Results 21,701-21,720 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Government Expenditure (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy, as usual, is completely wrong. The deficit we set for this year was a demanding deficit to reach the target of below 3% of GDP. When we framed the budget for 2015 in October of last year, it provided for a deficit of 2.9%. In the spring, we reduced that to have an even tighter deficit of 2.7%. The actual outturn, including the additional expenditure that I have outlined, will...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Government Expenditure (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: It is interesting to note that the Fianna Fáil official position is against additional expenditure this year, which runs counter to all its Private Members' and special notice questions baloney. They are against any relief or any further expenditure that we have set out such as the winter initiative, ensuring the fair deal is provided within a two-week scenario or ensuring the summer...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pensions Expenditure (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: On foot of decisions taken by this Government, serving Ministers, as I indicated clearly yesterday, will not benefit from any pay restoration as set out in the FEMPI Bill 2015.  Former Ministers will benefit only to the extent that all former public servants will benefit in the Government's highly progressive programme of pension restoration. There is no such thing as a bonanza for...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pensions Expenditure (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy plays the politics of this but she knows full well, because I have said it and her own legal advice will confirm it, that emergency legislation cannot selectively penalise a particular cohort of public service pensioners. It would collapse the Bill constitutionally. The Deputy knows that but that does not stop her playing politics with it. Accordingly, the proposed amelioration...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pensions Expenditure (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pensions Expenditure (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy will peddle the political argument knowing that it is fatally flawed constitutionally and legally, having no regard for the Constitution and the decisions of the courts of the land and having no regard for anything but the narrow political advantage of trotting out names in the hope that this will accrue some support for her party. One cannot select a cohort of public sector...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pensions Expenditure (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy does not like to hear it so she shouts down. As we emerge from the crisis, there will be decisions to be made because one day somebody will take a challenge against the FEMPI legislation and we will have to be on robust ground. I will ensure as long as I am in charge of it that we are constitutionally sound on this.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy should note that, as set out in the expenditure report I circulated on budget day, the underlying increase in gross funded current expenditure is, in fact, €170 million. Excluding Lansdowne Road agreement related costs of €43 million, the increase in the allocation for the Department of Education and Skills is more than five times the figure mentioned in the Deputy's...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: As it is always a mistake to prepare one's speaking notes before hearing the answer to a question, I will repeat my answer. There is a non-recurring pay cost of €127 million which must be taken into account when making the comparison between the figures for 2015 and 2016. This should be clear. The Deputy's figure is wrong, as I have explained already. We have protected education...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy understands basic economics.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy said he followed the argument on non-recurring costs, but he then went back to the figure of €24 million, the argument about which he says he understands. We have protected class sizes. We did not worsen pupil-teacher ratios in any of the budgets we introduced. Even in the teeth of the crisis we protected them and have now improved them. With the very first easement of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: We have set out a further investment of €2.8 billion to ensure schools of the highest calibre will be available. Of course, we also have an IT programme to ensure every school has high quality broadband.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Fiscal Policy (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The major progress achieved in securing fiscal stability means that from the beginning of next year Ireland will exit the corrective arm of the Stability and Growth Pact and become subject, as the Deputy knows, to its preventive arm. The core of this fiscal rule is the medium-term objective to achieve a balanced budget in structural terms, whereby allowances are made for...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Fiscal Policy (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: They are not once-off, as the Revenue has confirmed.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Fiscal Policy (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy is correct in that the Department of Finance is conservative in determining the fiscal space. His criticism is that we have done better than we expected every time we made a projection. Had we erred on the other side, the country, as well as the Deputy, would have something even stronger to say. We have been prudent and, perhaps, overly conservative in estimating the pace of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Fiscal Policy (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Ireland has been very vigorously engaged in the base erosion and profit shifting, BEPS, process with the OECD. Many corporations want to ensure they are very solid regarding it and it is a new and welcome paradigm in corporation tax payment. Given that we are a very clear and transparent country regarding the rate of corporation tax we pay, more and more companies will decide to pay their...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Procurement Regulations (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I do not have knowledge of any particular issue such as the one the Deputy indicated. Public procurement is governed by well-established EU and national rules and guidelines. The aim of the rules is to promote an open, competitive and non-discriminatory public procurement regime which delivers best value for money. EU directives on public procurement require that public works,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Procurement Regulations (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I have no knowledge of the issue the Deputy raises. I will not give general answers that could be applied to a particular case about which I have no knowledge whatsoever.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Procurement Regulations (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Public procurement practices are subject to audit and scrutiny under the Comptroller and Auditor General (Amendment) Act 1993 and the Local Government Reform Act 2014. Accounting Officers, not Ministers, are publicly accountable for expenditure incurred. Individual contracting authorities are responsible for establishing arrangements for ensuring the proper conduct of their affairs,...

Other Questions: State Bodies (19 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: In line with the public service reform plan, I have organised and reconfigured resources within my Department to establish the national shared service office. The office is responsible for delivering shared services projects in the Civil Service and for the operation of Civil Service shared service centres. As one of the key priorities set out in the public service reform plan, I...