Results 14,061-14,080 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: I would have to see the specific figures to provide a full answer. As I explained in my opening statement, the pensions Vote is included in these figures. The pensions Vote is not an exact science because we have yet to determine the number of people who will retire. We make provision on a guesstimate because everyone in the public service over the age of 60 is entitled to retire and we...

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 comparing two separate projections. I have not yet settled next year’s Estimate. These are indicative figures. The Deputy is asking why there is a difference between the figure projected last year and the one projected this year.

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 cannot specifically account for €88 million but they are of the nature of the aforementioned matters.

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: Of course. I am trying to be as accurate as I can in giving the Deputy the outline of the figures. We are close enough to settling the figures for next year and I will provide them. The idea of this discussion is for the Deputy to make suggestions about reductions or about where we should target spending to make bigger reductions elsewhere, because that is the kind of Department we are,...

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 making projections, particularly in regard to superannuation, and we are allocating them. With regard to the shared services issue, we are accelerating this project because we are bringing more than the human resource element into it next year and, therefore, expenditure will be greater than we anticipated on it. It would give clarity to do the exercise the Deputy asked for but 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: Because one needs to have baseline figures to give an indicative view.

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 reading from a document I do not have.

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 goes through each heading, we have to find €19 million.

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 have estimated what individual offices will seek for next year. We have laid out what is the framework now but this is not a finished Estimate. It is an indicative Estimate for us to examine. I will go through its components. Table 2, public expenditure and sectoral policy, comprises almost €21 million. The individual parts comprise pay, appropriations-in-aid from the ESRI 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: That is correct. It is just over €2 million.

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: To live within the CRE, €2 million needs to be found, but I have not proposed to make additional cuts to find that. That is part of the discussion we are having now. Has the Deputy suggestions, for example? The idea is that to live within the CRE, I must make this sort of saving.

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 said in my opening contribution that what I have suggested in savings justifies replicating last year's Estimate and not making the CRE saving. The debate is supposed to be about whether that is wise policy.

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 said in my opening contribution that I believe, in what I have outlined in the measures, that the individual expenditure policy issues justify holding my Vote at 2012 levels and not increasing it. If I was to live within the expenditure ceiling in the CRE, I should reduce expenditure by €2.3 million, as the Deputy rightly said. We have not come to a conclusion on that and the idea...

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 wrote to committee Chairmen in January and my idea was this would be a whole-of-year process and not something that would take place on the eve of the budget. That would have meant that the committee, for example, would have met the Ombudsman, considered her budget, checked staffing, efficiencies, back office supports and so on, or considered the budgets for the Public Appointments Service...

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 agree with that.

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 do not want to be critical of the committee.

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 process is new, as is the idea of the multi-annual framework budget. We will put that on a legislative basis for the first time in this session. Having a CRE to examine all policy options and publishing them is new. I am not surprised, therefore, it has not been fully embraced in its first year of operation. However, I would hope that next year it will happen early enough. This is a...

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 problem is that I have to make the decisions.

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: That is just not true.

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 increments value is €170 million. I have given the Deputy that figure. However, the pension deduction alone is €950 million. The pay cut would have also been €1 billion. That is almost €2 billion between those two elements set against €170 million in increments so the Deputy's figures just do not add up.