Results 20,421-20,440 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Government Expenditure (4 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Further to its responsibility in relation to the allocation and overall management of voted expenditure, including the Exchequer capital programme, my Department has data in relation to all voted capital allocations for, and capital expenditure by each Vote within Central Government. The data is available at Vote, programme and subhead level. This data is regularly published by my...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Staff Recruitment (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: All Civil Servants are eligible to apply for competitions to fill vacancies in Civil Service grades through open competition or through confined interdepartmental competition, subject to satisfying the relevant eligibility criteria. Eligibility for Departmental competitions is a matter for the Department concerned, subject to compliance with legal and other requirements...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: EU Directives (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: On 28 March, 2014, the European Commission published three new Directives as a collective reform of the existing EU regime for public procurement under the existing provisions of Directive 2004/17/EU - coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors and Directive 2004/18/EU - on the coordination of procedures for the...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Staff Data (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: In response to the Deputy's question I can confirm that there are currently no civil servants in my Department, or those under my aegis, working in Portlaoise, County Laois.

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Disability Act Employment Targets (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The 3 per cent target for the employment of people with disabilities in the Public Service is set out in the Disability Act 2005 and remains in place. My Department reports to the National Disability Authority on compliance with this target for Government Departments and Offices staffed mainly by civil servants.  In 2013 those organisations employed 3.9% people reported to...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I have put in place a protocol in relation to companies that are in my purview. The company mentioned by Senator Byrne is not one of those companies. For a variety of reasons, it is one of the few companies in which I do not have a shareholding. I have a shareholding in the Dublin Airport Authority. The shareholding in the case mentioned by the Senator is vested in the Ministers for...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: As the Senator is aware, I brought in a completely new arrangement for appointments to State boards. The Government approved this at the end of last year. Serendipitously, this morning I launched the new process in the Public Appointments Service and the stateboards.iewebsite was formally launched. Virtually everyone involved was gathered at the launch. There were a couple of hundred...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I will deal with the basics first. In the design structure of this legislation, people who are characterised as lobbyists, which is set out in the Bill in the definition of a lobbyist, are required to register when engaged in lobbying. This is the general architecture of the Bill. On State board appointments, there is a new State boards appointments system in place since the end of last...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I apologise for not going through all of amendments. The scope of amendments Nos. 2 to 14 is wide in seeking to bring all communications within these bodies within the scope of what constitutes lobbying activities in the definition. This is a much broader approach than applies to other public bodies within the scope of the Bill. I understand why the Senator is speaking on this, which is to...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: One of the concerns expressed very strongly by Deputies in the other House and by almost all of the stakeholders we dealt with, was that there should be clarity around who is in and who is out, that is, who is covered by this legislation. That is what I sought to do and that is why we fixed on an organisation with ten employees or more, lest there be any confusion about it. I wanted to...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The amendment is not needed because they are not included.

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The exceptions are international organisations, as defined in section 7 by reference to section 186B of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act of 2005. I am sorry to send the Senator to that particular Act, which seems like an odd place to look for a definition of international organisation. In that definition, which is captured in this legislation, the exempted organisations would be the...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I genuinely and warmly thank the Senator for both the amendment and his contribution. It made me think again about the Bill. It is certainly is not and never was my intention that matters which are basically an essential part of whistleblowing would be or could be relevant matters to be registered under this Bill. That is my understanding of the situation in the Bill. Having reread...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Senator is somewhat luckier than me. When I received information of that nature I had to fight the case both in the High Court and the Supreme Court to protect the person who disclosed the information to me, as I thought was right and proper in relation to my duties as a Member of the Oireachtas, and the right of any citizen to contact any of us. It was for that very reason that when I...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Again, this was a matter we discussed in the other House. When framing the legislation, a number of options were considered in terms of how other countries define lobbying in legislation. The initial landmark legislation in Canada defined lobbying as attempting to influence public policy. That was the way other countries were going to go. However, that was found to be a very confining...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Yes, even in a pub. I did not mean to say that there are some places that would be exempt. It is just the type of activities that would be exempt. If one did not have the narrowing of the definition to areas that we understand to be lobbying, and we had everything defined as lobbying, there would be no end to it in terms of what everybody would have to register. One would not see the wood...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: No, Senator Norris is not. Implementation of policy is exempt. The whole idea is that the actual formulation, development and decision-making of what is to happen is what is covered, but once it is covered, the roll-out of the policy is not covered by the legislation nor was it ever intended to be. Neither is it covered in any other legislation of this nature of which I am aware. The...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Senator is not a lobbyist.

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I thank the Senators for their contributions and amendments and I understand their concerns. The idea is that the Government will set out a number of designated public officials that will be captured from the outset. These include Ministers of the Government and Ministers of State, Members of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann, Members of the European Parliament for...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The intention of the Bill is that lobbying activity be regulated through registration and reporting requirements, the responsibility for which lies on the lobbyist. That is the architecture of the Bill. If I am a lobbyist and I am going to lobby somebody then I must register. This amendment reverses that, which means that if it happens abroad, responsibility falls on the lobbied. I have...