Results 17,501-17,520 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin
- Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: The Deputy should get out to Dún Laoghaire more often.
- Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: On a procedural issue, I ask the Acting Chairman how we are going to deal with questions. Will I answer each question, or will they be grouped? I am anxious that there is real debate.
- Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: Deputy McConalogue raised this first, followed by Deputies McHugh and McDonald. We have deferred major road projects - that is one of the decisions we made - and the A5 is one of these projects. The political commitment to the A5 remains. Before we made any announcement, I and the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport had a meeting with our Northern Ireland equivalents, the Minister...
- Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: Cathaoirleach.
- Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: It is â¬1.6 billion.
- Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: I was hoping we could broaden the debate. Anybody can come in here and advocate for projects. I can give the Deputies another list of projects they could add to that. It is great, and they can read about it in the local papers if they want to. We are all advocates for everything. I had hoped that we might move to a different kind of debate - a debate about economic sustainability and...
- Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: We can have the mantra of Tommy Cooper economics: "Just like that." It will go away "just like that". Tell the bondholders to go away. Tell the ECB we do not need its money. The problem is that we do need its money. There is nobody else funding us. People are not fools; they want realistic debate. They will come to any committee to hear realistic debate. It is not an option, as the...
- Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: I will deal with Deputy Collins's point on the children's hospital first. Whatever Deputy Collins's view on the merits of the location, that is settled. The Government said it would carry out a review and we brought in an international panel to review it. We can review forever or we can do something and I believe it is time to do something. I disagree with the Deputy's point that the...
- Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: It is very important. In general terms all Government Departments will have a much more rigorous value for money audit system in place. I look forward to coming before the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service and the Committee of Public Accounts. I have written to the chairmen of both committees this week about the public service reform programme. I am interested in laying...
- Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: The figure is â¬750 million.
- Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: I will be as brief as I can. I am interested in considering and will cost any proposal from the other side of the House. We will give Members the facility to do that - they may already have been invited to do so - in a Chinese wall way, whereby proposals may be costed before they are submitted on the floor of the House. In terms of the capital spend, we are charged with making political...
- Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: I am pleased to confirm there is. I am a great advocate of regionalism. I support the notion that we must ensure there are access points into the regions. I met with Northern Ireland's finance Minister, Mr. Sammy Wilson, to discuss the matter in advance of our announcement on the A5 project. We will have a bilateral meeting on Friday in advance of the full North-South Ministerial Council...
- Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (Resumed) (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: I will address the questions in reverse order. In regard to the national lottery, I will put forward specific proposals. I cannot do so now, because there is a commercial sensitivity about what will be on offer. We have looked at what is done in the best countries in terms of income streams and how it can be best commercialised.
- Order of Business (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: It is not allowed.
- An Bille um an Aonú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (An tUachtarán) 2011 — An Chéad Chéim, Thirty-First Amendment of the Constitution (The President) Bill 2011 — First Stage (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: No.
- Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: Last week I set out the Government's capital spending programme for the next five years. It was part of a series of important announcements leading up to budget day. It commenced with my colleague, the Minister for Finance, publishing the medium term fiscal statement on 4 November and tomorrow I will announce a series of reforms in the public sector. As I emphasised last week when launching...
- Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: This review maintains existing planned levels of health capital investment into the medium term at â¬390 million a year or â¬1.95 billion over the period of the plan. This investment will allow for the replacement of the Central Mental Hospital and the national project for radiation oncology. For too long focus on mental health services has fallen off the table. I, along with the...
- Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: Over â¬800 million will also be invested in programmes through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, a significant increase on the programme signed off by our predecessors, bringing major economic and environmental benefits. It is important to note the agrifood sector's contribution to the economy has been largely resilient. While there have been calls to continue with a high...
- Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: That has been done already.
- Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Statements (16 Nov 2011)
Brendan Howlin: And the Central Mental Hospital is important too.