Results 9,101-9,120 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I genuinely and warmly thank the Senator for both the amendment and his contribution. It made me think again about the Bill. It is certainly is not and never was my intention that matters which are basically an essential part of whistleblowing would be or could be relevant matters to be registered under this Bill. That is my understanding of the situation in the Bill. Having reread...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: One of the concerns expressed very strongly by Deputies in the other House and by almost all of the stakeholders we dealt with, was that there should be clarity around who is in and who is out, that is, who is covered by this legislation. That is what I sought to do and that is why we fixed on an organisation with ten employees or more, lest there be any confusion about it. I wanted to...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The amendment is not needed because they are not included.

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The exceptions are international organisations, as defined in section 7 by reference to section 186B of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act of 2005. I am sorry to send the Senator to that particular Act, which seems like an odd place to look for a definition of international organisation. In that definition, which is captured in this legislation, the exempted organisations would be the...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: As the Senator is aware, I brought in a completely new arrangement for appointments to State boards. The Government approved this at the end of last year. Serendipitously, this morning I launched the new process in the Public Appointments Service and the stateboards.iewebsite was formally launched. Virtually everyone involved was gathered at the launch. There were a couple of hundred...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I will deal with the basics first. In the design structure of this legislation, people who are characterised as lobbyists, which is set out in the Bill in the definition of a lobbyist, are required to register when engaged in lobbying. This is the general architecture of the Bill. On State board appointments, there is a new State boards appointments system in place since the end of last...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I apologise for not going through all of amendments. The scope of amendments Nos. 2 to 14 is wide in seeking to bring all communications within these bodies within the scope of what constitutes lobbying activities in the definition. This is a much broader approach than applies to other public bodies within the scope of the Bill. I understand why the Senator is speaking on this, which is to...

Seanad: Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I have put in place a protocol in relation to companies that are in my purview. The company mentioned by Senator Byrne is not one of those companies. For a variety of reasons, it is one of the few companies in which I do not have a shareholding. I have a shareholding in the Dublin Airport Authority. The shareholding in the case mentioned by the Senator is vested in the Ministers for...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Staff Recruitment (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: All Civil Servants are eligible to apply for competitions to fill vacancies in Civil Service grades through open competition or through confined interdepartmental competition, subject to satisfying the relevant eligibility criteria. Eligibility for Departmental competitions is a matter for the Department concerned, subject to compliance with legal and other requirements...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: EU Directives (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: On 28 March, 2014, the European Commission published three new Directives as a collective reform of the existing EU regime for public procurement under the existing provisions of Directive 2004/17/EU - coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors and Directive 2004/18/EU - on the coordination of procedures for the...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Staff Data (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: In response to the Deputy's question I can confirm that there are currently no civil servants in my Department, or those under my aegis, working in Portlaoise, County Laois.

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Disability Act Employment Targets (5 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The 3 per cent target for the employment of people with disabilities in the Public Service is set out in the Disability Act 2005 and remains in place. My Department reports to the National Disability Authority on compliance with this target for Government Departments and Offices staffed mainly by civil servants.  In 2013 those organisations employed 3.9% people reported to...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Pension Provisions (4 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2013, the current 'grace period' is due to expire at the end of June 2015. This remains the position. As the deputy will be aware, the effect of the 'grace period' is that persons who retire during it have their gross superannuation benefits calculated on the basis of the pre-pay cut pay rates, which were reduced on July...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Government Expenditure (4 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Further to its responsibility in relation to the allocation and overall management of voted expenditure, including the Exchequer capital programme, my Department has data in relation to all voted capital allocations for, and capital expenditure by each Vote within Central Government. The data is available at Vote, programme and subhead level. This data is regularly published by my...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Reform Implementation (3 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Establishing an Accountability Board for the Civil Service for the first time is one of the priority actions in the Civil Service Renewal Plan and work is at an advanced stage to progress this priority, set out the criteria for membership and establish the Board.  The Board will be chaired by the Taoiseach and balanced with ministerial, civil service and external...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Expenditure (3 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 288 to 290, inclusive, together. As the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform only came into being in March 2011 there were no expenditure costs incurred before this time.

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Remit (3 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: Section 1(3)(b) of the FOI Act 2014 provides that in respect of a body that was not subject to FOI under the 1997 Act but is subject to FOI under the new Act, the Act will come into operation 6 months following enactment or on such later date, not later than 12 months from enactment, as the Minister may by order appoint .  The FOI Bill was enacted on 14 October 2014.  The...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Procurement Contracts Social Clauses (3 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: As the Deputy is aware, a pilot social clause has been included in the three devolved schools bundles which are being administered by the NDFA on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills. In summary the pilot clause requires that: At least 10% of those working on the sites being drawn from the live register and having been unemployed for more than 12 months; and At least 2.5% of...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Funding (3 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 294 to 296, inclusive, together. There are in excess of 12,000 non-profit entities, which receive more than €4.4 billion annually in government funding. In line with the Public Sector Reform Plan 2014 2016 my Department is progressing solutions to design and deliver complete data on the funding received by the not-for-profit sector. The...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Staff Recruitment (3 Feb 2015)

Brendan Howlin: The Public Appointments Service (PAS) is the centralised recruiter for the Civil and Public Service. Recruitment competitions conducted by the PAS cover a broad range of areas including, professional/ technical; clerical/ administrative; senior management/ executive, etc.  Recruitment competitions conducted by the PAS are advertised on . By logging on to this website, individuals can...