Results 16,541-16,560 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: That was outrageous.

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Deputy Donnelly stayed in Turkey

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: In amendment No. 5, Deputy Donnelly is proposing that one quarter of the members of a committee should constitute a sufficient number to deem a proposal by a committee to have been passed and to cause it to come to the House.

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: It is an extraordinary proposition, if one thinks about it. A quarter of the members of a committee could overrule three quarters and have a motion tabled in the House. I have a number of reservations about this proposal. These inquiries will not be routine matters. They will demand resources and deal with matters of significant substance. Most of us believe there should at least be a...

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I am not familiar with the Bundestag. I do not know how it works. However, this is an extraordinary proposition. Whatever about majoritarianism, a dictatorship of the minority would be an interesting concept to debate. There are issues in respect of which a minority should be able to trigger actions and I am not ruling that out in all instances. In amendments Nos. 6 and 7, Deputy...

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: -----but the House's rules cannot overturn the Constitution itself] shall be determined by a majority of the votes of the members present and voting other than the Chairman or presiding member." The Constitution is clear that a majority of Deputies are needed to pass a resolution of the House. A quarter of the Members of the House overruling three quarters would be an extraordinary...

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: This is how it works. Parliament needs it. Consider what this Parliament has needed to do in recent years. The notion that every difficult budgetary decision could be a free vote, the pressure on everybody-----

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: May I speak as freely as I allowed the Deputy to speak?

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I thank the Deputy.

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I do not think I interrupted the Deputy, but maybe I did. If so, I apologise. The Deputy did not say that there should be a Whip on everything.

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: A Whip on conscience? I have to determine if child benefit is a conscience issue or only a sectionally-related issue of conscience. We are in a very difficult area if we are going to say to people that they should determine what is a matter of conscience, and that takes it outside the norms of politics. We all have consciences. I did not get the opportunity to speak in the debate but I...

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I find the notion that they are Independents in a group to be perverse. I do not expect a Technical Group to have a consensus because they are all, by definition, independent.

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Independent of each other, I think, which is fine. We need to ensure that we have effectiveness in parliamentary decision-making. By definition, politics is the art of compromise and we compromise on many matters. I do not accept Deputy Pringle's commentary about show trials. If we look at every issue that has been inquired into in this House - in so far as we could do so before the...

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: No conclusions were come to.

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Absolutely, but this legislation has flowed from events since then, when we had an instruction to shape what should happen. There is a slightly precious view that somehow the Opposition is pure and less base or politic than the Government side. By that definition, therefore, the minority should be able to overturn the view of the majority. That is something I just do not accept.

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: We will have this debate again. Grand-standing happens. We had a debate which took up time this morning on guillotining this Bill, although we had open-ended discussion on Second and Committee Stages without a guillotine. There is no new substance in this.

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: No new issues that we have not already skirted around. That is part of the political process and I perfectly understand that. In essence, Deputy Donnelly is saying that if there is no public clamour for it and if there is no majority for it in the Dáil, it should happen anyway because he knows, or a minority knows, or some people who are clearly superior to the mass-----

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: -----determine that this is important. They think they have the right to play a golden card that overturns the majority in Parliament. I do not accept that, however.

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 201: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Deputy Fleming is right. We had a comprehensive debate on these matters on Committee Stage. I do not disagree with the argument that we should always be pushing out the boundaries of scrutiny to ensure that we can take full account in this House and make officers of the State, particularly the Executive, amenable to Dáil oversight. As I previously stated, non-voted expenditure...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 201: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Correct.