Results 14,101-14,120 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Sale of State Assets (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: -----in respect of my protecting the highest paid. The Deputy knows these things and she plays her particular game. I will deal with the specifics of this matter. If one considers the position objectively, one will realise that the notion that selling the energy division of Bord Gáis is butchering the assets of the State is fanciful. There are two large energy companies in State...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Sale of State Assets (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The first part of the Deputy's question relates to revisionism. I was referring specifically to the domestic market here-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Sale of State Assets (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: -----and the artificial competition that was created on foot of a decision by the then Government to prevent one State company from competing with another in order that it might build up an asset. There was a ridiculous situation whereby people were paid a premium to switch from one State company to another and when a critical mass was reached, they were given a further premium to move back....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I propose to address the specifics of this issue because it is important. I have noted and read the equality audit report commissioned by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, which was launched in the middle of the ballot. The work-life balance arrangements in the public sector would have remained among the best available to any worker in the State if the Labour Relations Commission...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Is this a question or a speech?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Generalisations such as the statement the proposals would have completely upset the work-life balance are great. The Deputy referred to work-sharing and I responded. He should give me an example of all the other issues he raises and I will give him a detailed response to show his statements are not correct. As for his claims that the Government or my party is somehow Thatcherite, we are...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Service Staff (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: In October 2012 the Government decided to accelerate the rate of headcount reduction in the public service, agreeing an end-2014 target of 282,500. Reaching this target will require a reduction of some 8,000, or just under 3%, from the serving numbers recorded at the end of 2012. At this point, the public service will be broadly the same size as it was in 2003-04. This planned level of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Service Staff (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: On occasion I have heard the Deputy and members of his party state there are too many administrators in the Health Service Executive. This arose because a superstructure was placed on top of the old health board system when the HSE was established. Most believe there is scope for de-manning in the HSE, which has identified 1,500 positions that could be eliminated. Over-manning has also...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: We have had two speeches from the Deputies rather than questions. I made a decision to publish the Estimates, which are based on the implementation of the LRC recommendations, because that is what we hoped to do. We had to have some basis for apportioning the €300 million and I wanted the Estimates out because they had been delayed. There are agencies that need funding and,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy has made two speeches.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy has made two speeches and this is her third.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I am happy to answer all the questions. Both Deputies made speeches.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: It is amazing that they feel they can make long rhetorical speeches but I am not allowed to rebut the inaccuracies they place on the record. Politics is about putting truth to this House. I challenge Deputy Fleming, if he believes his black propaganda, to outline any instance of untruth uttered during the debate by me.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I reiterate my disappointment at the decision of the executive committee of the ICTU not to accept the LRC proposals. However, it is still worth addressing some of the misconceptions that arose in respect of the proposals on work-life balance arrangements in the public service and I thank the Deputy for tabling this question. Work-life balance arrangements in the public service are among...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy has raised two distinct and separate issues. I strongly agree regarding the social contract for the past 30 years, which my party has consistently focused on to develop. The input of people from Brendan Corish to Frank Cluskey to Michael O'Leary and others in the employment area is testament to the contribution my party has made to advancing the terms and conditions of workers,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I am not going to engage in fisticuffs on these really important issues with the Deputy opposite. In respect of the notion that there was any black propaganda, if I said anything at any stage that was untrue the Deputy should put it on the record now. I noticed that the Deputy himself set out the Fianna Fáil position last Sunday on national television. He said that we should not be...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy is right. It remains the view of Government that a negotiated agreed settlement would be the preferable way to advance these issues. That is why we did not take unilateral action as our predecessors in government did. In a very measured way we opened the books of the State to the trade unions to let them understand that we had a hole in the arithmetic, thanks to the previous...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: That is a briefing note not a statement.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Croke Park Agreement Issues (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together. At its meeting yesterday, as expected the public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions did not accept the Labour Relations Commission, LRC, proposals for a new public service pay and industrial relations agreement. Clearly the Government is disappointed at that outcome. It is disappointed because it believes the LRC...

Order of Business (18 Apr 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Their introduction has been postponed all right.