Results 15,921-15,940 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: There is a certain irony, if not contradiction, in the view being expressed by the Senator now and the view he expressed in the context of the last amendment. Apparently, if Members of the Oireachtas are out for two years, by way of an election, they should not be allowed to come back into the same scheme but he wants to provide that for everybody else, in this particular amendment. There...

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: We had a very good debate on this matter and many valid arguments were made. I am inclined right now, because of the pressures on employment and so on, to leave an upper age limit in place and I believe 70 is a fair upper limit. Most people, to put it bluntly, would like to retire well in advance of 70. Some limit is required in order to have proper workforce planning. It is very...

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: Before Senator Cullinane gets a second go perhaps I will get a first go.

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: Senator Cullinane misunderstands the structure of this legislation entirely. No pension calculation in the legislation is based on a monetary amount. It is based on a career average. Senator Bacik rightly noted that it would be unwise to insert a notional capped figure in money terms of €60,000, or €37,500 for an Oireachtas Member, payable to all new entrants in 40 years' time....

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: It is €200,000, and that is for the here and now, not 40 years hence.

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: Senator Byrne is absolutely right.

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I am trying to talk logic as opposed to politics. By and large, when I talk to Sinn Féin, either in this House or in the Dáil, I find I am talking to media-driven Members whose focus is not on the debate but on how it is perceived outside. The soundbite is everything.

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I know free speech has come lately to Sinn Féin.

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: That is a simple fact. The Senator can shout people down all he likes, in the best fascist tradition. In a House of Parliament we allow free speech and the sharing of ideas. If one does not like them one listens and then argues against them. One does not shout people down.

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: Or interrupt them constantly.

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: It is not different. It is the same thing. It is bullying. Let me deal with the basic issue, which is a simple one. The way we avoid having huge pensions in the future is to base them on a career average so that one's pension is not related to one's final salary. That is the basic model. What happened in the past will not, therefore, be replicated. In that context, plonking in a...

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I cannot accept the amendment because it would delete the section and the net impact of that would be that there would be no fast accrual for those special services such as members of the Garda and the Permanent Defence Force and the normal scheme would apply to them. That is not what the Senator intends but it would be the effect of deleting the section. This is a special provision to...

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: My father was a trade union official.

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: He taught me the basic rule of trade unionism from an early age. It is when you are asked what you want the answer is always "more".

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I am the son a trade unionist. I was brought up in a trade union household. The job of a trade union is to represent its members. Whatever is on offer, it wants to do a better job. It is logical that trade unions want more. Our job is to be fair and balanced and to do a job for the taxpayer. The most important element of any public servant's pension in the future is to say that the...

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I explained this in the other House when a similar amendment was tabled. The Senator supports the idea of indexing in reference to the consumer price index but he wants to remove the mechanism I have suggested and insert the words "Pensions payable under the scheme shall be indexed in line with the Consumer Price Index." The problem with that is it does not state the "how" or the "where"....

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: It does not state that. Is it every six months, every year or every two years? There is no mechanism in what the-----

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: There is no logic in law.

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: There is no logic in regard to this. It is what is written down, and that would be a moot assertion because one would not know when, how or who would declare it. In the section I have given the power to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to bring it into effect. The section explains that the CPI will be examined in the second year after the scheme comes into operation, and an...

Seanad: Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2012)

Brendan Howlin: I understand the views of the Senators, which they expressed on Second Stage. Senator Cullinane accepts the principle of applying the consumer price index and therefore I presume he is not opposing this section. I did not hear him say whether he was or was not opposing it but if he believes that increases related to the CPI is the way to go, then they are the way to go for everybody. We...