Results 13,761-13,780 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Other Questions: Lobbying Regulation (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Everyone is entitled to lobby. The issue about the lobbyist register is that everyone is entitled to know who is lobbying. It is also important lobbying is done in an open and transparent way.

Other Questions: Lobbying Regulation (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I will have to think about putting the IFSC in the lobbying legislation. I will come back to Deputy Stanley on the matter. On the cooling-off period, people are entitled to make a living, as Deputy Wallace knows full well, and people have constitutional rights in this regard. On the notion that one could be disbarred, for example, say the Minister for Justice and Equality wants to become...

Other Questions: Lobbying Regulation (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Should he be debarred? Maybe I am asking the wrong person that question. Let me make it easier - should the Minister for Health be allowed to be a doctor again? The embargo on lobbying will not only apply to officeholders, but also to senior public servants. What grates with people is that senior public servants dealing with an industry or an issue can seamlessly move within a month of...

Other Questions: Croke Park Agreement (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Government is committed to finding the necessary pay bill savings of €300 million for 2013 and €1 billion by end 2015. We have always maintained that the preferred option was to deliver the necessary savings by agreement. As the Deputy will now be aware, on foot of the rejection by the public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, of the Labour...

Other Questions: Croke Park Agreement (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The process of legislation is a matter for the House, not for me. Deputy Higgins is in a poor position to demand people accept a democratic decision since there are various charges, taxes and levies decided by the elected representatives of the people against which he himself campaigns.

Other Questions: Public Sector Staff Recruitment (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I cannot answer a particular question like that because I cannot micro-manage the 300,000 employees across the State agencies, the local government sector and each Department. There is an employment control framework and there is flexibility within the framework devolved within councils or Departments. I do not want to pretend that there is no pressure. There is pressure as we are reducing...

Other Questions: Public Sector Staff Recruitment (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I am at two removes from this, first because it concerns the local authority and second because that is the responsibility of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. There is an employment control framework which sets a headcount local authorities are not allowed to exceed. There is flexibility within that but I do not know the details and what flexibility applies...

Other Questions: Lobbying Regulation (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I recently secured Government approval for the drafting, by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, of the Lobbying Regulation Bill. The general scheme of the Bill has been published on my Department's website. The main aim of the proposed regulatory scheme is to strengthen public confidence in politics and in the business of government, as well as to increase the accountability of...

Other Questions: Lobbying Regulation (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I will commence the legislation as soon as I can but I do not want to pre-empt the legislative process. I hope to bring it to Government very shortly and I will publish it immediately thereafter but there is a growing queue to get into the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform now and it will be very busy for the next while. There are clear, published...

Other Questions: Private Sector Investment (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy's questions on the European Investment Bank are more appropriate to my colleague, the Minister for Finance. However, I will answer them in so far as I can. I do not know the interest rates that apply. I have met the president of the EIB, Mr. Hoyer, on two occasions, first when he was newly appointed and the second time when he was in Ireland. The entire board of the bank met...

Other Questions: Private Sector Investment (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Deputy Sean Fleming asked about primary care centres. I should have mentioned that bundles of such centres will be included in the allocation of funding from the European Investment Bank. It is interesting to discover that different institutions like different projects. The EIB likes road projects, for example. I have been trying to offer different options, but these types of project seem...

Other Questions: Private Sector Investment (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Council of Europe Development Bank, on the other hand, prefers justice projects. It is funding the project at Cork Prison, for instance, and the renovation of a number of Garda stations. It is a matter of conjecture as to why these bodies have a predilection for particular types of project. As I said, we are putting together various bundles. I will send Deputy Sean Fleming a note on...

Other Questions: e-Government and ICT (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: My Department established the Public Service Chief Information Officer Council in November 2011. The council is a representative forum for senior managers with responsibility for information and communications technology, ICT, and-or e-government from across the civil and public services. It provides expert input to decisions and actions to improve the impact of ICT and e-government on...

Other Questions: e-Government and ICT (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I do not have the terms and conditions of the appointment to hand, but I will have no difficulty in conveying them to the Deputy. Like most of the appointments I have made in my Department, including a new head of procurement and a new director of reform, he has been appointed on a five year contract with fixed wages. That is a good way to do it and the people I have appointed under these...

Other Questions: Public Sector Staff Recruitment (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Government has set out an ambitious public service reform plan that aims to transform the quality and cost effectiveness of public services in Ireland. As part of that plan, we are undertaking a steady and managed reduction in public service numbers. There is, however, no wholesale embargo on recruitment. There is significant recruitment in targeted priority areas such as health and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Remuneration (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I listened to the analysis and rhetoric, but the truth is a very simple matter.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Remuneration (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Does the Deputy want to hear an answer or does he want to keep talking? He does not want to hear the answer because he has made his mind up. Does he want to hear a different view? We came into government and were faced with an economic meltdown. We could not pay beyond five months for services - that is how much money was in the kitty - unless we got an external funder to give us money....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Remuneration (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Let me be clear. The only pay cuts that are provided for in the FEMPI legislation which was published today are for those earning over €65,000. I do not know where the Deputy stands on high pay and whether he thinks those who can afford it should make a proportionate contribution to the recovery of the nation. The Deputy is against everything and for nothing.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Staff Remuneration (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: On the restoration of pay cuts, I have deliberately structured the Bill I published today as a Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill. By definition, it is anchored in the financial crisis. If one examines its latter sections, one will find I have amended it to include an annual report to the House on the continued existence of the financial emergency conditions. It is...

Other Questions: Private Sector Investment (23 May 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Public infrastructure is funded primarily by two sources of funding at the moment, namely, Exchequer financing, the vast bulk of funding, and PPP sourced funding. The PPP mechanism allows the State to leverage its resources and access additional investment to supplement the Exchequer capital programme, progressing needed infrastructure investment while generating economic activity and...