Results 18,781-18,800 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Recruitment (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: As I have previously stated, there is no embargo on recruitment to the public service.  To safeguard front line and priority services, the Government has allowed for critical posts to be filled throughout the period of consolidation of our public finances, as the Deputy well knows. In addition to this ongoing recruitment, special provision was made in last...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Recruitment (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: We have 287,000 public servants and it is a bit disingenuous to mention three in the scale of what we need to do. As the Deputy is aware - I accept it is not politically acceptable to him - the whole focus of what we have to do is balance our budget in order that we can afford to maintain public services into the future. The Deputy is against a reduction in numbers in any sector, even in...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Recruitment (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: It is not only ridiculous but wrong to say public services have ground to a halt. A total of 287,000 public servants are working very hard to provide a very fine public service to people. Of course there are pressures, because we are in a situation where we have downsized and where we have to reduce expenditure as we do not have the capacity to spend. We cannot spend money we do not have....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget 2014 (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: The Government decided on departmental allocations for 2014 in the budget which I announced on 15 October 2013. The full details of these allocations were set out in the Revised Estimates for public services published on 18 December 2013 and approved by the Dáil on Thursday, 30 January 2014. Ministers and their Departments are responsible for ensuring that their Vote-level allocations...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget 2014 (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy had better make up his mind. One day he accuses us of following the Fianna Fáil programme to the letter and states we should not get any credit for it because it is all Fianna Fáil's doing while the next he is saying it is a programme Fianna Fáil wants to completely disown and it has nothing to do with it. In truth, it is neither. We renegotiated the programme...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget 2014 (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy cannot will the ends and deny the Government the means.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget 2014 (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: It said no such thing.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget 2014 (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: While the Deputy would like to rewrite history, had the Government implemented the programme that Fianna Fáil agreed with the troika, as part of the previous Administration the Deputy personally would be spending €1.5 billion less on social welfare this year. One can work out what that would mean for pensioners, for those dependent on social welfare provision and for the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Haddington Road Agreement Negotiations (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: To achieve the general Government deficit target of below 3% of GDP by 2015, all components of the public finances must make a contribution. I have acknowledged repeatedly that public servants have made a significant contribution to the fiscal recovery of the State through a number of measures which have helped to reduce the public service gross pay bill from its peak of €17.5 billion...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Haddington Road Agreement Negotiations (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy has quoted from the Haddington Road agreement. It is my intention as I faithfully negotiated it with all trade unions. It was the first time that every public service trade union voted for an agreement because people were seized of the necessity to save the country at that stage. The structure of the Haddington Road agreement is to require pay reductions from those who best are...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Haddington Road Agreement Negotiations (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I have a good memory and I recall. Unlike some members of the Deputy's party opposite, I have a very good memory of everything in which I was involved in the past. I remember the day of the Haddington Road agreement. I remember the Deputy opposite standing on the plinth decrying the agreement, sight unseen. It had not yet been published and the Deputy was against it because that is the...

Other Questions: State Properties (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 and 15 together. The Office of Public Works, OPW, on behalf of the State, manages a large and diverse property portfolio which ranges from office accommodation to heritage properties, visitor centres and Garda stations, among others. There are a number of vacant properties within this portfolio. The majority of vacant properties are recently closed Garda...

Other Questions: State Properties (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I largely agree with what the Deputy has said. There is not a huge array of available properties or properties suitable for housing in the Office of Public Works, OPW, however. I will send the Deputy a detailed letter on this because I will not be able to give her all the information now. There are 440 properties in the OPW property portfolio deemed habitable, the majority of which are...

Other Questions: State Properties (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Again, I strongly agree with the Deputy that we have a real supply issue which is manifested by increasing rents in Dublin which are pushing people, including those dependent on rent subsidy, out of the market in Dublin and surrounding areas. There is a lesser impact in our own county, Wexford, as of yet. It is an issue we have to address. How do we address the supply issue? I have not...

Other Questions: State Properties (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: There are two discrete and separate issues. One is dealing with homelessness, and we have a strategy to do that over the next three years. Then there is the normal housing situation, which is also now an acute problem that we need to address separately. They overlap but they are two separate issues. I agree with what has been said about Part V. I have heard first-hand testimony from...

Other Questions: Public Service Reform Plan Update (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: This Government has had to address a challenging fiscal situation. Since its peak in 2009, gross voted expenditure has been reduced by 13.5%, from €63.1 billion in 2009 to €54.6 billion last year, with a further reduction budgeted for this year. As part of this consolidation, the public service Exchequer pay bill has been reduced by approximately 22%, from...

Other Questions: Public Service Reform Plan Update (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I agree with the Deputy. We have had this discussion with regard to regional disparity and it is a fact, but it is not possible to resolve that overnight. If, for historic reasons, there are different structural bases for local authorities and the way they approach staff development has been quite different over the decades, it will not be undone overnight. One of the key issues is...

Other Questions: Public Service Reform Plan Update (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Each Department has what we call an ECF or employment control framework. They can deploy or make an application to my Department for sanction for how that overall framework meets the demands as they perceive them at service delivery level. Therefore, local authorities would make representations to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, which would look at how the...

Other Questions: Public Service Reform Plan Update (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: None of this will be optimally delivered until we emerge from the crisis and are able to start investing again in objective need. We have a much better profile of where and how services are delivered. Have I got 30 seconds?

Other Questions: Public Service Reform Plan Update (4 Jun 2014)

Brendan Howlin: The clock is wrong.