Results 11,401-11,420 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Let us remember, it is not all about savings, it is about doing things differently. This is a reform process rather than a savings process. I am afraid the savings were required because of the crisis and the need to do things more effectively. There can be more rational decisions now that we are out of the crisis and we can objectively decide on the optimum number of members of the Garda...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: That was an agreement we came to in the Haddington Road process with the different Garda organisational bodies. We undertook that we would do that review.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: There are approximately 32,000 fewer public servants now than at the peak.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: It is very hard to stop intellectual loss. I have done my best. With free movement of people, I am afraid my best efforts have not been successful on all occasions to hold on to the most valuable people. We have not been able to choose who should leave. People's pensions are related to pay and because we reduced pay there was a cut-off date that would apply to reducing pensions. People...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: There is a whole series of questions there. I agree with Deputy McDonald in terms of cultural change. We are all good at preaching openness and I put myself into that category as well, but if we are going to have models we should start at home and go to political parties about honesty and openness about backgrounds and everything.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: One may or may not be involved, but if one is asked a straight question one should get a straight answer. Politicians have to give the lead in that regard and I strongly endorse what Deputy McDonald said about that. I do not accept that the instinct of government is to protect the State, but it is to protect and support the people as best we can. It is true that countervailing issues...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I never have an inclination or a trend to outsource, I simply have an open mind on how services are best and most efficiently provided to the citizen. Clearly, there will be issues where we will have peaked demand for a service that will not justify the recruitment of permanent public servants, so it makes sense to outsource.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: For example, with the establishment of the local property tax we needed to have a call centre so people could access information in a short period of time. We are not going to recruit several hundred people into the public service to do that when we have skilled people we can use.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I have given the Deputy an example of laundry services. It makes no sense to replicate a laundry service in each hospital when one has an efficient laundry service that will deliver clean linen daily because it has a large-scale operation to do so. There will be many such instances. For example, one often has outside caterers in public buildings because it is easier for an outside caterer...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy raised two issues, one of which was the focus on outcomes. He instanced the ambulance service. We are moving away from inputs to measure outcomes. Of course, it will be a journey, not a destination; we are not going to change everything instantly. However, from the ambulance service I understand the old idea of an ambulance driver has completely changed. Each ambulance is now...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I do not believe I should be answering questions on Cabinet discussions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I do not believe the Deputy can take anything from it. I am constitutionally prohibited from having this discussion.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: -----the education and training boards and the reduction this May in the number of local authorities, and will be big in number terms but involve one specific action. All of those actions will be completed by the middle of this year. Of course, we have created new bodies. One looks at new challenges and issues that require new ways of operating and sometimes there is a justification for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: I will be doing that. We had long debates about it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Not this Minister, either before or after the election.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Which one would Deputy Sean Fleming not have done?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: Deputy Fleming said "some". Which one would he not have done?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: My apologies.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: On the first question about the new quangos we created, Deputy Sean Fleming referred to them as if their creation was bad per se. I jotted them down as he went through them. NewERA is a commitment in the programme for Government to look at sweating real value from the State agencies and it is doing a great job. The Irish Financial Advisory Council, IFAC, is a requirement under the EU...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Service Reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Feb 2014)

Brendan Howlin: -----few wanted that title as it had to be common. Let us get off that hook of feeling that if we see it anywhere it is bad per se. I do not believe that. In terms of the procurement issue, it is important that we enable effective and efficient procurement. What we had to date was significantly inefficient procurement where the taxpayer was paying over the odds across the State for a...