Results 9,941-9,960 of 15,491 for speaker:Eamon Gilmore

Order of Business (17 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: More than your colleagues beside the Taoiseach?

Order of Business (17 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: Does the Taoiseach have an update on when the civil partnership Bill will be before the House?

Order of Business (17 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: I look forward to the Minister's opening speech.

Ministerial Staff. (17 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: The Taoiseach stated the system pertaining to programme managers and special advisers dates from the early 1990s. I am sure he will recall that, at that stage, the idea was that there would be a single programme manager for each Department or Minister and a single adviser for each Minister, the idea being that the programme managers would drive the implementation of the programme for...

Ministerial Staff. (17 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: -----which is operating purely for the Taoiseach on a political basis, all of it at taxpayers' expense? To say that €2.7 million, or whatever was the cost since 2007, is small money begs the question of what type of advice they have been giving the Government since then.

Ministerial Staff. (17 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: I did not question the necessity for programme managers and advisers. I accept that is necessary and that the Government has to have independent advice. What I am questioning is the numbers and from where the salaries came. It is not the case that programme managers were always paid the same salary as a Secretary General of a Department. I want to ask the Taoiseach two questions. First,...

Ministerial Staff. (17 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: It was around principal officer level.

Ministerial Staff. (17 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: It was not Secretary General.

Regulatory Reform. (17 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: Question 8: To ask the Taoiseach the progress made with regard to the implementation of the recommendations of the OECD report on regulatory reform; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32525/09]

Regulatory Reform. (17 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: We seem to have the worst of both worlds with regard to regulation. While the Government has been looking at all the reports on better regulation, with more and more working groups examining this question, people in business are being tortured with filling forms and trying to respond to one agency or regulatory body after another. The quantity of regulation does not seem to equate with the...

Departmental Expenditure. (17 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: Question 2: To ask the Taoiseach the projected costs of the communications unit in his Department to date in 2009; his plans to change the role of the unit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32523/09]

Departmental Expenditure. (17 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: As the Taoiseach stated, we have had questions on the Government's listening post a number of times. The unit listens to the radio, reads the newspapers, takes clippings and cuttings and keeps an eye on what kind of coverage the Government is getting. I was surprised that it did not seem to cross Colm McCarthy's path when he was examining the public service. I could not see a reference to...

Departmental Expenditure. (17 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: The Taoiseach did not answer my question on whether he considers the unit to be an essential service of Government. Would he be satisfied to have it used as a benchmark for assessing whether particular services should be discontinued or downsized? For example, we often hear that the Government is contemplating the implementation of at least some of the McCarthy report recommendations and...

Ministerial Staff. (17 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: Question 5: To ask the Taoiseach the duties and responsibilities of the special political advisers as appointed by him; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32524/09]

Written Answers — Industrial Relations: Industrial Relations (12 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: Question 53: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if her attention has been drawn to the growing number of industrial disputes in which employers have ignored or failed to abide by adjudications of the labour relations agencies; if this problem has been raised with the employer organisations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41057/09]

Written Answers — Departmental Programmes: Departmental Programmes (12 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: Question 61: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment her views on the recommendation of the special group on public service numbers and expenditure programmes that the jobs initiative should be closed down; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41056/09]

Order of Business (12 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: I join Deputy Hogan and the Tánaiste in welcoming the release of Fr. Michael Sinnott, which is a great relief to his family and colleagues in the Columban Fathers. I also join the tributes being paid to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and, through him, to Ambassador O'Brien and his colleagues, for the outstanding work they did in securing the release of Fr. Sinnott. On legislation, the...

Order of Business (12 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: The Labour Party wishes to oppose the Government's proposal for taking the NAMA legislation today. It is somewhat unusual to have amendments from the Seanad although we get the odd amendment from time to time. In this case, 37 amendments were made to the Bill, most of which were proposed by the Minister. The Government wishes to guillotine discussion on this at 3:30 p.m. It is not just...

Order of Business (12 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: ——no money for child benefit, no money for paying wages, no money to help people in trouble with their mortgages and no money to take initiatives to get people back to work, but there is no shortage of money for the banks. Let us bear in mind what has been already done. Some €4 billion has been put into a delinquent bank called Anglo Irish Bank and €7 billion has been provided for...

Order of Business (12 Nov 2009)

Eamon Gilmore: This problem happened because of Fianna Fáil's policies of encouraging property speculation down the years which created the property bubble, because it made the wrong call on the bank guarantee scheme and because it made a second wrong call on NAMA when there was the alternative of nationalising the banks——