Results 921-940 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Order of Business (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The next session brings us up to the new year and I understand a number of these Bills will come out.

Order of Business (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I can go through them in detail but they include a number of complex Bills. In the case of a detailed Bill a drafter in the parliamentary draftsman's office works full-time on that Bill. Regarding the employment agency regulation Bill and the employment law compliance Bill, somebody effectively works full-time on those Bills. Other Bills are put back when that happens. A broadcasting Bill...

Order of Business (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: That legislation will be introduced next year. No date has been fixed for the referendum.

Order of Business (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: No. The Deputy should table a parliamentary question.

Order of Business (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: We hope to publish the nursing homes Bill in the next few weeks. The Minister has received the first report from the monitoring group established to oversee adherence to the voluntary codes in alcohol sales. The Department and the Minister are considering the report and a decision on whether the legislation will be reactivated is yet to be made. It will be decided in the new year.

Order of Business (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The question is out of order, as is the Deputy.

Order of Business (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: We had this yesterday in the House for half an hour. Anyone listening to the debate would be clear on the matter. I did not say in reply to Deputy Durkan's question that I did not know. I said no date had been fixed. The EU reform treaty will be signed tomorrow. The Government will receive a formal report from the Attorney General and I will consult the Opposition parties. This process...

Order of Business (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: It will be spring time.

Order of Business (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Yes, I have.

Leaders' Questions (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Deputy Kenny knows the background. The EU water framework directive dates back almost ten years to 1999——

Leaders' Questions (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: At that stage all the submissions for derogation were put forward. From this country's point of view the big issue in those negotiations on the directive a decade ago was to achieve derogation for domestic water rates for residential use and we achieved that after a significant debate and battle. We did not achieve derogation in other areas, schools being one of those areas and therefore...

Leaders' Questions (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: No.

Leaders' Questions (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: At the risk of repeating myself, I have to make three points. First, this is part of the EU Water Framework Directive which is now law. It was negotiated back in 1999 and was introduced in 2000. We argued against it at the time and succeeded in getting a derogation so that the hundreds of thousands——

Leaders' Questions (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: Is it all right if I answer the question, please?

Leaders' Questions (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: It is part of the EU Water Framework Directive, which is law. At the time we argued that the 1.4 million houses in the country, in which the parents of all these children live, should not pay domestic water rates——

Leaders' Questions (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: We got a derogation for that, but we did not get a derogation for schools.

Leaders' Questions (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: We have improved the capitation rate. It is now more than €100,000 for a school of 300 pupils. For a post-primary school of 500 it is €270,000.

Leaders' Questions (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Department of Education and Science have been working together to see what they can do on the conservation matter.

Leaders' Questions (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: To its credit, Gorey community school saved 24,000 litres of water using conservation methods.

Leaders' Questions (12 Dec 2007)

Bertie Ahern: I hope the House is in favour of water conservation. I hope the House would not only support us putting billions into improving our water quality standards but would also be in favour of conservation measures. Dublin City Council has already sent out conservation packs to schools——