Results 11,301-11,320 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Recruitment (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I wish that as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform I had Norwegian oil. We could then have extraordinarily good public platforms. Norway has the biggest reserves of money of any country in Europe. In regard to the Deputy's point, we are investing. We are investing to save. That is the reason we had to front-load People Point. We had to ensure we had people in training. An...

Other Questions: Capital Programme Expenditure (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 6, 10 and 40 together. In 2011, my Department led a Government-wide review of the public capital programme which culminated in the setting of a new investment framework for 2012 to 2016. The framework includes investment of €17 billion across a range of sectors over that five year period. Since then, I have made a number of announcements in...

Other Questions: Capital Programme Expenditure (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I am very conscious of the issues raised by Deputy Humphreys. There are many large road projects under way in the transport sector. We also have large projects in the education sector because we need schools to meet the demographic change. We also need to invest in the Grangegorman project which I believe will be the flagship education project of this Administration. Housing is a new...

Priority Questions: Information and Communications Technology Issues (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I am afraid I am not what is known as a techie and the Deputy's question forces me to stray into unfamiliar territory. The advice available to me is that public and private organisations throughout the world are facing exactly the same issue. The reason for the delay is that people liked the Windows XP operating system and many chose not to migrate to the updated system because they...

Priority Questions: Information and Communications Technology Issues (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: As I indicated, my Department does not run the information technology systems operating in all the Departments and State agencies. This is done by in-house administrative services. My Department provides a support system. I established the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer. All public bodies have been made aware of the deadline and have been working to limit any exposure...

Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Recruitment (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Last month, I launched a new public service reform plan for the next three years. Building on the achievements of the previous plan, the new plan sets out ambitious new reform targets for the public service. It sets out a very clear vision for each of the main sectors within the public service, namely, health, education, local government, justice and the...

Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Recruitment (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I strongly agree with the first point the Deputy made. There was a clear emphasis on cost reduction in the first wave of reforms. However, we implemented the cost reduction in an innovative manner to ensure we delivered services more efficiently. More than 400 public services are now available online and we are examining the top 20 transactions people engage in to ascertain if they can be...

Priority Questions: Sale of State Assets (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: No. I said I have not allocated it yet. We have allocated €70 million. We have to see how that is spent and how local authorities draw it down, but we are only in the second month of the year. Everybody has a roads budget right now, and the piers and harbours budget is there first. We will see how much extra will be needed. I will have further job creation announcements to be...

Priority Questions: Departmental Agencies (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: As I announced when launching the new public service reform plan for 2014 to 2016 last month, I expect the State agency rationalisation programme to be completed this year. A great deal has already been delivered. The Government made two commitments in 2011 on the rationalisation and reform of State bodies. First, we undertook to begin immediately with the implementation of 48 identified...

Priority Questions: Departmental Agencies (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Perhaps the Deputy can ask a brief question.

Priority Questions: Departmental Agencies (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy also asked about the number of new bodies created. There is a small number of new bodies arising from the merger of two or more existing bodies, as envisaged under the rationalisation programme. There is still important work to be done and public service to be provided for the purpose of the rationalisation programme. For example, there are 16 new education and training boards...

Priority Questions: Departmental Agencies (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Can the Deputy name one quango we should abolish?

Priority Questions: Departmental Agencies (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Like what?

Priority Questions: Departmental Agencies (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: There is an open invite on www.publicjobs.ie. We invite everyone who is interested in applying for any State position to do so, and many have and many have been accepted. The quango issue is a lovely thing to throw away, but when we specifically ask about the quangos we are talking about, we find the big expensive quangos are the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, the National Roads Authority, and...

Priority Questions: Departmental Agencies (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: FÁS was abolished.

Priority Questions: Departmental Agencies (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: SOLAS is a new training authority. Should we not have a training body?

Priority Questions: Departmental Agencies (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: It is doing important work. We have a huge set of reform measures, with more than 200 implemented. I know that abolishing or burning a quango makes for a nice tabloid headline, but the real hard work is to save €500 million on procurement over three years, which are we going to do. We will save €127 million this year. To save an additional €1 billion on public pay...

Priority Questions: Information and Communications Technology Issues (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: The deadline referred to in the Deputy's question relates to the cessation of general support for certain Microsoft products in use across a number of Government agencies. My Department has been aware of the forthcoming deadline for some time and has been actively investigating its likely impact on IT systems across the public service. Responsibility for the delivery of their computing...

Priority Questions: Sick Pay Scheme Reform (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: My experience of the Labour Court is that it is very open to submissions from anyone affected by its decisions. I have never heard a criticism of the Labour Court's openness to submissions and points of view as regards any decision it is about to make that impacts on any worker or set of workers. I would be surprised to hear of any. There are structures within the trade union movement in...

Priority Questions: Sale of State Assets (26 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I thank the Deputy for her question. I expect to receive €400 million in special dividends arising from the sale of non-strategic assets by the ESB. The first of these transactions, the sale in November 2013 of the ESB's 50% shareholding in the Marchwood power plant in the UK, achieved a price that was in excess of expectations and resulted in approximately...