Results 12,961-12,980 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 201: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I hope it will survive ten years.

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 201: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: We have discussed this matter. A subset of issues are involved. As the House is aware, from this year on, the budget announcement on the expenditure and the taxation sides will take place on 15 October each year. This forms part of the new European semester to which we have all agreed. We will not have a two-phased budget, that is, where the Estimates will be published in advance. When I...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 201: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: -----in the final determination and so on. It would be odd to set a ceiling by statutory instrument and then alter it a month later. All the budgetary arithmetic happens on the night of the budget. We lay out the fiscal parameters and both the expenditure and taxation sides are done. With regard to regulation, the multi-annual ceiling expenditure will be set out as part of the...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 201: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The policy issues raised in the amendments, as I said on Committee Stage, are different from the subject matter of the Bill. We had a disagreement on the matter. This Bill is ultimately concerned with the technical rules for setting limits on expenditure. The fact that I used the word “technical” on Committee Stage caused some ire with the Deputy opposite but that is the fact...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 201: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: This is a technical debate about what is practical in the circumstances. I argued on Committee Stage and I still argue that the form of words, "as soon as may be" is more appropriate as there might be circumstances where the Dáil might not be sitting for any period for a decision to be laid immediately before the Dáil. The normal phrase "as soon as may be" is understood to be an...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 201: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: As soon as may be.

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 201: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Correct.

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 201: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: A future promise.

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 201: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: As I informed the Deputy on Committee Stage, the Government is defined in the Constitution, which sets out the role and principles under which the Government operates. A decision of Government represents a decision undertaken by the Government acting collectively, inclusive of all members of the Government. The word "Government" in the Bill automatically constitutionally and legally...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 201: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I do not think I will breach Cabinet confidentiality if I state every decision on a budget, including the two most recent budgets in which we have been involved, was individually and then collectively agreed by every individual member of the Government.

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 201: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Deputy Fleming is right. We had a comprehensive debate on these matters on Committee Stage. I do not disagree with the argument that we should always be pushing out the boundaries of scrutiny to ensure that we can take full account in this House and make officers of the State, particularly the Executive, amenable to Dáil oversight. As I previously stated, non-voted expenditure...

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I do not think I interrupted the Deputy, but maybe I did. If so, I apologise. The Deputy did not say that there should be a Whip on everything.

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: A Whip on conscience? I have to determine if child benefit is a conscience issue or only a sectionally-related issue of conscience. We are in a very difficult area if we are going to say to people that they should determine what is a matter of conscience, and that takes it outside the norms of politics. We all have consciences. I did not get the opportunity to speak in the debate but I...

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I find the notion that they are Independents in a group to be perverse. I do not expect a Technical Group to have a consensus because they are all, by definition, independent.

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Independent of each other, I think, which is fine. We need to ensure that we have effectiveness in parliamentary decision-making. By definition, politics is the art of compromise and we compromise on many matters. I do not accept Deputy Pringle's commentary about show trials. If we look at every issue that has been inquired into in this House - in so far as we could do so before the...

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: No conclusions were come to.

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Absolutely, but this legislation has flowed from events since then, when we had an instruction to shape what should happen. There is a slightly precious view that somehow the Opposition is pure and less base or politic than the Government side. By that definition, therefore, the minority should be able to overturn the view of the majority. That is something I just do not accept.

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: We will have this debate again. Grand-standing happens. We had a debate which took up time this morning on guillotining this Bill, although we had open-ended discussion on Second and Committee Stages without a guillotine. There is no new substance in this.

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: No new issues that we have not already skirted around. That is part of the political process and I perfectly understand that. In essence, Deputy Donnelly is saying that if there is no public clamour for it and if there is no majority for it in the Dáil, it should happen anyway because he knows, or a minority knows, or some people who are clearly superior to the mass-----

Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Jul 2013)

Brendan Howlin: -----determine that this is important. They think they have the right to play a golden card that overturns the majority in Parliament. I do not accept that, however.