Results 9,641-9,660 of 12,596 for speaker:Willie O'Dea

Overseas Missions. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: I stated that, of the total of €20 million, €2.4 million will be spent on rotation flights.

Overseas Missions. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: Absolutely. I assure the Deputy——

Overseas Missions. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: It is not built into that cost but the Deputy can be assured that three Role 2 medical facilities are being provided and they will include Medevac facilities, both air and ground facilities, to take people to hospital as necessary. There will also be facilities to fly people outside the Sudan if necessary.

Overseas Missions. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: No particular group making up the multinational force has dedicated helicopter capability. The area is divided into a number of zones. The capabilities are provided centrally and they will be available equally to all the participants in the mission.

Overseas Missions. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: You appear to have forgotten that I am not the commander of the force. The force commander and his staff organise all the details.

Overseas Missions. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: They tell me they are satisfied that all arrangements that can be made to make the mission as safe as possible have been made.

Overseas Missions. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: If other Deputies ask me questions, I would like to respond to them.

Overseas Missions. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: I note Deputy Deasy had a statement in a newspaper this morning about that. Somebody brought the matter to the attention of Deputy Deasy and instead of bringing it to our attention, he brought it to the attention of The Irish Times. That is not a responsible way to carry on when people are worried about their relatives in Chad. It is irresponsible and headline grabbing.

Overseas Missions. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: I am not the commander——

Overseas Missions. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: Yes.

Overseas Missions. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: I am satisfied that everything that can be done to make the mission as safe as possible has been done.

Decentralisation Programme. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: As the Deputy is aware, the Minister for Finance announced in his budget speech in December 2003 that a total of eight Departments would move their headquarters from Dublin to provincial locations. As part of this programme, all my Department's Dublin-based Civil Service staff are relocating to Newbridge and the Defence Forces headquarters will relocate to the Curragh. In coming to its...

Decentralisation Programme. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: As the Deputy will be aware, Newbridge and the Curragh are quite close to each other. We live in the age of instant communications. The Chief of Staff and more than 40 personnel, including two deputy chiefs of staff, will be co-located with the Department in Newbridge. We have had extensive discussions with the military and the Civil Service about this matter and they are quite happy with...

Decentralisation Programme. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: If the Deputy says that, I must take his word for it, but I have always shown myself to be open to representatives. If anybody in the military or the Department has anything to say to me, he or she can come and say it to me, and I have not heard one word of complaint about this.

Child Care Facilities. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: A request to provide crèche facilities for members of the Defence Forces has been made by the Defence Forces representative associations. The Defence Forces partnership steering group, which was established following from Partnership 2000, has tasked a partnership sub-committee with examining the issue of the provision of child care facilities under a number of headings, including demand...

Child Care Facilities. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: I will make inquiries about that. I understand the committee will report on it shortly. For a positive decision to be taken, we would have to be satisfied that the demand for such a facility would justify the capital expenditure because it would involve not only premises but equipment etc. We would also want to be satisfied that its operation would be self-financing as the other six State...

Child Care Facilities. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: My information is that only six crèches are being provided across the public service, each with about 30 places, which is relatively small in the general scheme of things, and they are all expected to be self-financing.

Overseas Missions. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: I propose to take Questions Nos. 112, 113, 118, 126, 129, 130, 131, 136, 144, 154, 157, 164, 166 and 613 to 615, inclusive, together. The European Union military mission to Chad and the Central African Republic, EUFOR TCHAD/RCA, established under the authority of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1778 (2007), was formally launched by the General Affairs and External Relations...

Overseas Missions. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: The level one medical facilities include first aid, immediate life saving measures and triage. Three role two facilities will be available, in N'Djamena, Abeche and Birao in the Central African Republic. That will cover such matters as advanced life support, basic surgery, intensive care with limited patient holding capacity and primary health care. In addition, ancillary laboratory and...

Overseas Missions. (19 Feb 2008)

Willie O'Dea: This can change, but I am advised that the main threat at the moment are these groups of roving bandits, rather than rebels, who use four-by-four pick-up trucks and operate opportunistically. They are mainly active along the Chad-Sudanese border and tend to come together and dissipate fairly quickly. This is the main threat at the moment. As to whether I am satisfied that everything that...