

Order of Business (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: I want to use this opportunity to make a general point. The proposals follow an undesirable pattern observed in the House in recent weeks, which the Government clearly intends to continue until polling day following a legislative drought earlier in the year. As Deputy Sargent stated, the Carbon Fund Bill 2006 is important and the House should be given adequate time to debate it.

Order of Business (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: The Electoral Bill must be enacted.

Order of Business (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: Will the legislation promised to regulate and control management companies and the Bill to refurbish ethics legislation, which was promised, in particular, by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, be published in the lifetime of this Dáil?

Leaders' Questions (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: Does the Taoiseach acknowledge that all expert opinion agrees that the greatest challenge in our health service is the two-tier system? Does the Government accept this is the cause of the fundamental inequality in our health service? Public patients are treated as second class citizens, languishing in the community, languishing in queues and waiting for access to hospitals. The...

Leaders' Questions (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: The Taoiseach of course did not answer the question I asked him about the contracts.

Leaders' Questions (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: He has made clear that the modern Fianna Fáil is in favour of reinforcing inequality.

Leaders' Questions (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: That is essentially his point. I am not talking about private hospitals. We have always had them. That is not the issue. If one wants to pay for a private hospital one should go ahead and pay. I am talking about the inequality at the heart of our existing system whereby public patients are treated in an inferior way and must wait in never-ending queues.

Leaders' Questions (28 Feb 2007)

Pat Rabbitte: The Taoiseach has given his blessing to the construction on public land of private hospital beds when he knows well that he cannot stop any private patient occupying a public bed. The Taoiseach knows that and he knows there is hypocrisy at the heart of the aspiration in the negotiation with consultants which reinforces the two-tier system. The Taoiseach will permit further cherrypicking of...