Results 15,941-15,960 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: Not in this particular Chamber, but in another.
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: In the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act.
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: The Acts are in the recital of the Bill itself. I wish to deal with the contributions of Senator Norris. I know Senator Norris takes exception to the notion of an emergency, as if an emergency were an event. We have used emergencies in the past. When Dick Spring was Tánaiste he concluded the last Emergency, which lasted from the end of the 1930s. We took emergency powers when there...
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: -----and all of this is true. There is a real and extant emergency and the terms of this are in the preamble and recital to the Bill. It sets out the issues, some of which are that we are still availing of a financial assistance programme. It is my expectation as well as my hope that we will shortly be exiting the financial assistance programme. I do not envisage that these are long-term...
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: I apologise; I meant to touch on that point.
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: I will try to address the issues raised. We can have a philosophical discussion on the aftermath of the economic collapse at another time.
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: I will respond to this extent: it may be suggested that, once the previous Administration signed up to the troika deal, the job was Oxo, but that was only the start of our woes. As to the notion that it did all of the heavy lifting, it enacted-----
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: If charges are being made,-----
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: Let me respond to them.
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: Let me respond to the charges that were made, as it was stated that 60% of the heavy lifting had been done before we entered into office. Yes, the 2011 budget was passed, but it was not implemented. The previous Government passed the most draconian budget known on its way out the door. In advance of the election, the leader of my party stated on national television that we would implement...
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: I believe the Senator did.
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: We are addressing that issue. For the foreseeable future, like all countries, we will be borrowing money and it depends on who loans us the money. In normal market circumstances we borrow the money and simply pay the interest; it would not come with a string of conditions attached that would determine fiscal policy. We want to get rid of that element soon.
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: The reason the 2009 Act had general application was that it was indiscriminate - it simply cut everybody's pay from €0. What I am trying to do is to take a much more nuanced approach. The only pay cut will be that in excess of €65,000. I want to give protection to those who want to register agreements with the Labour Relations Commission in order that we have the flexibility...
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: Sinn Féin has become very middle class.
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: At €150,000, we are all working class, according to the Senator's definition.
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: I will deal with some of the issues raised. The coercive issue raised by Senator Norris and others that if the trade union members do not accept this, the consequence will be worse. Let me be very clear. I believe in the principle of solidarity. If the employer opens the books and says there is a crisis and that he or she wants the workers to make a contribution to solving that crisis, it...
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: It was right and proper-----
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: The problem is that it should not have been a matter of choice for people on that level of pay when it was not a choice for others. It was important that the rule would apply to everybody. I do not think any section of workers can simply decide that the rest of the population can carry the burden and that they are exempt because they say so, with no consequences. That cannot be right. We...
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: There has to be a consequence to it.
- Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (30 May 2013)
Brendan Howlin: It is not my position.