Results 12,021-12,040 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy should get out to Dún Laoghaire more often.

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: On a procedural issue, I ask the Acting Chairman how we are going to deal with questions. Will I answer each question, or will they be grouped? I am anxious that there is real debate.

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: Deputy McConalogue raised this first, followed by Deputies McHugh and McDonald. We have deferred major road projects - that is one of the decisions we made - and the A5 is one of these projects. The political commitment to the A5 remains. Before we made any announcement, I and the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport had a meeting with our Northern Ireland equivalents, the Minister...

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: Cathaoirleach.

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: It is €1.6 billion.

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: I was hoping we could broaden the debate. Anybody can come in here and advocate for projects. I can give the Deputies another list of projects they could add to that. It is great, and they can read about it in the local papers if they want to. We are all advocates for everything. I had hoped that we might move to a different kind of debate - a debate about economic sustainability and...

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: We can have the mantra of Tommy Cooper economics: "Just like that." It will go away "just like that". Tell the bondholders to go away. Tell the ECB we do not need its money. The problem is that we do need its money. There is nobody else funding us. People are not fools; they want realistic debate. They will come to any committee to hear realistic debate. It is not an option, as the...

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: I will deal with Deputy Collins's point on the children's hospital first. Whatever Deputy Collins's view on the merits of the location, that is settled. The Government said it would carry out a review and we brought in an international panel to review it. We can review forever or we can do something and I believe it is time to do something. I disagree with the Deputy's point that the...

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: It is very important. In general terms all Government Departments will have a much more rigorous value for money audit system in place. I look forward to coming before the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service and the Committee of Public Accounts. I have written to the chairmen of both committees this week about the public service reform programme. I am interested in laying...

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: The figure is €750 million.

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: I will be as brief as I can. I am interested in considering and will cost any proposal from the other side of the House. We will give Members the facility to do that - they may already have been invited to do so - in a Chinese wall way, whereby proposals may be costed before they are submitted on the floor of the House. In terms of the capital spend, we are charged with making political...

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: I am pleased to confirm there is. I am a great advocate of regionalism. I support the notion that we must ensure there are access points into the regions. I met with Northern Ireland's finance Minister, Mr. Sammy Wilson, to discuss the matter in advance of our announcement on the A5 project. We will have a bilateral meeting on Friday in advance of the full North-South Ministerial Council...

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: I will address the questions in reverse order. In regard to the national lottery, I will put forward specific proposals. I cannot do so now, because there is a commercial sensitivity about what will be on offer. We have looked at what is done in the best countries in terms of income streams and how it can be best commercialised.

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: That is perhaps a matter for a separate debate, perhaps by way of parliamentary question, in regard to structures and so on. The idea is that we would consider how to get a better commercial take and how to front-load money. We expect the amount of money we can front-load will more than cover the component required for the national children's hospital. It is not notionally linked to it: it...

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: They are indeed, but it is not our money in them. We have recapitalised banks that were owned and we have a shareholding in them, but the volume of investment is not entirely our money and we need to make rational commercial decisions on lending. We are considering mechanisms to leverage additional resources through public-private partnerships. The banks, including AIB and other Irish...

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: I beg the Deputy's pardon. With the Chair's indulgence I might reply.

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: There is no commitment in a quantum of money beyond what is committed, which is the €25 million in 2015 and 2016. We are engaging in a process. While I do not want to break confidences in that regard, the Northern authorities have strong views on the idea of phasing, considering different structures and whether it all needs to be of the standard specified, and we want to hear them.

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: The public capital programme will certainly not be changed this side of the budget. I indicated that in the five-year horizon there may well be changes, but that is something we will debate in the coming years.

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: Additional background information will accompany the budget documentation, including all the CRE information and that will come in the first week of December.

Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)

Brendan Howlin: I have already answered this question twice, but I will do it a third time. The grounding criteria for any particular project rest in the parent Department. I dealt in the generality of the envelope of money. The priorities were presented to me by Ministers and they have voluminous analyses of each project in their Departments, which is where the Deputy should pursue it.