Results 14,321-14,340 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I circulated a statement which is quite long and I am conscious of time. I do not know whether the Chairman has a view on it. My preference would be not to read the statement but to-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: -----speak on it briefly in order to leave more time for questions. Is that acceptable?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: Most of those in this room have heard me talk about the reform agenda. From the time my Department was established, I have stated that we needed to have an expenditure control Department that also had at its heart a reform agenda. That was agreed in the negotiations on the programme for Government, and hence my Department exists. We have embarked on the programme. We published the plan in...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I am giving notice now. We have a busy work agenda and the committee has had an extremely busy working agenda because it has to deal with my Department and the Department of Finance. We need to have a smooth interaction to ensure the committee can schedule business in a way that is appropriate to the membership. We have made good progress on an ambitious reform agenda. I am mindful that...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I will return to discuss the Supplementary Estimate.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I will have the officials who are dealing with that with me and all my briefing notes.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: When did the Deputy know I should have known earlier?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I would rather deal with it in a structured way when I am accompanied by the officials dealing with it and I have my briefing notes with me.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: It is not the answer. If the Deputy wants to answer his own questions, there is no point in me coming at all.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: The first question was when I knew and the Deputy then said it should have been sooner. He might wait for the answer before coming to a conclusion.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I am in the Oireachtas almost 30 years and it is normal for Supplementary Estimates to be introduced at the end of the financial year. There are never Supplementary Estimates early in the year, as the Deputy will be aware. That is the way the process is structured. If it needs to be structured differently, let us have a debate about that. This has been the way for as long as I have been a...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: The first of the shared services projects is ahead of schedule. We are calling it PeoplePoint. It will be a shared service for Civil Service human resource management and it will be up and running early next year. We are examining other areas that might migrate into that, including pensions. We are also considering whether banking and financial management can be done on a shared basis....
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: We have had this discussion a thousand times with the Deputy. There are cases where a salary of that level is justified. It would be very hard to have consultants of the highest calibre in the hospital system. We are attracting people from the Mayo Clinic or the best hospitals in the United States or Canada who are earning multiples of that. If we were to restrict pay to that level, what...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: May I finish my answer?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: Unless we want to migrate to a system similar to what exists in parts of America with a private health system that people must buy into with limited access for the general public, I do not believe that system would work. That is my judgment on it.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: They are the biggest cohort of people who earn more than €100,000.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I frame my answers as I choose. I have said repeatedly that the biggest cohort of people who earn €100,000 are hospital consultants. I am not minded to destroy the public health system and privatise it as would be implied by the Deputy's question.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: No, it is not the answer. As the Deputy knows-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: Through the Chair-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform Plan: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (22 Nov 2012)
Brendan Howlin: For the third time I will say this. There are people in the public service who earn more than €100,000 and who should earn more than €100,000 if we are to maintain a decent health system that is available to the public. I have said this repeatedly to the Deputy and she knows it but wants to shy away from it. The implication of doping what she wants to do is privatise health...