Results 16,001-16,020 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: No. The Deputy has raised an interesting point and I should have explained it. The process is to find out what is constitutionally permissible. Each of the sections outlines the legal advice, the external legal advice and all the discussion we have had on what is constitutionally permissible in the types of inquiry laid out in the Bill. It is not legally permissible to have a real hybrid...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Separately. It will be the same committee, but it will do one module of work under the relevant section and then the other bits.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: It is a matter for the House, of course, but that is what I had envisaged.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 9: In page 18, subsection (1), line 12, to delete “subsection (6) and”.Amendments Nos. 9 and 11, again, are consequential on the substantial amendment No. 18, the new section on the presidential issue.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 10: In page 18, subsection (4), line 38, to delete “section 7 inquiry” and substitute “section 8 inquiry”.This is a technical amendment to ensure that cross-referencing in the Bill is accurate.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 11: In page 19, lines 1 to 12, to delete subsection (6).

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 12: In page 19, subsection (7), line 14, to delete paragraph (a).In the published Bill, the provisions dealing with an inquiry relating to impeachment of the President are set out in section 8. This group of amendments allows for the creation of a distinct provision in the Bill relating to the impeachment of the President pursuant to Article 12.10 of the Constitution....

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Rather than have-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I think he should be much more at ease because we are not corralling him in with others but are giving him due deference, status and prominence as a standalone entity. The President is elected by the people under our Constitution. That is very important. When I thought about the office of the President, the idea was that other constitutional officeholders that are appointed by the Cabinet,...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy should not be drawing any such awful conclusions about the high office of the President, who should not in any way be adversely referred to.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy makes a very fair point. I have said publicly that there was a reluctance among people to vote to give additional powers to committees. They looked at the way some witnesses had been treated and said, "Hmm, I don't want to give additional powers to the Oireachtas in that regard". When this Bill was published I said there would be some element of proofing, by us, so that as an...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: We will see when we reach section 18 that a Member may not be a committee member where a perception of bias may arise. In section 18, we lay out how that perception might arise by way of utterance or any other relevant circumstance that could give rise to an objective position whereby a person would be biased coming to an inquiry.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: That is not true.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: There were the former Members, Ivor Callely and Raphael Burke, who were members of the party in Government at the given times.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I assure the Deputy that the meat in pursuit is much richer when the pursuit in these matters is of a Government Member than of an Opposition Member.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: To reiterate, every proposal we have is grounded in constitutional provision. Under the Constitution, Members of the House and officeholders are made accountable to the House, so there is a constitutional anchoring for that. The Deputy asked what will stop people from going to the High Court. Thankfully, nothing. Any citizen, in regard to any issue, can go and look for a judicial review,...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: It must be right, then.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: That is extraordinary.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: No.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I find the proposal extraordinary, because to cure the problem of an overweening majority Deputy Donnelly is proposing to have an overweening minority that can overturn the majority view. That is an extraordinary state of affairs. Deputy Donnelly is proposing that one quarter of the members of the committee should constitute a sufficient number to deem a proposal to be proposed by a...