Results 18,461-18,480 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: I am sure no one has counted the number. These matters arise daily. Any request for expenditure from the Central Fund will be made to the Exchequer section of the Department of Finance. This procedure will continue, but the request will be made by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. It will not generate any great new bureaucratic difficulty. It might lead to better oversight...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 27: In page 12, subsection (4)(b), line 37, to delete "that enactment" and substitute "those Acts apply or that enactment".

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: The order of 1980 refers only to transfer orders under section 4. I have consulted the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel and do not believe it is necessary to refer specifically to the section in this provision. For drafting purposes, the amendment in the name of Deputy Sean Fleming has proved helpful. He has obviously been thorough and I commend him for making this suggestion. When the...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 29: In page 13, subsection (2), line 6, to delete "consult" and substitute "consult with each other". Section 17 relates to the functions of economic planning and development that may be performed by the Minister for Finance or the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. The amendment clarifies that the Ministers should consult each other in the performance of these...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: The legislative basis for that Department is still in place. It was simply incorporated into the role of the Minister for Finance. Since the legislative function of economic planning and development continues, we are reciting it as something in respect of which both Ministers will have a role. We will consult each other on economic development matters.

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: I thank the Deputy.

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: What did he say?

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: I am grateful to the Deputy for having trust in me and his attempt to ensure I will not be overshadowed on budget day. As I stated just before he returned to the Chamber, I have a good relationship with the Minister for Finance and we have enough to do individually to keep us occupied. In fact, at recent Cabinet meetings, where I sit beside the Minister for Finance, he told me he believed...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 31: In page 13, subsection (2), line 30, to delete paragraph (j) and substitute the following: "(j) Financial Services Ombudsman's Bureau; (k) Financial Services Ombudsman Council.". This amendment provides for the inclusion of the Finance Services Ombudsman's Council in the list of bodies under the aegis of the Minister for Finance. Functions in relation to the...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy has raised a good question to which I do not have an answer. However, I will obtain an answer for him as part of the comprehensive review of expenditure undertaken. My attitude does not differ much from that of the Deputy opposite. In the current financial straits in which we find ourselves, every agency of State and expenditure must be justified. When drawing up the reform...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 32: In page 13, before section 20, but in Part 3, to insert the following new section: 20.—(1) A function (including a function consisting of the power to make a statutory instrument) of the Minister for Finance performed or purportedly performed by the Minister after the commencement of this Part, shall be deemed to have been validly performed by the Minister for...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: I should have included it. Amendment No. 34 provides for a situation where doubt arises as to which Minister has responsibility for any particular function vested under this Act. The Deputy probably raised this matter, which is not unique. While I do not expect there to be any doubt, in the event of doubt arising about a particular function being the responsibility of the Minister for...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: If the Deputy had only been here in 1939, he would be very familiar with it.

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: Is that not very far-seeing?

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy is being a little mischievous. It is not at all untoward for this sort of provision to be inserted. The Deputy says he might have understood it in terms of the Second World War but, of course, we did not have the Second World War in Ireland.

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: We had the Emergency, and I think we have an emergency now - we have an economic emergency. There are those out there who think that current conditions, in terms of the parlous state of the economy, are akin to a war. What is laid out here is fundamental change - the Deputy is correct in that. We are creating a structure that is fundamentally different from the Department of Finance that...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: I was anxious this architecture would come about because of the analysis we had done in advance of the general election that required, if genuine reform was to be achieved, a Cabinet Minister with access to the expenditure line. We were advised by the best authorities who had carried out significant public sector reform abroad that this was the model to replicate. I had meetings with the...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: The Deputy makes a valid point. We must examine all these organisations. I was looking at the full functioning of the council and it has an important function. It appoints the Financial Services Ombudsman and his deputy. We will look at that in due course when the committee is up and running to see what each of the bodies created in the past does, if it is still fit purpose, whether there...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 33: In page 13, before section 20, but in Part 3, to insert the following new section: 21.—(1) A function (including a function consisting of the power to make a statutory instrument) of the Minister performed or purportedly performed by the Minister for Finance shall be deemed to have been validly performed by the Minister, if, at the time of the performance or...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (23 Jun 2011)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 34: In page 13, before section 20, but in Part 3, to insert the following new section: 22.—If any doubt, question, or dispute arises as to the Minister of the Government in whom any particular function is vested by virtue of this Act, such doubt, question, or dispute shall be determined by the Taoiseach.