Results 11,821-11,840 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I will go through all of these amendments after the Deputy has spoken on them.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I advise the Deputy that we are back on Report Stage.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I wanted to check that point and advise the Deputy accordingly.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Yes.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Yes.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: It is something I will reflect on in regard to the regulations. We cannot have a situation where somebody can be sick forever and on half pay or on rehabilitation pay. The idea is that we would come to make some discernment in regard to it. I do not think that is the issue about which the Deputy is talking. She referred to an example where it might not be 24 months but 30 months or a...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy comes in here to share his stress.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy is very successful.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy has raised a number of issues, which I will try to deal with sequentially as I did with Deputy Fleming. I do not have numbers. I have a table with costings on a sectoral basis which I will provide to the Deputy. The last full year for which sick leave statistics have been gathered is 2012. I have before me a table which sets out the reporting of sick leave or absenteeism over...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The figure for Defence is €1.1 million; the certified leave figure is €7.8 million. The total cost in the Defence sector is €8.9 million. The total percentage of days lost in the defence sector is 2.65%. In the education sector, self-certified sick leave for teachers is €6.4 million. The figure for certified illness is €54.9 million, making a total of...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Yes.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Yes.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Rather than just give the Deputy the figures for health I will see if I can disaggregate them better and get those to her. The next point in the series of points made by Deputy McDonald was on her dislike of the provision of enabling legislation of this sort. I accept her comments that there is nothing personal involved in that. I believe it is a more democratic way of doing it in that we...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: And all the fairly exhaustive legislative protection that is in place to support-----

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: -----women in pregnancy. As I said, it is my intention that the current position of the public service that we are progressive and model employers will continue in regard to that. The fundamental question asked by the Deputy is in terms of what happens after two years when one loses a point. One has had three months on full pay, three months on half pay and the related pay floor...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: There is a floor.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: One cannot go below half pay.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: On the first point made by the Deputy with regard to pregnancy-related illness, I will consider it in the context of the regulations. It depends on what emerges from the discussions regarding the Labour Court because that is the net issue at which they are looking. However, the Deputy makes a good case and I will consider it in the context of the regulations. Members can have a discussion...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: However, I will check because that is a reasonable point. The Deputy's final question was on what happens when one has exhausted one's three months and one goes onto temporary rehabilitation pay, that is, what does it mean and how will that be calculated. If standard sick leave limits or the critical illness provisions or both are exhausted and there is a realistic prospect that the...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I am happy to do that.