Results 21,301-21,320 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Procurement Contracts (29 Sep 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Office of Government Procurement, an office of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform publishes a suite of public works contracts which sets out clear conditions governing the payment terms between public bodies and the contractors they engage to undertake public works.  Disputes, including disputes over payment, which may arise between a public body and the contractor they...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Pensions Data (29 Sep 2015)

Brendan Howlin: My Department does not keep records of the post retirement employment of former Secretaries-General. However, the position has always been that following the completion of their term of appointment, if any Secretary-General is employed elsewhere in the Public Service, the general rules of abatement apply to their pension. This means that pension is abated so that the rate of pension,...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Procurement Regulations (29 Sep 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Following points raised at the PAC in 2014 and in 2015 by the Irish School Arts Supplies Federation (ISASF) with the Committee, the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) has met with the sector representative body to discuss their concerns on two separate occasions.  The OGP currently has no framework agreements or contracts in place for school arts supplies, nor does it have...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Commission for Public Service Appointments (30 Sep 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Commission for Public Service Appointments (CPSA) was established under Section 11 of the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments Act 2004. The CPSA establishes the standards of probity, merit, equity and fairness and other principles as they consider appropriate, to be followed, in the selection and recruitment of persons for positions in the Civil Service and...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Data (30 Sep 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy may wish to note that information on the performance of all FOI bodies under the Freedom of Information Act is collated and analysed by the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) and published every year in the OIC Annual Reports which are available at www.oic.gov.ie. An overview of the numbers of FOI requests received by Government Departments for the years referred to in...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Staff Recruitment (30 Sep 2015)

Brendan Howlin: As the Deputy will be aware, the Public Appointments Service (PAS) is the independent centralised provider of professional recruitment, assessment and selection services for the Civil Service. The initiation of an inter-departmental recruitment campaign for any particular civil service grade is determined by such factors as identified workforce planning requirements and the need to...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Staff Recruitment (30 Sep 2015)

Brendan Howlin: As the Deputy will be aware, the Public Appointments Service (PAS) is the independent centralised provider of professional recruitment, assessment and selection services for the Civil Service. I understand from PAS that an open and inter-departmental competition was advertised on 29 May 2015 and both are currently at interview stage.

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Procurement Contracts (30 Sep 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The tender referred to was administered by the Education Procurement Service who also awarded the contract for a 12 month period. The contract covers schools and ETBs but not the other segments of the original Group 4 lot. The contract was awarded by way of an open tender procedure under the EU Procurement Directives. This tender process was entirely independent from the central...

Seanad: Pre-Budget Outlook: Statements (30 Sep 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I am delighted to be back in the Seanad. I suppose it is extremely timely that we are having this discussion in advance of the budget that will be presented to the Oireachtas two weeks from now. I will begin by setting out the broad fiscal context in which we find ourselves in the run-up to budget 2016. Based on the fiscal forecasts in the spring economic statement, Ireland is set to exit...

Seanad: Pre-Budget Outlook: Statements (30 Sep 2015)

Brendan Howlin: It is in the script. I have just said that.

Seanad: Pre-Budget Outlook: Statements (30 Sep 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Yes.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget Targets (1 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Wide-ranging reforms to the budgetary architecture have been implemented by this Government with a view to supporting the efficient use of public funds to deliver effective services for our people. The medium-term expenditure framework and periodic comprehensive reviews of expenditure have provided the opportunity to move discussions about expenditure decisions away from consideration of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget Targets (1 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I think I need to explain this because the new rules are quite complex. The two measures that will underpin whether we meet the rules - the judgment criteria - next year are the expenditure benchmark and the annual structured adjustment. Under the expenditure benchmark, public expenditure can only grow at rates determined by the potential growth of the economy, less a convergence margin if...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget Targets (1 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: That is the point.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget Targets (1 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: We sought a three-year horizon in our negotiations because an annualised horizon would not have been very helpful to us. A three-year horizon was negotiated by my colleague, the Minister for Finance, at ECOFIN and agreed there. I will have to check the exact date for the Deputy. We set out the space we will have for next year in the spring economic statement and we are sticking to that....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Capital Investment Plan (1 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I suppose the Deputy could claim that the question tabled by his colleague was the catalyst for making sure all of this was done. If he makes such a claim, I will not deny it publicly. As he is aware, I launched the public capital investment programme, Building on Recovery, earlier this week. It sets out the Government's commitment to a €27 billion six-year capital plan. This...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Capital Investment Plan (1 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The total sum involved in the plan is €42 billion, of which €27 billion will be directly allocated by the State from Exchequer funding. Semi-States such as the ESB will spend money on energy development. Ervia and Irish Water will spend €4 billion. Just €500 million of the €42 billion in question will involve additional public private partnerships. I am...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Capital Investment Plan (1 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Fianna Fáil Party may not agree.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Capital Investment Plan (1 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Since all the projects will be in Ireland, the workers must be physically in this country to do the work. On the figure of 45,000 jobs, there is a rule of thumb for determining the number of jobs to be created per €1 million investment. The 45,000 figure refers only to the direct investment of €27 billion by the State rather than total investment which will be a much larger...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Government Expenditure (1 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Under the reformed budgetary timetable, the Estimates for expenditure by Departments are outlined every October in the budget and set out in detail in the Revised Estimates Volume published before the end of the year. Under the new budgetary cycle, the Estimates are voted on by the Dáil in the first few months of the year and Departments are expected to live within the voted...