Results 11,881-11,900 of 16,849 for speaker:Dermot Ahern

Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: Yes. No court is involved. The idea of fixed penalty charges is to try to keep as many people as possible out of court for minor offences.

Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: That would be a matter for the court to decide.

Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: In driving offences, for example, I do not see the difference between owning and not owning a vehicle. The amendment is an effort to try to reduce administration, time in court and the time used by the Garda so that relatively minor offences can be indicated. People would not be brought to court. However, if the person does not pay after two notices, he or she would be summoned to court.

Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: It is not new, but this will be the first time it will be applied to public order offences.

Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: I have thought long and hard about this issue, and I have come to a conclusion based on the figures available to me. This country has a severe problem with the consumption of alcohol, whether we like it or not. We have one of the highest levels of alcohol consumption in the European Union. In 2006, it was 30% higher than the EU average. A eurobarometer survey in 2007 indicated that 34% of...

Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: In some of my public comments I referred to another recent survey carried out in England by the Local Government Association. It reported increases in alcohol-related incidences. For example, half of all police authorities stated that the longer opening hours had simply resulted in incidences occurring later in the night. The survey of 20 police forces indicated that crimes committed...

Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: How is it that all Deputy Charles Flanagan's amendments are parroting the claims of the interest groups?

Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: I appreciate that Deputy Rabbitte has a point with regard to the collective citation for the courts Acts, my Department is involved in a joint project with the Law Reform Commission to codify the courts Acts. The issue referred to here will be taken into account in this examination. This is an Intoxicating Liquor Bill rather than a courts Bill. I cannot accept the amendment. The reason...

Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: I have nothing further to state on this other than this is not the Bill to deal with the collective citation of these Acts. It will be dealt with when the joint project reaches its finality. Section 7(a) refers to the District Court having and exercising all the powers and jurisdictions which it has. It refers to section 77 of the Courts of Justice Act 1924. This is why it must be...

Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: The strong advice from the parliamentary draftsman is that this must be included to confirm the jurisdiction of the court as per section 7(a).

Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: I move amendment No. 2: In page 4, between lines 7 and 8, to insert the following: ""Act of 2006" means the Criminal Justice Act 2006;". When introducing the Bill, I announced my intention to table Committee Stage amendments to clarify aspects of the fixed charge penalty arrangements set out in the Criminal Justice Act 2006. This is the purpose of this group of amendments. Amendment No. 2...

Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: The Deputy referred to the moving on provisions, which are not related to these amendments. They concern two offences covered by the 1994 Act, namely, being disorderly in a public place and being drunk in a public place and the issue of fixed charge penalties. Such penalties are notified to the person who commits the offence and, subsequently, he or she receives a notice. Ultimately, he or...

Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: The principle is similar to that applied for basic driving offences where a fixed penalty charge is applied. A notice is served on a person and he or she has 28 days to make the payment. If it is not made, an additional charge is levied which must be paid within a further period of 28 days and the offender, therefore, must pay an increased penalty. If he or she does not pay, a prosecution...

Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: Yes. The receiving agency for penalty charges applied for driving offences is An Post and that more than likely will continue to be the position.

Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: I anticipate when an offence is committed, the garda will take the person to the Garda station where he or she will be cited with a fixed charge penalty. It would be rare for a person to give a false name in those circumstances. If he or she did, that would also be an offence, which would have to be investigated.

Gangland Killings. (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: The Government attaches the highest priority to combating organised crime and bringing those involved in such activities and who show such callous disregard for human life to justice. One of the main priorities set for the Garda Síochána under the Garda Síochána Act is to target gun crime, organised crime and drug trafficking through a range of measures, including the use of Garda...

Gangland Killings. (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: I share the concern of all Oireachtas Members and the reasonable members of the public. The Garda Commissioner has stated he has more than enough resources to target this. Operation Anvil is specifically targeted at this type of crime and resources will continue to be made available. There has been a reduction in the past number of years in the number of murders with firearms. No one...

Gangland Killings. (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: Regarding firearms, I did not need reminding by the judge or the Fine Gael Party because it was one of the issues I targeted when I became Minister a number of months ago. This is a serious issue and there has been a dramatic rise in the number of licences issued. Prior to this weekend, I intend to bring forward a technical decision because of some court decisions on the interpretation of...

Casino Regulation. (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: I refer the Deputy to replies to Questions Nos. 124 and 194 of 28 May 2008 and Question No. 2 of 17 April 2008, which set out the position in connection with this and related matters. The casino regulation committee completed its report in April 2007. It is a lengthy document that deals with a range of complex and inter-related public policy issues including Internet gambling. Neither the...

Casino Regulation. (8 Jul 2008)

Dermot Ahern: This report refers to an important policy area. The Oireachtas has not addressed it since 1956. There has been little legislative change in this area. The Oireachtas has passed it off. There were a number of reports during the time when Deputy Rabbitte was in government, including an unpublished task force report on the casino issue while Deputy Ruairí Quinn was Minister for Finance....