Results 2,981-3,000 of 16,537 for speaker:Brian Lenihan Jnr

Anglo Irish Bank. (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: The Deputy has asked a number of questions. To give a context to this debate we should heed what the Governor of the Central Bank had to say. He stated: Let me make it absolutely clear about Anglo. The management have a plan and broadly I think the plan makes a lot of sense. [Note, he said "broadly"]. I think that is the lowest cost solution for the taxpayer and therefore I am backing that.

Anglo Irish Bank. (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: He is talking about its new plan. I take it he has discussions-----

Anglo Irish Bank. (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: I have not seen it.

Anglo Irish Bank. (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: He may not have seen it but let us be clear. The Deputy's first question was whether the Government obtained independent advice about these matters. That is an important question. The Government had retained Rothschilds as independent commercial advisers in all these matters. The Government also has the NTMA to advise it on these matters. The Government established an independent...

Anglo Irish Bank. (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: However, I do accept that a longer-term work out is an option that must be examined. The question raised by the chairman-designate of the bank in regard to the possibility of exposure to the taxpayer being further reduced by carving a good bank, from which further profit can be made, out of the loan book of the bank will also have to be examined.

Anglo Irish Bank. (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: On the resolution legislation, work on it is under way in my Department. It is complex legislation. The United Kingdom succeeded in drawing up legislation but, in many respects, the implications of it have been found to be unsatisfactory. Other jurisdictions which have attempted to formulate such legislation have failed to date to do so. I am engaged in this operation, as are my...

Public Service Reform. (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: As the Deputy will be aware, senior managers in the public service are already subject to a wide range of accountability measures. Public servants are accountable to the Oireachtas through their appearances before joint committees and the Committee of Public Accounts. They are also subject to scrutiny by the Comptroller and Auditor General and to wider scrutiny through the operation of the...

Public Service Reform. (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: Deputy Bruton has ranged far and wide in terms of the questions he asked. In response to his final question, I did read the articles on the performance of my Department. The senior officials of my Department have in recent years worked extremely hard and diligently in difficult circumstances. That has been my personal direct experience of the Department. I am sure Deputies Bruton and...

Public Service Reform. (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: A number of Departments take the view that a person employed therein as an accountant should act as an accountant, a person designated an economist should act as an economist and a lawyer should act as lawyer. In my view, these skills should be more widely defused throughout the public service in the general grades as distinct from the specialised grades. This matter is under examination in...

Public Service Reform. (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: While agreeing with the general direction of what Deputy Burton suggested, there is a high level of economic expertise within the Department of Finance and a broad range of qualifications throughout the general grades as well as in any technical positions the Department may have.

Public Service Reform. (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: This was gone through in a previous parliamentary question. There is a substantial amount of qualified economic expertise in the Department.

Public Service Reform. (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: No, but I accepted that. I was simply making a correction to what the Deputy stated for the record because it was dealt with previously in a parliamentary question. I refer to the question of the impact of the limited industrial action. This has had an impact on the flow of information from the HSE because the industrial action has taken place at a very high level within the service,...

Public Service Reform. (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: I take the view that in respect of the HSE, education, the Prison Service, the Garda Síochána or the Defence Forces, line Departments are responsible for the implementation of the public service reform agenda whereas my Department is responsible for public service change in the line Departments, including that which the Deputy compared to a certain west African State.

Public Service Reform. (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: He made the comparison in a former incarnation, but I accept the point. That is the focus of my Department and myself. The quality of decision making and performance can be enhanced and improved from top to bottom in that organisation. This is one of the reasons the Croke Park agreement is so important.

Public Service Reform. (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: When I refer to acting on advice I do not do so to justify my decision. I arrive at decisions as a Minister. When I refer to advice I do so to rebut any suggestion of corruption, impropriety or listening to wrong representations.

Public Service Reform. (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: These allegations have been flung around the House.

Public Service Reform. (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: No. I have no wish to go there but they must be rebutted at every opportunity. I refer to the question of publishing advice. I made the point that the Minister is politically responsible for decisions and the Minister must take political responsibility in this House for decisions. Civil servants advise on these decisions but Ministers make them. I do not believe the endless publication of...

Personal Debt (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: The renewed programme for Government sets out the Government's commitments to introduce new measures to protect families having difficulties with their mortgage repayments and personal indebtedness under the headings Protecting the Family Home and Helping Those in Debt. In February of this year, I informed the Government of my proposals regarding expanding the membership of the...

Personal Debt (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: The Deputy's questions betrays a misunderstanding about NAMA which I had hoped would have been cleared up by now, given Mr. McDonagh's recent presentation to the committee. When someone goes into NAMA, they continue to owe all the money, not part of it. If they are not prepared to pay the money, their assets are taken. This is what NAMA does. If the assets are unviable, apparently they...

Personal Debt (28 Apr 2010)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: Realistic measures to ease the burden of the very group mentioned by the Deputy will be proposed by the commission that has been established to examine this issue. I took my first step in that direction in this year's Finance Act, when I ensured that mortgage interest relief was continued for this group beyond the seven-year period. Representatives of the Irish Banking Federation are on the...