Results 18,301-18,320 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: Please. Everyone and everything else must go back to the first base because regardless of whether it was 1938 or 1998, a new dawning means there is a new insight and that one is a lesser mortal if one does not see it through the same prism.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: I wish to respond with an open debate and we can spend as long as we like at it. I suggest to Deputy Mathews and colleagues that the net issue in this simple legislation is to reduce the funding to the party leaders, as was the parliamentary activities allowance, by a factor of 10%. It is analogous to the reductions the Government has made across other areas of public expenditure.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: I know. There is only one way to think, Deputy Mathews's way or no way.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: Please. Can the Deputy not even allow me to speak?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: Deputy Donnelly can have his own view separately.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: I will speak to the three broad-ranging contributions, two of which concerned the Electoral Acts that are not before the select committee at all and I will respond as I can. Following strong contributions that were made during the Second Stage debate, I am familiar with the views of members of the select committee. However, I also am entitled to a view and to have it heard, even if it is...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: Members are discussing tax compliance on this particular amendment but-----
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: -----we can have a general debate about the spending of the money.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: I am happy to answer that question as far as I can. Yes, I am satisfied that the moneys allocated to the parliamentary activities allowance to be, that is, the party leader's allowance up to now, can only be expended for the specific purposes designated in the Act and they are set out in the Act. As to whether other funds that are generated elsewhere can be used for the same type of...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: I am saying it is accounted for separately. The funding that is provided must be accounted for in accordance with this Act.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: If Deputy Terence Flanagan wants my personal opinion, all parties should have audited accounts, but that is a matter for the Electoral Act.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: I will reflect further, as I promised.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: I was suspicious of that.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: For example, Sean Fleming, Fianna Fáil.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: That is what happens in my constituency.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: We have had hours of debate on this issue in both Houses. There were long presentations on Second Stage. As I stated, I fully respect the point of view of every Member who feels that the allowance should be portable, that it should not be determined in the immediate aftermath of the election and apportioned out to support the parliamentary activities as determined by the electorate at a...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: The norm is that I do not reply to every point as it is made.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: I did not describe the Deputy as shameful. He has just described me as such and it is a disgrace.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: The Deputy should use his own language-----
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2014)
Brendan Howlin: The Deputy is not.