Results 14,521-14,540 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: That is a very pointed question and I am also going to be very pointed as I asked a similar question recently. The filling of potholes is funded by an Exchequer grant to supplement the matching funding by the local authority to some degree. The degree of matching funding varies significantly. I am afraid Cork County Council is not great at providing significant matching funds.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I do not know, I have looked at the situation in County Cork.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The local authority in County Kerry puts a significant level of its own resources into matching funds and it sees the filling of potholes as a priority. One of the points I have been making is that we cannot reward bad practice. If one does not spend one's own money, it is bad practice that the Exchequer will give the body more resources. Whereas a county that gives priority to the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The figures are accurate.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I will check that fact for the Chairman. Normally this is what the Department requests. I will ask my officials and come back to the Deputy.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The Chairman has been in touch with me on having quarterly oversight of it. I think the capital side of it should be part of that process. Obviously capital is not spent in the same way as current expenditure. There are no neat quarterly outgoings and one could have a significant spend at the end of the year, the way things happen. It would be no harm if the committee kept an eye on that too.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I will ensure that happens as well.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Unspent money - rather than savings

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: There could be a variety of reasons. In a major project, the actual timing of the payment schedule, it could result from a delay in planning and a variety of other reasons. It does not mean the project is not going ahead.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: It is probably a misnomer.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Yes, unspent.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Much of the drilling down should be done at departmental level because the Department controls that. We are looking at the over-arching carry over. The general principal is that the maximum that can be carried over is 10%. By definition, it is a small subset of the total capital allocated. We monitor it on a monthly basis. Contrary to the normal workings of my Department, we push them to...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: He was trying to push local authorities and many of them were reluctant to embark on new projects because of the creation of the new water authority. That annoyed me but he did push the local authorities on that. The Deputy asked what Departments had Supplementary Estimates and mentioned a sum of €1 billion. The Departments of Health and Social Protection had Supplementary Estimates.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Many Departments had savings and there were technical Supplementary Estimates for some to allow certain areas of expenditure and those were the two significant Supplementary Estimates. In the social protection area, a chunk of that was a short-fall in PRSI income. It was not a requirement for an additional spend, it was a re-labelling of spending, where money that came into the Exchequer...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: A major chunk of additional money will come under the PPPs that will fall under the stimulus plan. The first school bundles were signed off at the end of last year. This will not appear in voted capital. I hope to group bundles - that is happening with the next two bundles. A total of 12 schools will be signed off in May, and the first bundle is now under construction.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: No, this is additional stimulus. Ground work is underway on the Grangegorman project, which is the flagship project. We hope to make significant progress on it. I had a meeting with the Vice President of the European Investment Bank on that issue yesterday.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: The water is still local.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I will leave it for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to explain Leader and the new integrated community and enterprise structures in detail. It is, however, a good idea. I was involved in the initial modelling under the better local government programme of extending the umbrella between local authorities and community development groups. That was an...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: I thank the Chairman and the committee for the opportunity. The five-year Exchequer capital framework published in November 2011 sets out a programme of Exchequer capital investment of €17 billion between its initiation and 2016. This significant level of investment will address critical infrastructure deficits, aid economic growth and job creation and provide much-needed social...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund) Order 2013: Motion (28 Feb 2013)

Brendan Howlin: Before the end of March.