Results 7,841-7,860 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin
- Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Report Stage (18 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: This Bill does not seek to do anything more than implement a negotiated agreement. What I will not do in the context of the restoration of pay and conditions which were negotiated is provide those to people who are not party to the agreement. To do so would be unfair to those who are party to it. In the case of any union not complying with the terms of a negotiated agreement democratically...
- Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Report Stage (18 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: As I indicated on Committee Stage, I have great sympathy for the point made by the Deputy. It always has been the structure of public service pay negotiations that representatives of the pensioners are not involved formally. While this always has been the way, going back as long as one cares to look, I was concerned there was an impact on pensioners to which one should listen. This is why,...
- Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Report Stage (18 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: First, I will deal with the specific points made by the Deputy. For people who have not been involved in discussions on public sector pay, it is an extraordinarily complicated set of negotiations because one has so many unions and so many different agreements. Obviously, one must take a sectoral approach and such an approach has been taken with the key people from, for example, health in...
- Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Report Stage (18 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: We will not be able to find €2.1 billion.
- Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Report Stage (18 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: We did.
- Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Report Stage (18 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: That was clever.
- Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Report Stage (18 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: No. I presume that is what the Deputy is saying, unless he is mouthing-----
- Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Report Stage (18 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: -----the argument to no avail or for the sake of coming in here and saying that some people are saying the emergency is over and, therefore, it must be over. What is the point if he does not agree with that point of view? The Preamble to the Bill sets it out in fairly clear terms. It states, "WHEREAS economic growth has resumed and the State’s international competitiveness has...
- Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Report Stage (18 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: Deputy Fleming’s question is difficult for people to understand and it goes back to my point about the grace period. The pension will be calculated on the basis of the date of retirement. It will be the rate of pay that pertained during the grace period of the person’s retirement. That changed with each new FEMPI Act. The actual reduction in people’s pensions will end...
- Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Report Stage (18 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: We have already negotiated, signed off and debated the Haddington Road agreement. Is the Deputy suggesting ex post facto years later, having implemented it in full and having asked workers to implement it, that we should renege on it? It does not make sense. It would be a breach of trust with the people with whom we negotiated and it is set out in black and white in the Haddington Road...
- Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Report Stage (18 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: That is the import of the amendments.
- Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Report Stage (18 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: It allowed for a grace period.
- Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Report Stage (18 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: The grace period related to the pension.
- Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Report Stage (18 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: On amendments Nos. 2 to 6, inclusive, in the name of Deputy Mary Lou McDonald, amendment No. 2 would, simpliciter, prevent the pay cuts being restored to any public servant earning more than €65,000. The following amendment is a tautology and redundant, because if the cut is not being restored to anybody on over €65,000 it will not be paid to anybody on a salary of over...
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (18 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: We built more schools in the worst of times than they did in the best of times.
- Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Order for Report Stage (18 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: I move: "That Report Stage be taken now."
- Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Report Stage (18 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: There is every danger of it.
- Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (18 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: He had had six ministries by then.
- Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Valuation Office (17 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: The position in relation to the global valuation of public utility undertakings is that the Commissioner of Valuation has recently carried out a further valuation of seven utilities as required by section 53(6) of the Valuation Act 2001, as amended by the Valuation (Amendment) Act 2015. The Commissioner is independent in the exercise of his functions in this regard, by virtue of section...
- Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Budgets (17 Nov 2015)
Brendan Howlin: Discussions are ongoing with the Department of Health regarding the required supplementary estimate for 2015. This will be brought to Government for approval in the coming weeks. This Government has always prioritised spending in the health sector and it is expected that the 2016 allocation will be sufficient to fund the health service next year.