Results 13,041-13,060 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Seanad: Sale of State Assets: Statements, Questions and Answers (19 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I will certainly consider Senator Sheahan's convention centre proposal. Needless to say there is money to be paid back in that regard. He also spoke about pensions, a point raised earlier by Senator Byrne which I forgot to answer. Of course the full quantum of money in every case will not be realised because pension and other issues will need to be addressed. However, we will give a full...

Seanad: Sale of State Assets: Statements, Questions and Answers (19 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell rightly assigns the cause of our problems to the banks but I would not be quite so limiting. There was not only incompetent and greedy banks but there was also incompetent and greedy developers and political individuals in cahoots with both. There is enough awful blame to spread around. I refer to the Senator's specific point about manufacturing, which is a...

Seanad: Sale of State Assets: Statements, Questions and Answers (19 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: With regard to Senator D'Arcy's commentary about an amalgamation of clean energy bodies, it is not envisaged that we will set up another State company in the energy sector. The intention is to have one vertically integrated company offering a variety of options in terms of its generating capacity so that it is not dependent on any one component part. If it is a State company, it is...

Seanad: Sale of State Assets: Statements, Questions and Answers (19 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I believe they still go to the Minister for Finance in such instances. I will ask the Minister and inform the Deputy of his reply. Acting Chairman (Senator Paul Coghlan): I thank the Minister and Members. Sitting suspended at 3.25 p.m. and resumed at 3.30 p.m.

Sale of State Assets (24 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: As the House will be aware, the Government decided last week that the new Irish water utility is to be an independent State-owned subsidiary of Bord Gáis Éireann. The new water utility is not and will not be included in the Government's programme of State asset disposals. The Government is committed to keeping it under State control. Bord Gáis Éireann is an excellent example of a...

Sale of State Assets (24 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: No. Let me be crystal clear, the new State company, Irish Water, will, as far as the Government and I are concerned, be a wholly State owned company per omnia saecula saeculorum. This will be enshrined in specific legislation to be introduced. Irish Water will be a State company providing water in an integrated manner across the State. It is wholly different from the sale of the energy...

Sale of State Assets (24 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: The State owns Bord Gáis.

Sale of State Assets (24 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: It does.

Sale of State Assets (24 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I thought earlier that the Deputy was just being inquisitive. I know now he is being mischievous. I will clarify the position again. Irish Water will be set up as a subsidiary of a wholly owned State company, namely, BGE. It will be wholly State owned. It is intended-----

Sale of State Assets (24 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: The State owns BGE and every aspect of it.

Sale of State Assets (24 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy is engaging in tautology. It is the Government's intention that the new Irish Water entity - this will be put in statute law and debated in the House - will be wholly State owned. Parallel to that, as part of the memorandum of understanding, we have looked at what non-strategic assets we could sell off. The Government has come to the conclusion that allowing for greater...

Public Sector Allowances (24 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: As the Deputy is aware from my previous replies, on 5 December last, during my address on the 2012 Expenditure Estimates, I announced that a review of allowances and premium payments would be carried out by my Department. This announcement was made on foot of a Government decision which requires the public service to take additional measures to deliver further efficiencies in 2012 and...

Public Sector Allowances (24 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: The allowances cover an extraordinary range of entities across the public service and relate to many different issues. Some of them could quite reasonably be acknowledged as being part of core payments even though they are called "allowances". The Deputy will recall that last week, we debated a so-called allowance that is payable to a Minister of State. I regard that as a wage. There are...

Public Sector Allowances (24 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: No.

Public Sector Allowances (24 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy has a propensity for reducing both complicated and simple issues to black-and-white responses of "Yes" or "No"; it suits the narrative. I could give the Deputy 800 answers because this is the number of individual allowances, some of which fall into the category of core pay and others of which patently do not. When we have finished the review of over 800 individual allowances, we...

Public Sector Allowances (24 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: That is the point I am trying to make. This is the first review of all the allowances in God knows how many years, if ever. We are reviewing every sector of expenditure for the first time in my Department so we can determine objectively whether shoe allowances or others are proper and fit for purpose in 2012 and in the current economic climate. I will be making a discernment on that and...

Job Creation (24 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: Before this question can be considered, it is necessary to point out that the sort of capital works programme required to create 100,000 new construction jobs in a given year would require a minimum of €10 billion in expenditure on top of existing allocations, and such funding is just not available. While some of this may be recoverable in the form of tax receipts and reduced welfare...

Job Creation (24 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I think the Deputy is supposed to ask a question rather than answer one.

Job Creation (24 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy is quite wrong if she interpreted it as a rejection of the SIPTU line in regard to economic stimulus and not infrastructural spend. Its demand was for economic stimulus. I have met the presidents of SIPTU and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on this matter. Can I say very emphatically that Government policy has three strands? Certainly, we need to have a balanced budget by...

Job Creation (24 Apr 2012)

Brendan Howlin: Do not will us to fail.