Results 13,301-13,320 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: I do not want to release commercially sensitive information into the public domain, other than to point out that the experts who examined this issue found that a sale of the harvesting rights of Coillte would create financial difficulties for the residual company. Both Departments determined, therefore, not to proceed with the proposed sale and this position was endorsed by the Cabinet...

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 thank the Chairman for inviting me to discuss these important issues. I am accompanied by the officials he named and by Ms Eileen Fitzpatrick, the director of NewERA, which will soon have statutory responsibility for managing State assets, looking at a national State shareholding investment profile and getting good value for the State's shareholding in companies in the semi-state sector....

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Parliamentary Party Allowances (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Party Leaders Allowance is provided for in the Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) Act, 1938, as amended by the Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices (Amendment) Act, 2001. Legislation is necessary to give effect to any changes, including those I announced in the context of the Expenditure Estimates for 2013. Under the legislation, the amount of the Allowance...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Expenditure (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: See the following table for Per Cent for Art Expenditure 2003-2012. Artworks commissioned and purchased by the OPW from 2003 to end 2012 were funded in the main through the Government's Per Cent for Art Scheme. 98% of the State Art Collection is on display in State buildings throughout Ireland. The OPW manages the State Art Collection which is an unique entity that has been formed over...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Funding (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Central Expenditure Evaluation Unit in my Department was established in 2006 to promote the application of best Value for Money (VFM) practice in public expenditure programmes and projects. Its role has since evolved beyond that to include the provision of analytical and research support, to the Department and also to others. In 2012, the Government announced that an Irish Government...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Pensions Levy (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The public service Pension-Related Deduction (PRD) is an income-graduated imposition on the pay of pensionable public servants. It is imposed in such a way that increasing rates of deduction are applied to increasing bands or slices of an affected public servant's annual pay. The PRD originally became operative on 1 March 2009 as provided for in section 2 of the Financial Emergency Measures...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Programme for Government Implementation (19 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Programme for Government contained a commitment to address the issue of confidential communications with Members through constitutional change. Following a detailed policy assessment and on the basis of legal analysis, it has now been decided to legislate in relation to this issue. The Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013 provides for qualified...

An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: An Dara Céim (Atógáil) - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) (18 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I welcome this Bill. The Labour Party's assessment of the case for the abolition of the Seanad was first detailed in the policy statement I issued on behalf of the party, New Government, Better Government, in January 2011 as part of a comprehensive programme of Government, political and public service reforms. That recommendation reflected a long, hard look at Seanad Éireann by...

Trade Union Movement and Workers' Rights: Motion [Private Members] (18 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Multi-tasking.

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (18 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: There is a slight misunderstanding of the purpose of the legislation. I have two points to raise on this matter. The Deputy quoted provisions in the Croke Park agreement on the appeals mechanism pertaining to redeployment. There is a mirroring section in the Haddington Road agreement and that will be fully respected, but the Deputy has acknowledged that this will not arise in the context...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (18 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: It is not the case. The Bill permits flexibility to be exercised. The purpose of this simple and technical Bill is to remove the legal impediments that currently prevent reassignment across organisations other than by way of secondment. For example, when FÁS moved into the Department of Social Protection, its employees were technically seconded. FÁS was not legally moved....

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (18 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I have thought a deal about the Senator's amendment. On reflecting on it there is merit in it, but it would put an onus on the PAS to adopt a role in the applicability and interpretation of collective agreements on redeployment and mobility. On reflection and having consulted my human resources policy division, that role is appropriate to the human resources management, remuneration and...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (18 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I might be able to give some comfort to the Senator and obviate the need to repeat ourselves on Report Stage. The amendment looked like a sensible proposal, but given the role and functions conferred on the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in the reform of public services generally and the allocation of human resources and finances in that context, the broader policy of the...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (18 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Minister's statutory right needs to be preserved, with which the Senator will not disagree, but I want to be crystal clear that the Haddington Road agreement will be fully protected by the Government and it is fully protected in this legislation. However, we are crafting a law that will have duration well beyond 2016, the expiry date of the agreement. There might be cases in which the...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (18 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I am not aware of a difficulty arising in the significant redeployment of staff to date. I do not want to create a structure that will be so cumbersome that it will become unworkable. Everybody who has moved, as Senator Denis Landy said, volunteered to do so. They might not have been enthusiastic about it and might have preferred to stay put, but when agencies are closed or downsized, it...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (18 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I am not making a technical point. If I accepted the amendment, it would fundamentally hamstring the operation of the redeployment process. My objection is not technical but fundamental. I cannot accept the amendment for that reason. Detailed operational protocols have been negotiated with the trade union movement and set out who should be notified. The trade union movement understands...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (18 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: There are two separate issues, transfers and redeployment. Mutually accepted transfers are a feature of the public service generally but people cannot transfer if there is no job to go to. I was directly involved with the trade unions and psychiatric nurses in respect of St. Senan's Psychiatric Hospital in Enniscorthy, which is now officially closed. There was a full five-year programme of...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (18 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: This is a technical amendment to clarify that when a person is redeployed, the total pay in the new post must not be less than basic pay in the old post. The provision as published provides that where a person is redeployed, the basic pay in the new post will not be less than the basic pay in the old post. The text anticipates that, on assignment to the new post, allowances will always be...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (18 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: If Senator Byrne raises it in the discussion of the section, I will respond.

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (18 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: This has worked very well on an ad hoc basis up to now. Obviously, it is a matter of voluntary movement within the public service. As I indicated on Second Stage, we have discussed this with the unions and they are fully conversant with all of it. The legislation has been drafted to give effect to the agreement reached with the trade unions on pay and mobility. I acknowledge Senator...