Results 241-260 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: The unit has five staff over an 18 hour roster and it does not have the capacity to provide regional news items or international news, press cuttings or what is on local radio. The unit monitors the national radio stations and national newspapers. That is what is circulated to both Ministers and officials. I assure Deputy Bruton it has no involvement in party activities. It does not...

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I certainly do not want to see any duplication, but I asked officials in other Departments late last year to look at where it occurs. They informed me that the Departments were spending money on regional newspapers and information that would not readily be——

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: A number of Departments were contracted over the years to newspaper services and outside media monitoring units. We effectively stopped that in 1997. It was a very large cost. The entire media communications unit was cheaper than the cost at that stage. We could extend the service to include regional newspapers, but this is a small unit of five people covering 18 hours per day five days...

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: We would not, because what would happen——

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: It could not be done with five staff. I could save €500,000 from other Departments, but we would have much more staff in my Department. The five people cannot cover local, national and international media and provide the service to all other agencies. It would not be possible to do that with five people.

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I will make two points. Any data or information prepared in Departments, such as reports, is not made available externally. In my period as Taoiseach we have provided large increases in the party leaders' allowances to allow political parties to access these funds. We have also increased funding for the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. If the commission saw any benefits in the...

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: Information has been released hundreds of times following freedom of information requests. It is available.

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: They have been circulated.

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: That is correct.

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I see the merit of the proposal provided the political parties were to agree to allocate part of their political allowances to the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission so that it would provide a bigger, more centralised media monitoring service for everybody. That is a valid suggestion which would merit consideration. However, we are discussing a different issue, namely, the Civil Service...

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: The material is purely a synopsis of the headlines of the day. The unit does not count the number of articles or give any reflections. Its role is straightforward. The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission could take up the matter if it wished. However, the service is already provided to the political system, in large measure through the party leaders funds. Any information gathered in...

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: While I do not have a difficulty with the Deputy's suggestion, I believe the Civil Service code states that any data collected or collated by civil servants should be treated in a similar manner.

Departmental Expenditure. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: The information, opinions or reflections given by civil servants across a range of issues are not released. That Civil Service protocol is the reason the information would not be circulated. However, it is regularly released under freedom of information legislation. People have stopped submitting FOI requests because they have seen that it amounts to no more than I described. They have...

Programmes for Government. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 to 26, inclusive, together. The programme for Government agreed between Fianna Fáil, the Green Party, the Progressive Democrats and certain Independent Members of Dáil Éireann is a comprehensive blueprint for the country's future. It is fully costed and makes it clear that the budgets over the lifetime of the Government will be kept in broad balance and...

Programmes for Government. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: When the programme for Government was put together last year, each individual section of it, and particularly those new elements that were outside the national development plan, which was costed at €184 billion, or ongoing programmes such as the commitments we made to overseas development, which were fully costed, the science and technology fund or the research and development fund, which...

Programmes for Government. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I will explain it to Deputy Bruton but he understands it very well. This year——

Programmes for Government. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I will answer the question. The Deputy wants me to tell him what we will have achieved by June 2012.

Programmes for Government. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I will tell the Deputy that in the summer of 2012.

Programmes for Government. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: For the Deputy to ask me now to tell him what exactly we will do——

Programmes for Government. (12 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: The Deputy did ask that.