Results 8,161-8,180 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Living Wage (7 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: In response to the Deputy's question I can confirm that my Department adheres to all appropriate current wage legislation and considers Protection of Employees on Transfer of Undertakings (TUPE) Regulations information and the guidelines in relation to wages from the Joint Labour Committees with regard to dealings with suppliers or service contractors. With regard to...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Staff Data (7 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Detailed, spreadsheet information on the number of Civil Servants on a county-by-county basis is being provided to the Deputy under separate cover.  These numbers are recorded on a full-time equivalent basis, and the figures reflect the position at end June 2015.  Information on the number of Civil and Public Servants in each State office or body under the aegis...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Staff Redeployment (7 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: In response to the Deputy's question the following table shows the number of staff under the remit of my Department that have applied to be transferred to Department or State Agency offices located outside the Dublin region. Department/State Agency No. of Staff Department of Public Expenditure and Reform 3 Valuation Office 1 Institute of Public Administration 0 State Laboratory 0...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Political Funding (7 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I presume that the Deputy is referring to the Parliamentary Activities Allowance (formerly known as the Party Leaders Allowance). Provision for the allowance is made under the Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices Act 1938 as amended, most recently by the Oireachtas (Ministerial and  Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Act 2014. The allowance is paid to the parliamentary leader of a...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Revenue Commissioners Resources (6 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Revenue Commissioners and my Department are engaged in ongoing discussions in regard to the Commissioners' own resource requirements for 2016 and subsequent years. These discussions are taking place in the context of the finalisation by the Government of the Estimates for Public Services 2016.

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Pension Provisions (6 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: In general, all civil servants are members of a superannuation Main Scheme, and a large proportion are also members of an associated Spouses' and Children's Pension Scheme.  The Main Scheme covers pension entitlements (where eligible) for the member only; the Spouses' and Children's Pension Scheme covers entitlements for the spouse and children of a member. As schemes were...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Procurement Contracts (6 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Tender Advisory Service (TAS) was launched on 1st February 2015 to provide an informal outlet for potential suppliers to raise concerns in relation to a particular live tender process.The service is aimed at improving communications with suppliers and increasing professionalism and consistency in the way procurement processes are carried out across the public service. To date, 23...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Expenditure (6 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The estimated overall additional cost of implementing the Lansdowne Road Agreement to the public service paybill (inclusive of the previously committed costs attributable to the Haddington Road Agreement) in each year of the Agreement is €267m in 2016, €290m in 2017, and €287m in 2018.  Of the total accumulated cost €278m is attributable to the...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Staff Data (6 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: In answer to the Deputy's question I can confirm that there are no supernumerary positions in my Department.  The position with regard to the agencies, organisations or bodies funded by my Department is that with the exception of the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) there are no supernumerary positions. The SEUPB currently has 1.6 full-time equivalent (FTE)...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Infrastructure and Capital Investment Programme (6 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Capital envelopes were announced in Budget 2015 as part the Multi-annual capital investment framework 2015 to 2017 of €3.62bn, €3.68bn and €3.79bn respectively.# However, on Tuesday 29th September, I published "Building on Recovery: Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2016-2021".A copy of this document which includes Departmental allocations is available on...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Expenditure (6 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: There is a comprehensive set of data published each year in the Revised Estimates for Public Services detailing the running costs of Votes.  The information the Deputy is seeking is contained in Appendix 5 and 6 of the publications.  The Deputy may also be interested to know that my Department publishes a wide ranging set of data on voted expenditure which is available at...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Staff Remuneration (6 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The table below provides the information requested and I can confirm that all salaries are in line with Government pay policy. Grade Number Secretary General 1 Assistant Secretary 5 Chief Medical Officer 1 Occupational Physician 1 Director 2 Chief Procurement Officer 1 Chief Executive Officer NSSO 1 Director of Sourcing OGP 1 Chief Information Officer 1 Special Adviser 1

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Budget 2016 (6 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Spring Economic Statement (SES) and the corresponding Stability Programme Update (SPU) outlined that fiscal space of the order of €1.2 to €1.5 billion is expected to be available for Budget 2016 split evenly between expenditure increases and tax reductions. This would allow Government to target an increase in government expenditure of between €600m and...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Staff (6 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: As much as in any organisation, it is important to seek to ensure that the demographic profile of staff working in the public sector is appropriately balanced.  Unfortunately, the severe restrictions it has been necessary to apply to recruitment into the civil and public service on account of the impact of the  economic and budgetary crisis,...

Other Questions: Departmental Expenditure (1 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Reformed procurement activities have saved approximately €100 million over the past two years. In the embryonic stage of the OGP we have saved €100 million in direct savings and an additional €16.5 million in utility savings. This is before we really get operational to invigilate a proper professional procurement regime. The Deputy asked about service level...

Other Questions: Government Expenditure (1 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The economic crisis obviously had a profound impact on the public finances. Nobody in this House would deny that. The fiscal adjustment implemented in order that Ireland could successfully exit the troika programme and return sustainability to our public finances required expenditure reductions. Gross voted expenditure was reduced from its peak of just over €63 billion in 2009, when...

Other Questions: Government Expenditure (1 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The proportion of expenditure versus tax reduction will be debated in the course of the general election campaign next year.

Other Questions: Government Expenditure (1 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: In terms of the public sector spend, I frequently read different takes on what we actually spend and very peculiar analyses and comparisons being made. A very interesting article published by Seamus Coffey, the UCC economist, indicates that across all countries health, education and social protection for families and working-age population represent the biggest chunk of expenditure normally....

Other Questions: Government Expenditure (1 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: That is what I am saying.

Other Questions: Government Expenditure (1 Oct 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The problem about quoting statistics and facts is that we all have facts to support our argument. However, there is objective fact: there must be some objective truth in all of this. In truth, I am reading from a UCC economist who has analysed the figures. He indicated that measuring as a percentage of GDP is problematic for Ireland because of the operation of multinational companies....