Results 16,281-16,300 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: It would be strange if I were confident that one single bidder would possibly give us the price. The Deputy can be certain that there clearly is competitive bidding. That is the advice I have been given. To put it bluntly, I have gone to extraordinary lengths to stay away from knowledge of who is bidding, the number of bidders or the prices they are bidding at. I will leave that to a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: There is certainly more than one.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Yes; there is competitive bidding.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Obviously the company is in discussion with its own unions. Those particular State companies have very elaborate industrial relations machinery, and the discussions are ongoing. I am not party to them. I suggest the Deputy talk to the companies directly or to the line Ministers in order to find out the specific details.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Other than to know that workers' interests are fully comprehended in the process.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I will accept the good wishes of Deputy Boyd Barrett on the Government decision. He is correct that we are a listening Government. The criteria we set down for the sale of any asset is simple: it must make economic sense. Bluntly, this is not anything ideological. If the sale of these harvesting rights made economic sense I would be recommending a sale to the Government. However, it does...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I am saying that the plan we had for the investment-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: We will be selling Coillte's trees because that is why Coillte grows trees.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: That is what Coillte has always done. However, we are not proceeding with the advance sale of the harvesting rights; that is off the agenda. The Deputy should not confuse the two issues.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I have told the Deputy that the Government decision is not to proceed with the sale of Coillte harvesting rights and that we are embarking on a completely different process, which is to do a complete restructuring of Coillte and explore a merger of Coillte with Bord na Móna in order to establish a new bioenergy company. That is our focus. The NewERA entity will be instructed to explore...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy is deliberately conflating the two issues, but I will try again.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Coillte itself sells future harvesting rights regularly. Is the Deputy asking me to stop that? I will not do that. It has been done for 20 years.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: It was always our intention to retain ownership of the land. We are growing the trees for a purpose and are now embarking on a different strategy. I thought the Deputy might embrace this new strategy and welcome the development of a new bio-energy company and wish it well.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I am sorry to destroy his campaign for the summer.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy takes it as a victory for himself.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: That is a shocking thing to say.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The last person who was capable of looking into his heart and discerning the view of the people was Éamon de Valera. Deputy Boyd Barrett clearly has a similar understanding of the will of the people in a way that the rest of us mere elected representatives do not. He speaks for the people but we are apparently unable to do so. It must be the case that we manifest ourselves into...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I am sorry the Deputy is so annoyed that his summer-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I am sorry the Deputy's summer campaign has been disrupted. We did not make this decision because he was outside with a poster or anything else. The reality is that the criteria I set out on behalf of the Government were not met in this case. We are not proceeding with our initial plan because it does not make economic and strategic sense for the people of Ireland.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: That is a perverse view.