Results 11,261-11,280 of 12,596 for speaker:Willie O'Dea

Commemorative Events. (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I already answered Deputy Gormley's second question in my reply to Deputy Gregory. If the Deputy has a practical suggestion to make on how we should commemorate those principles, I will be quite prepared to listen to it. He can make suggestions either directly to me or through the committee. If the 1916 men were to come back today and see the wonderful and terrific strides we have made over...

Commemorative Events. (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: We cherish all the children of the nation much more equally than they were cherished in 1916. We are a far more equal and prosperous society and an infinitely better society. I would prefer to live in 2006 than in 1916.

Defence Forces Recruitment. (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I propose to take Questions Nos. 7, 23 and 69 together. Entry to the Permanent Defence Force is either through the cadetship competition, apprenticeship competition, general service enlistment or direct entry competitions that are held to fill vacancies in specialist appointments. All applicants for each of these entry streams are required to meet qualifying criteria. The question of the...

Defence Forces Recruitment. (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: As I said, our emphasis at the moment is to prevent people of foreign and ethnic origin from being discriminated against when they apply to join the Defence Forces. I take Deputy Sherlock's point about the efforts being made by the Garda Síochána, but the Garda is a different type of organisation from the Defence Forces. Whereas we need gardaí who can relate to people in ethnic...

National Emergency Plan. (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I propose to take Questions Nos. 8, 14 and 39 together. The Government task force on emergency planning has worked since it was set up in 2001 to co-ordinate emergency planning and response arrangements across the Departments that would lead and support the State's response in an emergency. The task force continues to meet regularly, most recently on Wednesday, 8 February, which was two weeks...

National Emergency Plan. (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I am familiar with the work to which Deputy Gormley referred but I do not agree with that conclusion. We have a detailed twofold plan that specifies how the various aspects of the public would deal with a specific emergency and provides a number of specific disease-related plans for dealing with an outbreak of pandemic influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome, smallpox and so on....

National Emergency Plan. (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I am not familiar with that specific incident, though I can make inquiries. One thing I have emphasised strongly for the emergency task force, which it does now on a regular basis as people such as Mr. Tom Clonan acknowledge, is that it conducts exercises. There have been quite a number involving crashes and pile-ups, train and car crashes etc. We saw the emergency services in action in the...

National Emergency Plan. (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I will make inquiries into that. I am not familiar with it.

National Emergency Plan. (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: My information is that the air rescue service is working very well. I am not aware of any instances, especially, where people died because of any fault or slowness in the services. When we were operating a helicopter rescue service using Army aircraft rather than the current arrangement, we ran out of capacity to provide a full 24-hour service because of industrial action — the Air Corps...

National Emergency Plan. (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I look forward to getting those.

Written Answers — EU Battle Groups: EU Battle Groups (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I propose to take Questions Nos. 9, 21, 25, 26, 30, 33, 35, 38, 43, 47, 49, 51, 53 and 64 together. The ambition of the EU to be able to respond rapidly to emerging crises has, and continues to be, a key objective of the development of the European security and defence policy, ESDP. The tasks to be carried out under ESDP, the so-called Petersberg Tasks, are defined in the Amsterdam treaty as...

Written Answers — Defence Forces Personnel: Defence Forces Personnel (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 37 together. I am aware that there were some media reports along these lines last year. The military authorities advise me that they have no knowledge of any serving Permanent Defence Force personnel, who are on career breaks from the Permanent Defence Force being in Iraq. Nonetheless, at the time when these media reports appeared, the military...

Written Answers — Defence Forces Appointments: Defence Forces Appointments (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I propose to take Questions Nos. 11, 20, 29, 57, 61 and 70 together. The background to the engagement of Dr. Lieberthal arises from the Defence Forces policy of providing medical care for personnel serving with large contingents overseas. In the case of missions such as Lebanon and Liberia it is the practice to send medical officers as part of the contingent. Given the arduous nature of the...

Written Answers — Defence Forces Personnel: Defence Forces Personnel (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I propose to take Questions Nos. 12 and 168 together. Ireland is currently contributing approximately 766 Defence Forces personnel to 19 different missions throughout the world. Full details of all personnel currently serving overseas are listed in the following table. The main commitments are to the United Nations Mission in Liberia, UNMIL, with 426 personnel, to the NATO-led international...

Written Answers — Medical Facilities: Medical Facilities (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 and 55 together. The military medical services and their facilities exist primarily to maintain the health of the Defence Forces and to support them in operational and overseas activities. The reorganisation of the medical corps, which was effected as part of the Defence Forces review implementation plan in November 1998, redirected the focus of military...

Written Answers — Defence Forces Investigations: Defence Forces Investigations (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I propose to take Questions Nos. 15, 34, 48 and 56 together. Private Kevin Barrett died on 18 February 1999 while serving with the 84th Infantry Battalion in Lebanon. His death was the subject of a UN board of inquiry and an Irish contingent board of inquiry as well as a military police investigation. The coroner for north-west Donegal also held an inquest into the death of Private Barrett...

Written Answers — Defence Forces Recruitment: Defence Forces Recruitment (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 and 63 together. The minimum height requirement for entry to the Permanent Defence Force and the Reserve Defence Force is 162.5 cm, 5 ft. 4 in., for both men and women. This limit was set in April 2002 based on the professional advice of the medical corps and the actual experience of training units. The advice at that time was that, having regard to the...

Written Answers — Aerial Surveillance: Aerial Surveillance (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: The total cost in respect of the provision by the Defence Forces of assistance to the Garda Síochána in protecting movements of cash for the years 2000 to 2004 — the figures for 2005 are currently being collated — was as follows: Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Total number of escorts 2,285 2,488 2,516 2,335 2,425 Cost of Escorts â'¬5.7m â'¬6.57m ...

Written Answers — Search and Rescue Service: Search and Rescue Service (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I express my condolences and sincere sympathy to the families and friends of those who died as a result of the Rising Sun fishing tragedy. I am aware of the criticism levelled by Comhairle Fo-Thuinn at Naval Service diving capabilities, which is unfounded and unwarranted. The Irish Coast Guard has overall responsibility for the provision of maritime search-and-rescue services within the Irish...

Written Answers — Defence Forces Property: Defence Forces Property (23 Feb 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I propose to take Questions Nos. 19 and 50 together. The Irish Aviation Authority, under the aegis of the Department of Transport, is responsible for the safety regulation of Irish airspace. An airspace change proposal submitted to the Irish Aviation Authority by Weston Airport Limited in 2005 includes the use of instrument navigation aids to assist the arrival and departure of aircraft in...