Lenihan, ConorWednesday, 24 May 2006 |
Dáil Eireann Debate
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Priority Questions - Middle East Peace Process.
We had three answers on this already.
Priority Questions - Decentralisation Programme.
Three categories of specialists — principal development specialists, senior development specialists and development specialists — are employed by Irish Aid. None of the three principal development spe...
I do not intend to lose my patience at this point, obviously, as I have to answer the questions I am asked in this House. I have answered the Deputy’s question on no less than four occasions, most rec...
——for Dáil Deputies, including Front Bench spokespersons. It seems Deputy Allen cannot simply collate the figures I gave him last week.
Perhaps he has some difficulty——
——or terrible problem of memory.
It is clear that he cannot remember the figures I gave him last week.
The Deputy referred to the protection of corporate memory, but I suggest that he should try to find a way of protecting his own memory. I gave him these figures last week at a committee meeting.
It is clear the Deputy does not do his research or take any note of the responses he gets.
He has made some totally groundless assertions in this House about the nature of the decentralisation programme.
I will give the Deputy the figures yet again, not so much for his benefit——
——as I have already given him this information, but for the benefit of other Deputies who may not have asked the question or been given an answer.
Deputy Allen was given these figures last week.
It is a most vexatious strategy on the Deputy’s part and on the part of Fine Gael. The Deputy was given these figures last week but he has forgotten them again. It does not give me great hope for the ...
I will give the figures again. Deputy Allen referred to Development Co-operation Ireland——
——but I remind him that it no longer exists. It is called Irish Aid, but the Deputy referred to Development Co-operation Ireland.
Perhaps his memory is failing him in that respect as well.
I have given the figures today and I will give them again now because the Deputy did not hear me last week or on the two previous occasions. Some 35 people within the development co-operation division...
Some 35 people are willing to move.
A further 16 people have opted to apply for positions in Limerick.
The Deputy is hardly blaming me for Fine Gael’s lack of imagination——
——in coming up with new questions.
It is not rubbish.
It is a very truthful assertion.
The Deputy is so bankrupt as an Opposition spokesman that he cannot come up with a new question.
He is wasting taxpayers’ money.
These are very expensive questions to put down on the Order Paper.
It takes many civil servants to answer them. The Deputy asked the same question last week that he is asking this week.
He is wasting taxpayers’ money, which is something he is always accusing the Government of doing. He is a perfect example of it.
He asked the same questions last week and got the same answers.
The same answers were honestly offered by me to the Deputy at a meeting of a Dáil committee. He just wants to waste taxpayers’ money by repeating the question all the time.
I will repeat the answer in case the Deputy’s memory is deficient.
Expressions of interest in decentralisation have been submitted by 35 workers in Irish Aid and 16 workers in the wider Department of Foreign Affairs, of which Irish Aid is a fully integrated part.
The performance of Irish Aid in the decentralisation process, far from being a failure, is far better than any other Department of State. We have fulfilled 41%——
I will repeat the figure for the Deputy because he is either hard of hearing or hard of memory. Some 41% of the staff requirement needed in Limerick has now been fulfilled.
By any yardstick, Irish Aid is performing far better than other Departments which are choosing to decentralise to other locations. I have given the Deputy an answer. I hope he will not ask the same qu...
It is Deputy Allen who is wasting taxpayer’s money.
The Deputy is speaking with a forked tongue again. I gave him an answer in this regard in the committee last week.
The Deputy is again showing either a deficiency in his own research capabilities or in his memory.
It is one or the other.
The Deputy can tell the House and the taxpayers why——
——he is wasting taxpayers’ time, money and effort in this House.
He is asking questions which have already been answered.
The Deputy knows the answer.
The Deputy knows the answer already because he was given it last week. Perhaps he left the committee but to my memory, which is not perfect, the Deputy was present throughout the meeting and heard the...
A total of 24 were in headquarters. Such people continue to work for Irish Aid when working in Africa.
They do not cease to be members of Irish Aid when they travel to Africa.
That is how the Department delivers aid.
Perhaps the Deputy will visit them some day.
The Deputy is a complete waste of money.
Other Questions - Overseas Development Aid.
The political, economic and humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe continues to deteriorate and remains an issue of great concern for Ireland and its EU partners. Inflation in Zimbabwe has exceeded 1,000%...
The Deputy has asked a number of difficult questions and I cannot answer the question about the effectiveness of the EU sanctions. However, they were reviewed last February and they are continually re...
Private Members’ Business - Drug Abuse: Motion (Resumed).
Amendment put.
Voted Yes
Question put: “That the motion, as amended, be agreed to.”
Voted Yes
Written Answers - Decentralisation Programme.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 64, 134 and 146 together. There are 3 categories of Specialists employed by Irish Aid: Principal Development Specialists, Senior Development Specialists, and Developme...
Written Answers - Overseas Development Aid.
Ireland attaches the highest importance to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were adopted by the United Nations in 2000. We have incorporated them as the overarching framework of the Iris...
Ireland’s total aid to Ethiopia in 2006 is expected to amount to approximately €35 million. Of this total, it is anticipated that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in Ethiopia, including C...
The current drought in the drylands of East Africa is affecting Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Tanzania. In Kenya, the Government has declared a state of emergency. Countless livestock have di...
I propose to take Questions Nos. 80, 225 and 231 together. Africa’s enormous needs are due to a complex combination of factors including food insecurity, poverty, environmental degradation, weak polic...
I propose to take Questions Nos. 83 and 166 together. Years of poor rainfall in the countries of the Horn of Africa combined with weak infrastructure, under-development, asset erosion, population grow...
I propose to take Questions Nos. 85, 156 and 161 together. The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, announced at the UN Millennium Review Summit in New York on 14 September 2005 that the Government will reach the...
Written Answers - Democratisation Process.
Presidential and parliamentary elections will take place in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on 30 July next. They will be the first multi-party elections in the country since it gained independ...
Written Answers - Overseas Development Aid.
The core objective of Ireland’s assistance to Palestine has been to alleviate the material consequences of the ongoing conflict by enhancing the capacity of Ireland’s partners in Palestine to respond ...
Written Answers - Corruption Levels.
I am aware of the concerns of the person referred to by the Deputy, particularly in relation to Ethiopia and Uganda. No Irish Aid funding goes directly to the Government of Ethiopia via direct or gene...
Written Answers - Overseas Development Aid.
HIV/AIDS continues to be the single biggest obstacle to reducing poverty and to attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Current statistics from the United Nations Joint Programme on AIDS (U...
Written Answers - Overseas Recruitment.
Many developing countries, especially in Africa, are experiencing an acute shortage of health workers. They have insufficient health workers to provide even the most basic services to their citizens. ...
Written Answers - Rapid Response Initiative.
The Rapid Response Initiative is designed to strengthen Ireland’s operational response to humanitarian crises. In the context of the overwhelming public response to the Tsunami of December 2004, I bel...
Written Answers - Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol fall under the remit of my colleague Dick Roche T.D., Minister for the Environment and Local Government. Howev...
Written Answers - Overseas Development Aid.
The humanitarian situation in eastern Chad, where 350,000 people are dependent on the assistance of aid agencies, is a source of ongoing concern. Approximately 200,000 refugees from the Darfur region ...
| Last Updated: 03/11/2010 23:24:57 |
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