Results 18,881-18,900 of 36,764 for speaker:Enda Kenny

Cabinet Committees (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: Deputy Martin will be aware that the Cabinet has a constitutional responsibility to draft a budget and, as I have already stated, that budget will be presented in December. We have made it clear that we are not going to speculate on the contents of the budget until the Cabinet makes its decisions on a range of activities. Everybody in the country can have different views about these things...

Cabinet Committees (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: Given the structure we have had in the public service for so many years, the activity is genuinely ground breaking. There is a more streamlined and efficient public service for the people who pay their taxes and the people of our country. Over the coming period I hope the impact of public service reform will be seen in the way services are accessed and provided and the way people are dealt...

Cabinet Committees (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: I thank Deputy Adams for the constructiveness of his comments. The role of the Cabinet committee on health is to provide a basis for political oversight of the development and delivery of key health service reforms in line with the commitments set out in the programme for Government and to drive improvements in selected areas of priority. It is not the way that it should be at this moment...

Cabinet Committees (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: Deputy Adams looks fine and I am sorry he fell off the bicycle. If he feels up to it, he can join me and the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Deenihan, for a charity cycle on the Ring of Kerry. There is no disagreement about the stress, tension and imposition on people who must lie on trolleys. I have had it in my family, like everyone else. Deputy Adams points out...

Cabinet Committees (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: The Deputy's question refers to the relationship between individual Ministers, Cabinet sub-committees and the Cabinet itself. The programme for Government is the agreed programme between the Fine Gael Party and Labour Party in government. It is the programme that Ministers work towards implementing. There are more than 500 commitments in the programme for Government and it is our intention...

Constitutional Convention (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: I propose to take Questions Nos. 24 to 35, inclusive, together. The Government published its proposals for the constitutional convention on 28 February and, on 7 June, we published our response to Opposition parties' views on those proposals. We will shortly move resolutions in both Houses of the Oireachtas approving establishment of the convention. The Government intends that the...

Constitutional Convention (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: To answer Deputy Martin, what I said originally was that from the date of setting up the convention, my intention would be to have a Constitution day.

Constitutional Convention (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: Yes, I did. I said that from the date of setting up the convention, within 12 months one would have a Constitution day.

Constitutional Convention (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: Obviously, one has to set up the convention which has to do its work. It is not from the date of the election.

Constitutional Convention (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: Yes, but clearly one has to set up the convention and let it do its work. It has taken some time to get to that point. I recall Deputy Martin speaking about French ministers having no further contact with the people at all, and that Irish Ministers could become full-time operators in this House and lose sight of the people, as the Deputy did when he was in government.

Constitutional Convention (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: It is clear that the questions of the Seanad and child protection are outside the scope of the convention. This is because the two parties in Government, in respect of the programme for Government, stipulated that the question of the abolition of the Seanad being put to the people would not be a matter for the constitutional convention, but would be put to them in any event. I notice the...

Constitutional Convention (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: That is being held outside the convention.

Constitutional Convention (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: The Deputy raised the question of Amnesty International and human rights. The very reason for choosing the questions of reducing the voting age to 17 and reducing the presidential term is to see how the convention is actually going to work. We will select 66 people from the register of electors, representative of gender, location, regional spread, age and so on. I want to see how it is...

Constitutional Convention (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: This will be a constitutional convention to recommend change. One cannot agree outside of a constitutional convention to change to 17 years the age at which a person may vote. That is a matter for the people by way of referendum.

Constitutional Convention (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: The convention may discuss the issue of human rights and so on. It may also, together with the independent chairperson to be appointed - this is provided for in the document which perhaps Deputy Martin did not read - recommend other issues which it deems appropriate for consideration. On Deputy Adams's comments, I do not believe that the structure currently in place is fit for a modern...

Order of Business (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: It it proposed to take No. 14, Statements on pre-European Council Meeting on 28 June and No. 1, Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences Against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Bill 2012 [Seanad] - Second Stage. It is proposed notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders that (1) the Dáil shall sit later than 9 p.m. tonight and shall adjourn on the conclusion of the opening...

Order of Business (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: On the health governance Bill, on which a great deal of work has been done, while I expect it will be published towards the end of this session I cannot confirm that because there are a range of troublesome issues which need to be sorted out. On the personal insolvency Bill, the press conference today was merely to inform the people and media that the Government has approved the personal...

Order of Business (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: It will be brought before the House next Tuesday.

Order of Business (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: I think people will want to reflect on it over the weekend. There is enormous interest in this legislation. I do not want people going off on tangents, assuming something is in it that is not.

Order of Business (26 Jun 2012)

Enda Kenny: No. That is why there will be a full presentation in the Government press office on Friday from the three Ministers involved. I expect to bring it here next week when we will begin Second Stage. I assure Deputy Martin it has taken an enormous amount of activity to get it to this point.