Results 13,541-13,560 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: If the committee came to a conclusion and found adversely, what would be demanded of the individual concerned? The resignation of the individual would be demanded. That would be the penalty demanded on foot of adverse findings. If that resignation came in advance of the issuing of the findings-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: No. One cannot, constitutionally, dismiss a Member of the House. All we can do, as we have done, is censure a Member.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Yes, we can censure and ask the Member to resign. In the Deputy's scenario, if somebody resigns before the findings are issued, then the inquiry has succeeded in extracting the maximum penalty that could be achieved through exhortation.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Bill sets out a number of statutory functions which a committee must carry out. It certainly is not the intention that one would need a separate committee to carry out each function. For example, all of the functions set out in Parts 10 and 11, relating to private papers, confidential communications, official documents and so forth, would all be done, I would imagine, by the Committee...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The salient point is that we are talking about functions, not committees. The Bill provides that new statutory functions must be carried out in order to comply-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Absolutely, but I did not want to set in stone that function X must be assigned to the CPP, while function Y must be assigned to the Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions, and so forth. The functions should be farmed out to the relevant committees by the Oireachtas.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: No, I do not think so.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I have talked to the Parliamentary Counsel about this issue and the advice was that we must say that these functions must be assigned to "a committee". There is no reference to a new committee. The functions must be assigned to a committee of the House. It is for the Oireachtas to determine how many committees will be involved and to dissolve or create new committees, as it sees fit....

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I heard Deputy Donnelly speak about this issue before and his own amendment is yet to come. There is almost a view that the Government side is, by definition, "partial" and the Opposition, by definition, is "impartial". I can assure the Deputies that this is not my experience of 30 years in the House. There can be very partial and partisan Opposition members with a political agenda, and...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I do not know about more money but the spending of money must be better in order to resource the committee system. That will require a change in mindset. There is an enormous volume of work undertaken at committee level that does not get a line anywhere but something abusive uttered in the plenary session would garner a headline. I do not have a simple solution to get attention for the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: What about a mischievous Opposition?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy is an Independent in his first term and he does not understand how political parties work if he believes the Cabinet controls Members of the House with such alacrity.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 2: In page 14, subsection (1), line 2, to delete "or section 10 inquiry" and substitute ", section 10 inquiry or section 15 inquiry".These technical amendments are consequent on the substantial amendment No. 18, which I will deal with in due course. That amendment deals with a new section 15 on the President. These are the first of the technical consequential amendments...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 3: In page 15, subsection (1), between lines 10 and 11, to insert the following:" "section 15 inquiry" means an investigation referred to in section 15(1)(a);".

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 4: In page 15, subsection (1), to delete lines 13 and 14 and substitute the following:" "terms of reference", in relation to a Part 2 inquiry which is not a section 15 inquiry, means the terms of reference for the inquiry set under section 12;".These are technical amendments on the presidential issue, as are the previous two amendments.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 5: In page 16, before section 6, but in Part 2, to insert the following new section: "CHAPTER 1 Section 6, section 7, section 8, section 9 and section 10 inquiries, etc.6.--A reference in this Chapter to a Part 2 inquiry does not include a reference to a Part 2 inquiry which is a section 15 inquiry.".

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I understand the Deputy's intention. He made the same point when discussing the heads of the Bill and on Second Stage. There is always a much more democratic perspective when one is on the other side of the House. That rush of blood normally does not migrate to this side when one is in the majority. In constructing this Bill, I considered the point that is being made. We are not...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: When we created the committee in advance of the legislation, there was a Sinn Féin Chairman.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Yes. It was to be a-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Brendan Howlin: No. What I had in mind was for the petitions committee to set and regulate the terms of reference. It was not for that committee to conduct an inquiry. In fact, it was forbidden to conduct inquiries. It was the regulator of inquiries.