Results 15,481-15,500 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: Deputy Mathews and I are on the same page. He knows that this is what we are striving towards.
- 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 will make progress in the constructive dialogue we have had. We have made substantial progress. We should acknowledge what we have done. In terms of the interest payments, people said we could not get a better deal.
- 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 might help if I did not look at Deputy Mathews and spoke through the Chair.
- 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: What I am saying is we have made significant progress. From the beginning, in the first meeting I had with the troika in advance of going into Government, we indicated what we needed to achieve. We have progressed much further than I had expected we could in the first 18 months. We have a way to go and I am confident we will move further. The committee may be aware that the German...
- 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: Mr. Trichet has no function anymore.
- 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: Was Deputy Mathews here for-----
- 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 one does not allow public services to be paid for, they must be privatised. The Deputy is not campaigning against the private sector bin collectors in the same way as he campaigned against the public ones. He will probably adopt the same approach to water and other services. That is the very strategy that will ensure privatisation. Those of us who are interested in quality public...
- 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: Not in my county.
- 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 have an interest in everything the Deputy has to say.
- 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: What was the second proposal?
- 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: On every €1.
- 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: Believe it or not but I would agree with a lot of what Deputy Higgins has just said. There is an element, not only in the media, which wants to divide public sector workers and private sector workers. That is wrong. They are mutually dependent. Everybody in the State is dependent on decent public services when we or our family are sick, when our children go to school and when we want 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: I do not have the table.
- 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 have the table before me. Is there unallocated spend or is it the total?
- 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 table.
- 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 is not the documentation I have circulated to the committee today.
- 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: Yes, in essence, the figure we have to adjust next year is not a fixed quantum of money.
- 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 want to reach the deficit target. We will have to make a calculation on growth and tax revenues next year. It is like the old story of asking directions, when the person asked says if I were you I would not start from here. It depends on where we start from. The target outturn figure for this year is a deficit of 8.6%. We expect to be comfortably within the target. The previous...
- 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 the additional cost. I should advise the committee on the matter as I spoke about it on public radio. We had a discussion on the issue last week during Question Time when Deputy Fleming in particular made a reasonable request about whether I had investigated stopping increments for those earning more than €100,000. I did consider that. As I indicated, the bulk of increments...
- 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 stimulus package is not in the figures in that it is predicated on an external funding source, namely, the sale of State assets plus investment money from external investors including the European Investment Bank. We will explain how that fund is to be structured once we get closer to accruing money. It has been signalled that a number of State assets will go to market next year. I...