Results 11,721-11,740 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin
- Public Sector Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: Has Deputy Donnelly raised this matter with the Department of Health?
- Public Sector Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: I am surprised the Deputy is so clear in his assertion that a hospital closed because staff were pregnant. I will go back to the HSE to ascertain the basis of the assertion. This is primarily a matter for the Minister for Health and I will ask him to revert to the Deputy directly in this regard. The Deputy is correct with regard to the general principle. I agree there is a certain...
- Public Sector Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: Quotations are not permitted in the House.
- Public Sector Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: The Deputy is straying well beyond his question.
- Public Sector Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: I hope I am not encroaching on a question that is to come, but the Leas-Cheann Comhairle may stop me if I am. I am aware of the difficulty the Deputy has identified. While it is not possible legally to give different dates to different categories of public service workers, we must have a strategy to deal with that issue when it arises.
- Fiscal Policy (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: The General Government deficit target for 2012, as set by the ECOFIN Council in December 2010, is 8.6% of GDP. The Government is fully aware of the importance of achieving this target in the context of the 2012 budget as well as the views of those who have called for a more ambitious deficit target. The Government is currently examining all options as regards the required consolidation in...
- Fiscal Policy (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: I will deal with that in the supplementary reply.
- Fiscal Policy (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: There is a lot of wisdom in what the Deputy said. The target we have to achieve next year is 8.6% of GDP. The problem is we have not quantified exactly the level of adjustment, both in term of expenditure reductions and taxation measures, that will get us to that. We cannot do that until we see, later in the year, the outturn figures from the State revenue and get a clear picture on the...
- Ministerial Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 48, 66, 181 and 182 together. The guidelines on staffing in ministerial offices were revised following decisions by the Government on a number of cost saving measures relating to the personal appointees of Ministers and Ministers of State. The guidelines specify that all appointments of ministerial staff, including the pay and terms and conditions of...
- Ministerial Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: To explain to the Deputy-----
- Ministerial Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: They are excluded from my purview.
- Ministerial Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: There is a view that special advisers are fair game. I have been privileged to work in three Departments. Special advisers play a unique role as a sounding board. Most of the people we recruited have come at a reduced cost. In many cases we are asking people with full-time, pensionable jobs to give them up and to work for an unknown period of time. We do not know how long their positions...
- Ministerial Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: I know the Deputy prefers to broadcast than to receive, but I thought I had answered those questions. We are in a crisis as a country. We are marshalling the resources of the State and making decisions that have major impacts in real time.
- Ministerial Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: Over the last six or eight months the decision was made to establish my Department, followed by decisions on the economic management council, bank recapitalisation issues, the comprehensive review of expenditure and the public sector reform agenda, which we will talk about in other questions. I need help as well as the public service help I have, as does every other Cabinet Minister. We...
- Ministerial Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: That is a matter for debate.
- Ministerial Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: We must consider people with the same level of responsibility in the private sector. We have already lost one, who was much better remunerated before he was persuaded to come and work with a Cabinet Minister, to the private sector. He could not stay because he was head-hunted back. We want people of that calibre to work within our public services, to guide us back. I know this jars with...
- Public Service Reform (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: The Cabinet sub-committee on public service reform, which is chaired by the Taoiseach and convened by me, held its first meeting on 13 July and is scheduled to meet again on 26 October. I remind Deputies that my Department was only formally established on 6 July this year. It is envisaged that the Cabinet sub-committee will meet regularly as the reform programme is implemented over the...
- Public Service Reform (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: I have before me in large bold letters a reminder of the confidentiality of these discussions, which are protected under Cabinet privilege. Perhaps I was too expansive when I spoke to the committee about these matters. I assure the Deputy that I am committed to reform. We will undertake more reform in the lifetime of this Government than has happened in a generation. I would like the...
- Public Service Reform (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: The committee is open to all Oireachtas Members.
- Pension Provisions (11 Oct 2011)
Brendan Howlin: Extensive consultations on the proposed single public service pension scheme, which forms the main part of the Bill to which the Deputy refers, have taken place since early 2010 between officials of my Department and public service staff representatives. In particular, my officials have met to discuss the proposed scheme with the ICTU public services committee, which includes representatives...