Results 10,821-10,840 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: It is my area, inasmuch as it is part of the reform agenda published in 2011.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Okay.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: The merging of all of the labour rights bodies to make them more efficient.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Yes.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: It is important to say there is no class of information that is excluded because of its unique status. It is just that the range of persons who can receive the complaint is narrowed for that very small class.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Yes - full protection.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: The disclosure recipient, yes.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: If it is properly investigated, it probably would.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: That is correct.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 18: In page 18, between lines 13 and 14, to insert the following:“Amendments of Garda Síochána Act 2005 19.(1) The Garda Síochána Act 2005 is amended—(a) by inserting the following section after section 102:“Protected disclosures relating to the Garda Síochána 102A.(1) If the Ombudsman Commission is prescribed under...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Yes; I will do that for Report Stage.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: No, because it is very important. If I withdrew the amendment, then the status quowould prevail and, we would be back to the confidential recipient and all that malarkey.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I am going to make the amendment now. If I can, I will refine it later.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Then we will vote.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: It is very important that we signal what is the case with regard to GSOC, and we do not want any ambivalence about that.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: It will be because of a formal Government decision. I am telling the committee formally, on behalf of the Government, that it will be. Unless the Deputies are going to accuse me of bad faith, that is what I am telling them.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I am going to put the amendment now and I am going to get advice to see-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Yes.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Again, I appreciate the intent behind the Deputy's amendment. As she rightly said, these are matters normally dealt with by my Department on an administrative basis. The Deputy can be sure we will be keeping a watching brief on this as it is one of our flagship pieces of legislation. However, I do not want to take this prescription. I was thinking in terms of amending the normal public...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I am not going to take the prescriptive 12-monthly reporting in the way it is laid out in the amendment. I would look for a way to ensure that, for example, the information the Deputy requested from the former Garda Commissioner would be in the public domain in any event. We should know how many disclosures or usages of the legislation happened in each public body. I will see if I can find...