Results 20,481-20,500 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Remuneration (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy posed a number of very pertinent questions. I propose that the discussions I will have with the public service will be focused on the public service alone. We have had general discussions about a broader social dialogue, which we must construct, but we are not going back to a national pay agreement. What we are talking about is working out a settlement with public sector unions,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Remuneration (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy made three very important points. We have published expenditure ceilings for the next three years. We might have a broader discussion at committee on the fiscal space we will have for next year, which will be a real issue, rather than trying to do it here. That is part of ongoing negotiations with the Commission in terms of how that fiscal space is to be measured accurately, to...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Expenditure Reviews (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The comprehensive review of expenditure process was designed to provide the Government with a complete set of options ahead of the budget to allow decisions to be made to realign spending with the priorities set out in the programme for Government, meet overall fiscal objectives, and explore new and innovative ways of delivering Government policy in a reformed public sector. Under the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Expenditure Reviews (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The HSE published its service plan subsequent to the budget. Its service plan for this year sets out expenditure of more than €12 billion, which it estimates will meet the needs of the health service for this year. It is interesting, and I referred to this previously, that the conclusions of the European Council published last year indicated that even though Ireland has a relatively...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Expenditure Reviews (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy raised the fundamental question of how much we should spend on health. I went to the OECD to ask experts who had examined health expenditure across every OECD country what model we might consider using. There is no optimum model, however, and the pressures on accident and emergency departments in this State are replicated in Northern Ireland and the UK. The question of the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Recruitment (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy will recall that as part of a package of measures presented in the budget in October, I announced an end to the staffing moratorium in the public service. This was made possible by the much welcomed improvement in the public finances last year, which, thankfully, is continuing this year. I considered it appropriate to have a more normalised approach to the management of public...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Recruitment (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I thank the Deputy for her questions. I do not want to give the illusion there is now a free hand to recruit, because there is not. We made very difficult gains by reducing public sector numbers very considerably - by 10% overall. We do not have the capacity to restore all of that. We have looked at delivering systems more efficiently over the past four years. In terms of the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Recruitment (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: One of the things that concerned me about the issue of homelessness was the number of houses and flats, in particular in Dublin, which were void and awaiting essential repairs. That is why I allocated specific funding from the stimulus moneys available to me from the sale of State assets and formally in the budget last year to bring all those voids back into play. More regular maintenance...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Commercial Rates Valuation Process (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The national revaluation programme, which amazingly is the first general valuation of all commercial property in the State since the middle of the 19th century, is making progress. It is a very significant undertaking and involves the valuation of some 146,000 properties. Completing the first revaluation and getting every local authority onto what would be a more normal five to ten year...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Commercial Rates Valuation Process (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: It has taken 150 years to get here.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Commercial Rates Valuation Process (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: As the Deputy will be aware, the Bill will formally come before the House tomorrow, and the Minister of State, Deputy Harris, will take it. He took the Bill in the Seanad and there was a very constructive debate there on some of the issues Deputy Fleming is talking about. The Minister of State is approaching the Bill, as am I, with a very open mind to make it as effective as we possibly...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Commercial Rates Valuation Process (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: We have an open mind in terms of hearing practical solutions to these issues. From the very start in 2011, we set out a fairly dramatic programme of agency rationalisation which was broadly supported across the House. We have implemented all of that and there are one or two final bits to be done. This is one of them, and we need to have the courage of our convictions and bring it to...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Remuneration (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: As I have already indicated to the House, I want to enter into discussions with the public sector unions to discuss an approach to underpin the gradual wind-down of the FEMPI Acts.   The public service unions have indicated that they intend to make a pay claim if the economic circumstances permit, to which inevitably the Government would have to respond.  Any prudent...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Remuneration (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: From the very beginning, our approach has been one of discussion and agreement. Any proposals we have made on public sector pay and conditions have been negotiated with the public sector unions and agreed by vote, in contrast with the approach of the previous Government, which imposed changes arbitrarily. I agree entirely on the notion that working people and public servants in particular...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Remuneration (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I have said I want to see the first quarter figures, which I will have at the end of March or early April. I hope to have the initial scoping discussions with the public sector unions in April. I do not know whether a formal pay claim will be lodged before it. I have indicated that I want to do it face up with the public sector unions, as I approached the Haddington Road agreement, so they...

Other Questions: Government Expenditure (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: It is a very tricky question. Ministerial expenditure ceilings are decided by the Government within the context of the overall Government expenditure ceiling required to ensure that our fiscal targets are achieved, and have a statutory basis in the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act 2013. We legislated for them. The multi-annual voted expenditure ceilings allow for greater...

Other Questions: Government Expenditure (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Like the Deputy, I read all these things with very great interest. We set out the economic horizons and I engaged with Ministers, who have great flexibility within their budget lines to reprioritise. However, it must be decided by the Government as a whole. People are entitled to debate these plans and, under the new budgetary system, I have encouraged such debates. The committees of the...

Other Questions: Government Expenditure (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I do not agree with the Deputy at all; I think it would be helpful to know. Everybody is in favour of more services and so on, but we need to know their cost and how they will fit in to affordability. That is part of the anchoring of policy discussion in what is deliverable. As I said when I addressed the committee of which the Deputy is a member, we have established the Irish Government...

Other Questions: Economic Policy (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The banking crisis in 2008 and subsequent recession had a profound impact on the public finances, as everybody in this House knows. The scale of the challenge facing both the economy and the public finances was considerable with gross voted expenditure being reduced from its peak of €63.1 billion in 2009 to €54 billion in 2014, a reduction of 14.4%. The Government's priority...

Other Questions: Economic Policy (11 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I thank the Deputy for his remarks. We need to ensure that it does and the Government is determined to do so. Stability will be required. Instability exists outside our own environment and might have an impact upon us. We do not know what will happen, for example, in eastern Europe, particularly in Ukraine, and such factors have a destabilising effect. We can control what we can do...