Results 7,981-8,000 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Yes.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Not administratively, no.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: What about members?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: When I asked public sector workers to make a contribution, I took the view that it was reasonable to ask pensioners to make a contribution as well. Many pensioners have retired-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Am I entitled to speak?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Workers are entitled to their wages by law. Deputy Healy may not have noticed that we went through the worst economic crisis in our history. I asked workers to make a contribution. They made that contribution. I asked pensioners to make a contribution as well. I met them. Obviously, no one wants to forego money. We should remember that many pensioners retired on a pension without any...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: There is only one collective agreement in place, the Public Service Stability Agreement 2013-2018, known in shorthand as the Lansdowne Road agreement which, in turn, is an extension of the Public Service Agreement 2010-2014, which was known as the Haddington Road agreement. The structure of the Haddington Road agreement forms a single collective agreement.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: They were well crafted.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Will the Deputy tell me because I will try to be consistent?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The structure is very simple. There is one Lansdowne Road agreement. It is the document the Deputy has in front of him, a document promulgated by the then Labour Relations Commission, now the Workplace Relations Commission. It is its document that it presented to both sides who have formally endorsed and agreed it. This is not fanciful but, over days, when one has all the key trade union...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I do not know.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: That is true.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Some might involve individual people-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: -----namely, people who have long-standing grievances where one might say, "Listen, you might sort him or her out as this has been going on for a long time."

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: They are not presented to me, so I do not have sight of them.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: We negotiated with the teacher unions the thorny issue of payment for substitution and supervision, which came in relatively recently. When I started teaching, there was no such allowance for supervision. It was part of normal duties but was subsequently introduced as an allowance. There was much controversy surrounding the complete review of allowances conducted by both my own Department...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I am saying that we negotiated with the teacher unions on an issue that had been highlighted both by our own overview of all allowances and payments and by the Committee of Public Accounts that this allowance should not be paid. It was agreed-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: -----under the negotiations for the Haddington Road agreement that we would suspend it for the duration of the Haddington Road agreement and it would be folded back into core pay in two payments over time. That is still what I hope will happen.

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Community Employment Schemes Operation (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The position is that the Department of Social Protection currently allocates a significant level of Exchequer funding to private companies in the community sector who are contracted to deliver the CE Scheme programme. This includes the subsidies which are currently provided towards the pay of CE Supervisors. However the Department of Social Protection is not the employer of CE...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Pensions (10 Nov 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I note the concerns raised in relation to the continued application of the Public Service Pension Reduction (PSPR) to pensions in payment to retired public servants. These concerns have also been articulated by the Alliance of Retired Public Servants and both I and my officials have met with representatives of the Alliance on a regular basis. In response to concerns raised in 2013, I...