Results 11,921-11,940 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: A number of passionate contributions have been made on the amendment. Most of the contributions were well beyond its scope and impact. I acknowledge Senator Bradford tabled it for debate purposes. I am very mindful of the time. I listened to Senator Wilson, who spoke as if all history started yesterday.
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: The bottom line is-----
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: The Senator can shout me down if he likes.
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: The notion I can change a law by this evening before I go home is simplistic nonsense. I will deal with the issues.
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: What have I done?
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: Bluntly, saving the economy of the country that the Senator's party put in mortal peril. This was a higher priority than looking at the expenses of Senators-----
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: -----and the Senator will excuse me for this.
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: I will not be bullied by anybody.
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: If anybody knows me the one thing I will not be is bullied.
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: Fair points were made by most people who made a contribution to the debate. It is true the people voted to retain the House, and this is an important constitutional point to be acknowledged, but they did not vote to replicate the Dáil. It would be a fundamental mistake for people to state we want to mirror the Dáil now in all its functionality. This was not the result, in my...
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: They cannot spend public moneys, no more than the Government can, on advocacy one way or the other.
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: We debated this at some length on Committee Stage. The amendment seeks to remove the restriction whereby the parliamentary activities allowance cannot be spent on electoral expenses. This has always been the position. As I outlined on Committee Stage, the advice is that to allow expenditure of the parliamentary activities allowance on electoral expenses would likely contravene the...
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: It refers to public moneys.
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: That is because it was referenced in the particular case, but the view is that it is public moneys that cannot be spent. It would be bizarre if the Opposition and the Government could spend their moneys on election campaigns.
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: The principle is simple. Public moneys cannot be used, either as an individual or as a member of a party, to influence the normal flow of the democratic system, for an election, a referendum or presidential campaign.
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: We debated this issue at some length on Committee Stage. These amendments seek to remove the auditing requirements for qualifying Independent Members alone. They seek that those Independent Members in receipt of the parliamentary allowance would not, like the parties, have to comply with the auditing requirements. As I said on Second Stage, and repeated on Committee Stage, in the current...
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: I am uncomfortable with shifting the vote in the people's determination of who should be elected and an individual's decision to move from a party position. I am much more comfortable in determining it on the day the people vote, rather than somebody deciding, for whatever good and noble reasons, to walk away from a party, as the people voted for that person in that snapshot in time.
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: If I may finish on these points-----
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: The bottom line is that it is a snapshot in time on that day. As Senator Thomas Byrne who asked the rhetorical question knows, Senator David Norris's mandate is as an Independent from his electorate of university voters in the university of Dublin. He would retain the allowance as an Independent. If he were to join the Labour Party, Fine Gael or any other party, he would still retain his...
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (28 Nov 2013)
Brendan Howlin: That is what I am saying now and I do not believe the Senator can quote me as ever having ever anything different. That is my view. This is a simple enough Bill designed to do two things, first, to reduce the supports available under what was the party leader's allowance and, second, to abolish severance payments for Ministers. There is also a third element that I should have mentioned; the...