Results 15,321-15,340 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: The Senator is correct.

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: Everything is about money.

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I will try to deal with the points made in the two and half minutes that remain. Senator Pat O'Neill asked a question about recruiting. Many staff are being recruited to the public service, particularly in the education sector, to fill gaps, but I want to avoid agency work, particularly in the health service. The Senator specifically mentioned outdoor staff in the local authority sphere and...

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: There were such perceptions in all areas and I am not excusing any of them. I brought forward the electoral Act when I was Minister for the Environment to cap expenditure at national elections and have transparency in the making of donations. The quid pro quo was that one needed political systems to operate; therefore, there needed to be a State-funded political system within limits....

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: The moneys given to political parties are vouched for and audited, but those given to Independents are not. That is an anomaly that needs to be addressed.

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: There is an extraordinary media focus on the Croke Park agreement, as well as a parliamentary focus, judging from the parliamentary questions I am asked about it. Of the tens of billions of euro of public expenditure with which I am dealing, the amount of energy and effort put into the allowances issue, with a target saving of ¤75 million, is out of all proportion to the value. It is...

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: It has become extraordinary. To disaggregate decades of side and cross-referenced deals is tortuous, as the Committee of Public Accounts is now discovering. For many public servants, pay was built up with allowances. One cannot turn around and say because one is paid through an allowance, one does not get a big chunk of pay, but if one is paid through a sectorial agreement, one does. We...

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: To compensate, we abolished the first three increments. The starting pay of a teacher is ¤32,000. When compared to the starting pay of other graduate entrants in other professions, it is not a bad rate. Added to this, those affected most by the downturn are those who bought a house during the boom who are up to their oxters in debt that will never be redeemed, not new entrants looking to...

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: On the structure of the Civil Service, there is a simplistic view that there are so many chiefs and not enough Indians. There is a complexity to the public service. When I was in the Department of Health years ago, we actually did not have a proper child support system in place. Now, we have specialists who interview children in Garda stations. Senator Kathryn Reilly spoke about public...

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: There is a programme for Government commitment to ask the people to make the choice on Seanad abolition. I look forward to the debate on it as the people are wise in these matters. As they have rejected and accepted constitutional proposals in the past, we need to make our case, whatever our perspective on this is. It is good that we have to make our case. I ask anyone who comes into me...

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: -------that we always spent money at the end of the year rather than send it back because the budget would be cut the following year. Computers, for example, would be just bought for the sake of it.

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: Yes, I will be doing the same with the current side. It will be a three-year horizon. With the new Estimates process I am producing, it will not simply be the case of there is the voted amount for this purpose but what is the expected outcome for that. It will not simply take account of whether the money was spent but what was got for it. That level of accountability will be very useful...

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I just said I would be the same.

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: Partisanship is so visceral in some that they cannot hear or understand it. On agency rationalisation, the Government does not want to do damage to any agency that is important. On the merger of the National Archives and Irish Manuscripts Commission into the National Library, in order to achieve the greatest possible savings and efficiencies, it was decided that these rationalisation...

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I have spoken to the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Deenihan, who is passionately supportive of the institutions in question and we will see how it plays out. If further changes are necessary, we will deal with that in due course. There are people still saying, ?Burn the quangos?. The bulk of these non-governmental organisations, however, are the agencies such as IDA...

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I thank Members for the opportunity to participate in this debate. I genuinely like to come to the Seanad because the Members hold structured debates that are often less boisterous than those in the other House. I will deal with a number of points made. On the point made by Senator Byrne - tá sé imithe-----

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I am sure he is somewhere doing useful work for the State. He made some general points to which I want to refer. He rightly said that the general deficit this year is ¤14 billion. The comparable figure last year was ¤22 billion. He also said-----

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: He had a long explanation for that, which I will explain in due course, but I know the Senator is much better at speaking than listening in regard to these matters. We have had form in this matter in our interactions in Wexford County Council-----

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: -----but I will be clear in regard to it. I will give the House the exact figure. The underlying spending position at the end of October, which are the most recent figures we published, when adjusted for the shortfall on PRSI receipts as I explained at the beginning of the year, was a shortfall of ¤289 million. Social welfare is paid from the social welfare insurance and because social...

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I am humbled.