Results 14,041-14,060 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: The stimulus package is not in the figures in that it is predicated on an external funding source, namely, the sale of State assets plus investment money from external investors including the European Investment Bank. We will explain how that fund is to be structured once we get closer to accruing money. It has been signalled that a number of State assets will go to market next year. I...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: Believe it or not but I would agree with a lot of what Deputy Higgins has just said. There is an element, not only in the media, which wants to divide public sector workers and private sector workers. That is wrong. They are mutually dependent. Everybody in the State is dependent on decent public services when we or our family are sick, when our children go to school and when we want to...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: If one does not allow public services to be paid for, they must be privatised. The Deputy is not campaigning against the private sector bin collectors in the same way as he campaigned against the public ones. He will probably adopt the same approach to water and other services. That is the very strategy that will ensure privatisation. Those of us who are interested in quality public...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: Not in my county.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I have an interest in everything the Deputy has to say.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: What was the second proposal?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: On every €1.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I will pick up on a few of the points, none of which is particularly relevant to my Department but which, none the less, are welcome to be heard. Getting an understanding from our European counterparts has been one of the priorities of the Government from day one. As I told the committee previously, there are three strands to our economic policy. The first, which is the most talked about,...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I know exactly what we need but I am also trying to-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: If I could sign the write-down, as Deputy Mathews will be aware, I and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, would do that tomorrow. The problem is we must convince people. Argument is important and we marshal our argument as best we can and use whatever tools and leverage we have in this regard. We need to make progress on the banking debt, and we have made substantial progress. It...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: It matters little what Ministers say if the Heads of Government unanimously have made a determination to make that link.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: Deputy Mathews and I are on the same page. He knows that this is what we are striving towards.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: We will make progress in the constructive dialogue we have had. We have made substantial progress. We should acknowledge what we have done. In terms of the interest payments, people said we could not get a better deal.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: It might help if I did not look at Deputy Mathews and spoke through the Chair.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: What I am saying is we have made significant progress. From the beginning, in the first meeting I had with the troika in advance of going into Government, we indicated what we needed to achieve. We have progressed much further than I had expected we could in the first 18 months. We have a way to go and I am confident we will move further. The committee may be aware that the German...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: Mr. Trichet has no function anymore.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: Was Deputy Mathews here for-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: We are debating taxation, which is not in my remit. I am not the Minister with responsibility for taxation. I presume Deputy Spring has rehearsed these arguments with the Minister for Finance. I agree with the Deputy that we have asked the people to carry a heavy burden to date. We will have to ask them to carry further burdens but that can only be done on the basis of solidarity and...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: Is that a document which the Deputy generated or is it the one I circulated to members?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: The Deputy is referring to a committee document. It was not generated by my Department. I cannot comment on his figures, therefore.