Results 15,461-15,480 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: We have estimated what individual offices will seek for next year. We have laid out what is the framework now but this is not a finished Estimate. It is an indicative Estimate for us to examine. I will go through its components. Table 2, public expenditure and sectoral policy, comprises almost €21 million. The individual parts comprise pay, appropriations-in-aid from the ESRI and...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: That is correct. It is just over €2 million.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: To live within the CRE, €2 million needs to be found, but I have not proposed to make additional cuts to find that. That is part of the discussion we are having now. Has the Deputy suggestions, for example? The idea is that to live within the CRE, I must make this sort of saving.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I said in my opening contribution that what I have suggested in savings justifies replicating last year's Estimate and not making the CRE saving. The debate is supposed to be about whether that is wise policy.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I said in my opening contribution that I believe, in what I have outlined in the measures, that the individual expenditure policy issues justify holding my Vote at 2012 levels and not increasing it. If I was to live within the expenditure ceiling in the CRE, I should reduce expenditure by €2.3 million, as the Deputy rightly said. We have not come to a conclusion on that and the idea...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I wrote to committee Chairmen in January and my idea was this would be a whole-of-year process and not something that would take place on the eve of the budget. That would have meant that the committee, for example, would have met the Ombudsman, considered her budget, checked staffing, efficiencies, back office supports and so on, or considered the budgets for the Public Appointments Service...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I agree with that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I do not want to be critical of the committee.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: The process is new, as is the idea of the multi-annual framework budget. We will put that on a legislative basis for the first time in this session. Having a CRE to examine all policy options and publishing them is new. I am not surprised, therefore, it has not been fully embraced in its first year of operation. However, I would hope that next year it will happen early enough. This is a...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: We are debating taxation, which is not in my remit. I am not the Minister with responsibility for taxation. I presume Deputy Spring has rehearsed these arguments with the Minister for Finance. I agree with the Deputy that we have asked the people to carry a heavy burden to date. We will have to ask them to carry further burdens but that can only be done on the basis of solidarity and...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: Is that a document which the Deputy generated or is it the one I circulated to members?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: The Deputy is referring to a committee document. It was not generated by my Department. I cannot comment on his figures, therefore.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I would have to see the specific figures to provide a full answer. As I explained in my opening statement, the pensions Vote is included in these figures. The pensions Vote is not an exact science because we have yet to determine the number of people who will retire. We make provision on a guesstimate because everyone in the public service over the age of 60 is entitled to retire and we...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: The Deputy is comparing two separate projections. I have not yet settled next year’s Estimate. These are indicative figures. The Deputy is asking why there is a difference between the figure projected last year and the one projected this year.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I cannot specifically account for €88 million but they are of the nature of the aforementioned matters.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: Of course. I am trying to be as accurate as I can in giving the Deputy the outline of the figures. We are close enough to settling the figures for next year and I will provide them. The idea of this discussion is for the Deputy to make suggestions about reductions or about where we should target spending to make bigger reductions elsewhere, because that is the kind of Department we are,...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I will pick up on a few of the points, none of which is particularly relevant to my Department but which, none the less, are welcome to be heard. Getting an understanding from our European counterparts has been one of the priorities of the Government from day one. As I told the committee previously, there are three strands to our economic policy. The first, which is the most talked about,...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: I know exactly what we need but I am also trying to-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: If I could sign the write-down, as Deputy Mathews will be aware, I and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, would do that tomorrow. The problem is we must convince people. Argument is important and we marshal our argument as best we can and use whatever tools and leverage we have in this regard. We need to make progress on the banking debt, and we have made substantial progress. It...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure and Reform Vote: Discussion with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (17 Oct 2012)
Brendan Howlin: It matters little what Ministers say if the Heads of Government unanimously have made a determination to make that link.