Results 13,841-13,860 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I am taken by the Deputy's series of questions and his interest in having detail. He will find that everything we do will be spelled out in detail. To be clear, there is no scheme at present. I indicated after a Government meeting, because we were asked what was discussed at Government which is a normal occurrence after such a meeting, that I had brought a proposal simply to request every...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I will deal with the last point first in terms of engagement with the process. I had hoped that there would be full engagement with the real challenges that we face as a country and a people. That is why I published the medium-term fiscal horizons for every Department over three years, so that people would know what is required in terms of reductions in expenditure. I also published all of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: That is correct.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: In response to Deputy Fleming's question, it is indeed a matter for Government and not a matter for negotiations. We have set the targets and we are accelerating those targets. We have reduced public service numbers to 2005 levels and it cannot be argued that we had a desperately understaffed public service back then. We need to look at all of the new technologies that are available. More...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Allowances Review (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 2 and 3 together. This Government is committed to securing sustainable reductions in the cost of the public service pay and pensions bill. The aim is to reduce the total cost of the Exchequer pay bill by some €3.8 billion in the period from 2009 to 2015, a large and sustainable fall in the cost of employing people to deliver public services by 2015....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Allowances Review (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: Does the Deputy know how much teachers are paid?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Allowances Review (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: It is not true.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Allowances Review (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: Not for the first time, I am bemused by Deputy McDonald. She is arguing that we did not go far enough while at the same time accusing us of failing to take account of spending power. I do not doubt that we would be having a different dialogue if we had taken the decision to eliminate all the allowances I have identified in the first annexe to the report, which would have taken €4,000...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Allowances Review (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: We have analysed the impact of the spending power of public servants and social welfare recipients on large parts of the economy. These factors are taken into account. This the first time we have drilled down into the composition of pay. I have been honest in acknowledging that it is much more complicated than I first envisaged. Under the pay regime that has built up over decades,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Allowances Review (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I am not sure whether Deputy Mattie McGrath asked a question but I will respond in any event. I do not think he wants to pick on any category of public servant, whether teachers, nurses or gardaí, simply because of the way in which their wages were historically constituted. I do not think any Deputy would have been happy if I had taken that route, other than, perhaps, one or two.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Allowances Review (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I have stated publicly that if I was starting again I would not set out the estimate of €75 million. The genesis of the figure is simple, however. The total for all allowances, including the big chunk that is core pay, is €1.5 billion and 5% of this total is €75 million. I believed we could set out a target of this nature. I did not put it into the budget arithmetic and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Allowances Review (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: From whom does the Deputy want me to take money?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Allowances Review (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I am doing that.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Allowances Review (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: There are a number of questions to deal with. I will deal, first, with the issue of high earners. The Sinn Féin position has always been very clear. It suggests some nebulous rich tax could be imposed that would solve all of our problems, that no general tax need be levied and that there is no need to cut any service. The number of high earners in the public service who earn more...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Allowances Review (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: It is, in fact, less than 6,000.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Allowances Review (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I will give the Deputy the exact figures when we reach that question. She spoke about the targeting of young teachers. I do not have the exact figure, but a young teacher starting off is on a salary of approximately €32,000. In order to not double the impact on teachers whose starting pay is now 10% lower than it was and whose allowance for obtaining a degree has been removed, we...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: On 17 July the Government announced its plans for an additional €2.25 billion investment in public infrastructure projects. The most important contribution capital investment can now make is in providing the capacity for the economy to grow which will, in turn, create employment. The stimulus package included €1.4 billion to fund the proposed new public private partnerships,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: That would be wrong.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: Sometimes I reel at the brass neck of Fianna Fáil. Why are we reducing the capital programme? Why are we reducing expenditure at all? We are doing it because Fianna Fáil ruined us. Under the programme that the previous Government set before we came into office, a deficit of 2.9% had to be reached by 2014. As a result of our negotiations with the troika, that has been pushed...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I saw the Deputy doing politics when he was grandstanding yesterday.