Results 13,281-13,300 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: We will see these things over time. As I explained to the Deputy, we do not have to reach the €3 billion target before we start spending. We will wait to see what the items we have for sale accrue. They might surprise us all. Perhaps we will get €3 billion from what we have on the table. We will see.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: This is over and above the normal discipline we have on expenditure. It is over and above the agreement we have on taxation, how to deal with asset sales and how we apply them. There is nothing loose about it because it is a commercial transaction. The troika, no more than myself, cannot be certain of the sum of money that will accrue to the State for any particular asset. The troika,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The only promise I made and I will make it again, is that there will be no fire sale. There will be due diligence. We will sell nothing that does not get value. If we do not get a fair price we will sell nothing. I have said that from the beginning. If the Deputies think that we should sell Aer Lingus at any price in any circumstances, under any conditions, they will be on their own....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy is wrong when he talks about a large chunk of the €3 billion not proceeding. The only thing that I said is not proceeding is the Coillte sale. The ESB sale is still possible but it is not appropriate now because there is due diligence happening. We are awaiting the report of the Competition Authority in the UK and we want to make sure it is strategically right.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: What did I say?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I meant Aer Lingus, of course.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: A Freudian slip indeed. The sum originally, if one looks at the share value of Aer Lingus when we announced the sale, was of the order of €90 million so in the context of €3 billion it could hardly be described as any significant "chunk". It is more like a sliver or splinter, in the terms of Coillte I suppose, than a sizeable chunk. That is realistic. The vast bulk of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I am very confident that the moneys we have set out will be fully available to carry out the stimulus package that I have outlined.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Everyone else is below profile. I will not take great exception for a €1 million overspend profile at this juncture for the Department in question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Fianna Fáil's target was €5 billion.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy has raised a number of questions. There is a tad of normal cynicism from the Deputy. He is neither for nor against things. He is half for and half against them, but I suppose that is a good way to be. On the target, I do not have a piece of paper to prove what I have said on the record. In the original documentation, the paragraph that has been quoted so often is predicated...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Three distinct questions have been put by the Chairman. First, there is what he classifies as the 50-50 split. It is absolutely true that in my first engagement with the troika it was clearly of the view - this is sometimes contested - that the agreement was that the proceeds of the sale of any State assets would be used to retire debt. It was adamant that would be the case. It took some...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I am happy to discuss that matter. I do not know whether we want to deal with the State assets issue.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Okay. With regard to the structural debt, I want to facilitate and co-operate with the committee because it can help me on the work of oversight. It is not an easy task because profiling departmental expenditure happens after we publish the Revised Estimates Volume, REV. For example, after April this year we have a monthly profile and can actually look at a comparator figure. I can give...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: We have copies for everybody.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The net question the Chairman is asking is where we are at now. One does not want it to be a secret until the end of the year only to have it come as a surprise. I think that was the genesis of his proposal. Up to the end of May, on the expenditure side, every line Department except one is under profile. One Department - the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht - is over...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The only proposal before the Cabinet was the sale of trees, in other words, the advance sale of the crop. As I indicated, an exercise in due diligence was done on the proposal. I have repeatedly stated that we would drill down into every State company to ascertain what, if any, benefits each proposed sale offered. If a sale did not make economic sense, we would not proceed. On this issue,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Disposal of State Assets and Quarterly Review: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The timeline is tight. It is our objective to have the evaluation completed by the end of the year. Preliminary work has been undertaken by NewERA and I have read its preliminary report on the feasibility of merging the State companies, Coillte and Bord na Móna. Much more work remains to be done but it is hoped, notwithstanding the complexity of the issue, to complete the work by the...