Results 15,381-15,400 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: That is a briefing note not a statement.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: We have had two speeches from the Deputies rather than questions. I made a decision to publish the Estimates, which are based on the implementation of the LRC recommendations, because that is what we hoped to do. We had to have some basis for apportioning the €300 million and I wanted the Estimates out because they had been delayed. There are agencies that need funding and,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy has made two speeches.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy has made two speeches and this is her third.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I am happy to answer all the questions. Both Deputies made speeches.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: It is amazing that they feel they can make long rhetorical speeches but I am not allowed to rebut the inaccuracies they place on the record. Politics is about putting truth to this House. I challenge Deputy Fleming, if he believes his black propaganda, to outline any instance of untruth uttered during the debate by me.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I reiterate my disappointment at the decision of the executive committee of the ICTU not to accept the LRC proposals. However, it is still worth addressing some of the misconceptions that arose in respect of the proposals on work-life balance arrangements in the public service and I thank the Deputy for tabling this question. Work-life balance arrangements in the public service are among...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy has raised two distinct and separate issues. I strongly agree regarding the social contract for the past 30 years, which my party has consistently focused on to develop. The input of people from Brendan Corish to Frank Cluskey to Michael O'Leary and others in the employment area is testament to the contribution my party has made to advancing the terms and conditions of workers,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I propose to address the specifics of this issue because it is important. I have noted and read the equality audit report commissioned by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, which was launched in the middle of the ballot. The work-life balance arrangements in the public sector would have remained among the best available to any worker in the State if the Labour Relations Commission...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Is this a question or a speech?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Generalisations such as the statement the proposals would have completely upset the work-life balance are great. The Deputy referred to work-sharing and I responded. He should give me an example of all the other issues he raises and I will give him a detailed response to show his statements are not correct. As for his claims that the Government or my party is somehow Thatcherite, we are...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Service Staff (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: In October 2012 the Government decided to accelerate the rate of headcount reduction in the public service, agreeing an end-2014 target of 282,500. Reaching this target will require a reduction of some 8,000, or just under 3%, from the serving numbers recorded at the end of 2012. At this point, the public service will be broadly the same size as it was in 2003-04. This planned level of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Service Staff (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: On occasion I have heard the Deputy and members of his party state there are too many administrators in the Health Service Executive. This arose because a superstructure was placed on top of the old health board system when the HSE was established. Most believe there is scope for de-manning in the HSE, which has identified 1,500 positions that could be eliminated. Over-manning has also...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Service Staff (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Does the Deputy intend to ask a question?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Service Staff (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy is on very thin ice altogether if he is seeking to claim credit or responsibility for certain things. He spends most of his time denying that the previous Administration - which ruined our country-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Service Staff (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: -----and handed over to us an economy on the verge of bankruptcy and in the control of the troika - was responsible for anything. If he wants to lay claim on the great successes of that Administration, then the Deputy is skating on very thin ice. The current Government established the Department for Public Expenditure and Reform. In November 2011 we published an entire reform programme...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Sale of State Assets (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I expect that the Bord Gáis Energy sale transaction will be formally launched in the coming weeks and that it will be completed by the end of this year. I further expect that the sale of two of ESB’s overseas assets - at Marchwood in the United Kingdom and Amorbieta in Spain - will also be completed this year.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Sale of State Assets (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy again asked a number of questions and she prefaced them by revisiting past issues and making assertions which are profoundly untrue-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Sale of State Assets (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: -----in respect of my protecting the highest paid. The Deputy knows these things and she plays her particular game. I will deal with the specifics of this matter. If one considers the position objectively, one will realise that the notion that selling the energy division of Bord Gáis is butchering the assets of the State is fanciful. There are two large energy companies in State...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Sale of State Assets (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The first part of the Deputy's question relates to revisionism. I was referring specifically to the domestic market here-----