Results 17,161-17,180 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: No, this has gone-----
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: It is absurd. If the Deputy wants to include the commercial semi-States under FOI legislation, it is a recipe to destroy them. It would certainly disadvantage them. That might be an objective some might have, but it is not one to which I subscribe. The Chairman is right, in that we are not discussing what happened 50 years ago when a unique body was set up for a purpose. Most of the...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: This is not "Judge Judy" with me presenting a case to a jury and, in summation, the witness fails to give evidence. The bottom line is I have made a coherent case as to why the commercial semi-State companies should not be spancelled. The Deputy has a different view because he is not a supporter of the commercial semi-State bodies. That is a perfectly legitimate view to hold-----
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: -----but, please, do not come to conclusions on the presentation I have made. It was coherent for anyone who wanted to listen to it.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: Anti-State.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: This debate is becoming enveloped by extraneous matters. I understand there are mass meetings concerning EirGrid and a Seanad debate about that matter tonight. If this was not happening with respect to EirGrid, it would be somebody else with this level of focus. Freedom of information is a very important tool for the citizen and organisations in trying to get access to information. It is...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: It is the total function in EirGrid. It has a contractual relationship with providers. That is what it does, both buying and selling.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: I am saying in the distribution of it. It has a commercial relationship with any electricity generating company that generates capacity on the island. We have a single integrated all-island market and it has a commercial relationship with all the companies operating there.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: The point I made, obviously inadequately, is that freedom of information is not how that should be scrutinised. If EirGrid has proposals, it is required by law to set out those proposals. It is required by the law to produce options, to have a consultation process and to go through the proper planning processes. That is the level of scrutiny.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: The fact that one does not agree with it is not what we are discussing here.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: It is a commercial semi-State body that has commercial relationships, as I explained ad nauseam.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: As I said, it is unique inasmuch as it is in a commercial relationship with companies and in my judgment it would disadvantage them.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: It has a commercial mandate to run an infrastructure-----
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: It is not like the NRA. The NRA builds roads and does not contract the cars onto them-----
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: -----and regulate the cars. When it is done, it is done. However, there will not be a meeting of minds on this.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: I have already restored the application of freedom of information to records held by service providers. What is intended by the amendment is already captured.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: I will go through them seriatim. There is a variety of subsets in the grouping. In respect of the amendment tabled by Deputy Sean Fleming, No. 12, which is grouped with amendments Nos 81 and 83, receivers and administrators, whether appointed by NAMA or by another secured lender, fall outside the definition of a public body as set out in section 6 of the Freedom of Information Bill. The...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: Is it concerned with the Companies Act?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: It is the first time they are being brought in.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: The chief executives did not agree.