Results 281-300 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Written Answers — Official Engagements: Official Engagements (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: During my forthcoming annual visit to the United States for St. Patrick's Day, I will have a bilateral meeting with President George Bush. During the course of the meeting, I expect to have discussions covering Northern Ireland, Immigration, International Relations and Economic Issues. As I reported to the Dáil when answering questions on 6 February last, I spoke with Senator Kennedy on 7...

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: During the period 2005 to 2007, the Department of the Taoiseach organised three Stress Management information sessions. These sessions were made available to all staff members and twenty nine people attended. Assistance in dealing with stress related issues is usually provided at a Divisional level. Should further formal intervention be required, this can be done in conjunction with...

Order of Business (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I do not have a date for legislation to introduce administrative fines but it is due.

Order of Business (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: The heads are being prepared but have not been brought to Government.

Order of Business (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: The Government passed three today and six have already been published, so that is nine. We will reach 12.

Order of Business (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: Later this year.

Constitutional Amendments. (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: The Referendum Commission will bring forward its document which will be circulated, in line with what it normally does, to every household in the country. The resources have been provided for this. The information pamphlet was widely circulated before Christmas through all the usual outlets such as educational institutions. It is also available on the website. Much more information on the...

Constitutional Amendments. (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I am not aware of what is happening with it. I need to check it out.

Constitutional Amendments. (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: To take the last point first, I agree fully with the Deputy. At the start of the Government's term I raised this issue in the House — I think Deputy Brian Hayes questioned me on it. I said to the Minister, Deputy Gormley, that he should go ahead, regardless of other Seanad reforms, and deal with that issue because there was no reason not do so as we had already dealt with it. I have...

Constitutional Amendments. (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: My view is that since there are no logical or coherent arguments one could make to a citizen on why we should vote "No", that column should be blank but not everyone would agree with that position. It is to provide information. There has been some consideration and debate around whether this provision should be left in place for all time. We have not taken any decision on that matter but...

Constitutional Amendments. (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: The third level students have said that some of their examinations start in the first week of May and continue into the early part of June. The leaving certificate starts on 4 June this year and goes on for all of June but the main bulk of the examinations are finished on 12 June. As the National Parents Council and others said to me, if they continue much longer after that there is the...

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: These reports pertain to the difficulties that have been discussed in the House in recent months. Obviously they are reports into serious problems that must be addressed. If Deputy Kenny is asking me whether I have confidence in the 130,000 people who are trying every day to deliver a health service for a population of 4.2 million in operating theatres and community health settings, who are...

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I do not know whether Deputy Kenny really wants me to talk about the cancer service or about the reports but he has described——

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: No, I will go through that.

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: Your script was to allow me to say two words and then to interrupt.

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: We can deal with the reports of last week, which raises a question. If Deputy Kenny's view is that the HSE is an inefficient bureaucratic monster in which there is no delegation other than from the centre, which has been criticised, and in which there is no delegation to any of the regions, I cannot agree with him. The HSE has a designated manager in every region, through the National...

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: It has a large number of managers.

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: However, there are designated people in the regions and there is a line management structure that perhaps——

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: ——is a system that Deputy Kenny considers to be inferior to the health board system. In this House until January 2005——

Leaders' Questions (11 Mar 2008)

Bertie Ahern: I answered the question about the bureaucratic, out of touch health board systems that were totally unrelated to each other. For a long time, Deputy Kenny made a career of talking about PPARS——