Results 12,081-12,100 of 36,764 for speaker:Enda Kenny

Order of Business (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: It is plenty of time.

Order of Business (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: The Deputy might ask a lot of questions.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Official Engagements (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: The House has a number of reports from the Constitutional Convention to debate. I commend Tom Arnold and all of those who participated in the convention, including public representatives and, in particular, the 66 citizens who attended it meetings and contributed to its various debates in the past 12 months or thereabouts. The Government must respond to each of the different reports from...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Official Engagements (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: What do we want here? What we strive to achieve is a path to citizenship for those who wish to live in America legally. Two options are available. While we could seek to reach a bilateral arrangement, the process of achieving this is not as simple as it sounds. The second option is to have comprehensive legislation to deal with all nationalities, as the Deputy correctly noted. This was...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): State Visits (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: I thank the Deputy for that. We looked at the bigger picture, which is the programme of expansion and investment being considered by Prime Minister Abe and his government. Japan is an extraordinary country, with an extraordinary standard of living and an extraordinary level of investment, despite the fact that it has suffered recession for many years. The Deputy asked about the situation...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): State Visits (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: They deal with these things at official level sector by sector. The same thing is happening with the transatlantic trade and investment partnership, TTIP, between the EU and the US. I do not have an up-to-date report on the intricacies of what they are talking about, but I can send the Deputy a report on when they are expected to be concluded. Obviously this is of interest to us.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Official Engagements (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 to 14, inclusive, together. I visited Japan between 1 and 5 December 2013. While in Tokyo, I was delighted to have an opportunity for a brief informal meeting with US Vice President Joe Biden, who was in Japan as part of a wider visit to the region. This was not a formal meeting, and we did not have an opportunity to engage in substantive discussion on...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): State Visits (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: It is the next question anyway.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): State Visits (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: I thank Deputy Martin for his comments. I agree - I think this is a good suggestion. I recall when I was Minister for Tourism and Trade the Canary Wharf bomb - I think it was in 1996 it went off - and the Earls Court tourism show was to take place two days later. People at the time were saying it should be called off in its entirety. Up until that point, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): State Visits (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 to 8, inclusive, together. I visited Japan from 1-5 December in response to an invitation extended to me by Prime Minister Abe during his successful visit to Ireland in June last year, following his attendance at the G8 Summit at Lough Erne. The key objectives of my visit to Japan were to further increase Ireland’s trade, economic and political...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): State Visits (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: Deputy Adams raised a couple of important points. First, I did have the opportunity to refer to the tensions that exist between China and Japan in regard to the Senkaku-Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea. I pointed out that as a very small country in comparison to the populations in China and Japan, we have had some experience of difficulties and troubles and how they might be resolved by...

Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: I would be the first to say that the public housing situation is not what it should be. The Minister for Finance has already made it clear that NAMA is offering 4,000 units that are available for housing.

Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: Admittedly some of them may not be in the proper locations and some of them may not be committed but it is an offer of 4,000 units. The social and public housing programme is clearly too low and it is not meeting the demand we have. When Ireland was building 100,000 houses when 30,000 were needed, clearly the private sector area was very expensive, to put it mildly. The housing assistance...

Leaders' Questions (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: -----and will be part of the Government's discussions on stimulating the construction sector in the economy generally this week.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Ministerial Appointments (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together. Four appointments have been made to the National Statistics Board in recent months. Three appointments relate to the appointment of civil servants on the board, as provided for in section 18 of the Statistics Act 1993. The fourth appointment relates to the re-appointment of the existing chairperson of the board. I have also recently made...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Ministerial Appointments (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: It was at a Government meeting of 12 April 2011 that decisions were made to put in place new arrangements inviting expressions of interest in vacancies on boards and agreed that Ministers would not necessarily be confined to those who made expressions of interest. It was decided that those who were being proposed for appointment as chairs would be required to make themselves available to the...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Ministerial Appointments (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: I did not know they were still around.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Ministerial Appointments (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: I did not know that those guys were still around.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Ministerial Appointments (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: No. I do not accept that at all. Clearly, that applies in every situation. People who apply for positions or for jobs are not necessarily going to be chosen by virtue of the fact that they apply.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Ministerial Appointments (25 Feb 2014)

Enda Kenny: Let us say an application is advertised for position X on board Y and 200 apply for it. The Minister is not obliged to pick anyone individually. Obviously he would have to consider the list of applications.