Results 15,621-15,640 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: Sometimes I reel at the brass neck of Fianna Fáil. Why are we reducing the capital programme? Why are we reducing expenditure at all? We are doing it because Fianna Fáil ruined us. Under the programme that the previous Government set before we came into office, a deficit of 2.9% had to be reached by 2014. As a result of our negotiations with the troika, that has been pushed...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I saw the Deputy doing politics when he was grandstanding yesterday.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: Is the Deputy going to walk out again?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy must not be reading his speeches.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy is not reading his speeches.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy wishes that were the case.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: They have not forgotten the damage done by the Deputy's party.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: The people changed the Government last year. Unfortunately, they could not change the economy. We are fixing the broken economy that was left to us by the previous Government. We will fix it in our five-year term. I know the Deputy and his colleagues will not be of any help. Last year, we received their pre-budget submission the day before the budget, which was a most helpful input into...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: Walk out again. Go on.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy shouts people down and walks out because he cannot take it.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: The problem with the Deputy is that he wants to declare year zero, as Pol Pot did, so that everything that happened before his party left office, having wrecked the economy, will be forgotten. That is not going to happen. We are setting out the record as it is. We are working incrementally to fix things. I have set out the three strands of the economic policy we will deliver. The first...

Other Questions: Public Sector Reform Review (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I am happy to confirm that the public service reform agenda has contributed to the Government's success to date in meeting all the budgetary targets we set under the medium-term fiscal statement of November 2011 and the broader EU-IMF programme. In particular, the move to introduce a medium-term expenditure framework, as set out in last December’s comprehensive 2012-14 expenditure...

Other Questions: Public Sector Staff Remuneration (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: Current estimates indicate that those on annual salaries of more than €100,000 represent less than 2% of the 292,000 whole-time equivalent staff who are employed in the public service at present.

Other Questions: Public Sector Staff Remuneration (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: This question is being taken individually. The number of staff on salaries of more than €100,000 who are eligible for increments is much smaller than the number of staff on more than €100,000. With regard to the payment of increments to this cohort of staff, my Department has access to detailed data on increments only in the Civil Service, for which I have direct responsibility....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Allowances Review (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: From whom does the Deputy want me to take money?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Allowances Review (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I am doing that.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Allowances Review (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: There are a number of questions to deal with. I will deal, first, with the issue of high earners. The Sinn Féin position has always been very clear. It suggests some nebulous rich tax could be imposed that would solve all of our problems, that no general tax need be levied and that there is no need to cut any service. The number of high earners in the public service who earn more...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Allowances Review (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: It is, in fact, less than 6,000.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Allowances Review (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I will give the Deputy the exact figures when we reach that question. She spoke about the targeting of young teachers. I do not have the exact figure, but a young teacher starting off is on a salary of approximately €32,000. In order to not double the impact on teachers whose starting pay is now 10% lower than it was and whose allowance for obtaining a degree has been removed, we...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation Issues (10 Oct 2012)

Brendan Howlin: On 17 July the Government announced its plans for an additional €2.25 billion investment in public infrastructure projects. The most important contribution capital investment can now make is in providing the capacity for the economy to grow which will, in turn, create employment. The stimulus package included €1.4 billion to fund the proposed new public private partnerships,...