Results 18,341-18,360 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: I heard what the Deputy said on Second Stage and I am not opposed to the principle set by him. He might be able to throw light on this issue. The Oireachtas was traditionally funded in the normal way of voted expenditure, just like everything else. That was changed in 2003 by the Government led by the Deputy's party-----

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: ----- when it introduced the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Act 2003. That legislation determined that the funding of the Oireachtas should come from the Central Fund, not as line voted expenditure on an annual basis. It is now done through legislation and there is usually a three-year envelope of expenditure through a Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (amendment) Bill. The Deputy...

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: No, this is part of general payments made from the Central Fund. I do not want to dislodge it from general fund payments. The next time we deal with Houses of the Oireachtas Commission legislation we can consider whether all of the funding for the Oireachtas should come through the normal way. However, we should not make fish of one and fowl of another in terms of the component parts 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: No, it is incorporated in a Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (amendment) Bill which 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: Yes; obviously, it is voted expenditure. The sum of money is incorporated into the Bill.

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: It is a three-year cycle. We enacted the Bill at the end of last year.

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: Yes.

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 need to make two changes to the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission legislation. One relates to the Ministers and secretaries Act, and that is the appointment of the Clerk of the Dáil. That is currently before the committee. I want to introduce broader legislation and it is something I would consider in that context.

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 come back to this with the other legislation and debate it.

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 applaud Deputy Fleming's ingenuity in getting an entirely and completely extraneous matter embedded in this amendment.

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 notion of pay to special advisers is clearly nothing whatever to do with parliamentary activities and the notion that activities supporting parliamentary parties should be conflated with this is bizarre. Nonetheless, I will deal with the issue, about which I have strong feelings. I have had the privilege of holding a ministerial post in three Departments, all of which were challenging....

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: Yes, and it is a fair point.

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: It is a point I have not reflected on, to be honest, because it is the status quo. The current Ceann Comhairle was elected as a member of the Fine Gael Party and is included in the calculation. He received the office subsequently. The Deputy makes a fair point. Perhaps he would let me reflect on it between now and Report Stage.

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 do not agree with the Deputy. We must have a parliamentary and democratic oversight of this. The Minister should be able to look at and make observations on the guidelines as there might be occasions when the Minister will have something to say about them. For proper democratic oversight, it should come back to an elected person.

Government's Priorities for the Year Ahead: Statements (4 Mar 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Perhaps the finest testament to the progress made by this Government in three years is that the anarchy and chaos that defined the final years of the previous Administration seem like they occurred a long time ago. In three years, the current Government has brought stability in the place of chaos, economic growth in the place of decline, and employment in the place of unemployment. If both...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Tribunals of Inquiry Recommendations (4 Mar 2014)

Brendan Howlin: The second report of the Moriarty Tribunal (March 2011) contains one recommendation (62.15) directly relevant to my area of responsibilities - that office holders should be able to elect voluntarily to have their financial affairs audited by the Standards Commission. This affects the Ethics Acts 1995-2001. Following the publication of the Final Report of the Mahon Tribunal in March 2012, I...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Regulatory and Poverty Impact Assessments (4 Mar 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Regulatory impact analysis (RIA) is a tool used by Departments to assess the costs, benefits and qualitative impacts of regulatory proposals. The use of RIAs has been mandatory in relation to proposals for primary legislation as well as significant secondary legislation and EU regulations since 2005. Individual Departments have responsibility for conducting and preparing RIAs. The...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Pensions Issues (4 Mar 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Subsection (1)(b)(ii) of section 9 of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2013, enables me, as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, to extend the "grace period" during which pension awards to persons who retire from public service jobs are calculated without regard, in particular, to the pay reductions applied under that Act.  This period is...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Procurement Contracts (4 Mar 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Under EU rules on public procurement public works, supplies and service contracts above certain thresholds must be advertised on the Official Journal of the EU and awarded on the basis of objective and non-restrictive criteria. The aim of these rules is to promote an open, competitive and non-discriminatory public procurement regime which delivers best value for money. It would be a breach of...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Procurement Contracts (4 Mar 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I should point out that contracts for banking and legal advice services are not subject to the full scope of EU Public Procurement Directives. Therefore contracting authorities have some flexibility in conducting the appropriate competitive tendering process. For example, they are not tied to the prescribed tendering procedures or timeframes for submission of tenders or expressions of...