Results 61-80 of 29,292 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: On that basis, I will withdraw amendment No. 2.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 4: In page 9, lines 12 and 13, to delete "in relation to a political matter or matter of Government policy" and substitute "in relation to a matter of political controversy". On the same basis, I will withdraw this amendment with the leave to resubmit it on Report Stage.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: In my contribution on Second Stage, I said that I have not heard any articulation of a coherent reason the Secretary General should be a member of the oversight body. The oversight body is the most important proposal in this legislation. It is the fundamental anchor of the legislation in terms of what it can do for the Defence Forces into the future. I have not been heavily involved in the...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: That is my point.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: Of course you have if the Secretary General is a member.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: I am fully in agreement with the Minister. It needs to be an external oversight body that is not spancelled or conditioned in any way. That is why an argument can be made for excluding members of the Defence Forces because we do not want there to be lobbyists within it. However, I see the Secretary General as a lobbyist within it, who could condition the outcome. The Tánaiste made a...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: I am fully in agreement that it has to be external. That is why I want to go the whole hog, not two thirds of the way, by excluding the Secretary General. The role of the Chief of Staff will be redefined, if I understand the Tánaiste’s response to my first amendment.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: No, but make the role of the Chief of Staff more analogous to the Commissioner of An Garda Síochána. I am only guessing that he or she would report directly to the Tánaiste and would be responsible for the Vote, the deployment for resources and so on in a way whereby there would be a separation of the fiscal role of the Department and the functional administrative role of the...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: Nobody is suggesting that.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: What about resourcing, for example?

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No 13: In page 25, line 32, to delete “other than the Secretary General”. I will withdraw this amendment on the basis that I will resubmit it on Report Stage and we will deal with it then.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 15: In page 27, to delete lines 11 to 36, and in page 28, to delete lines 1 to 5 and substitute the following: "(ii) by the deletion of subsection (3), and". This proposes the deletion of subsection (3),which means proposed wording such as the following would not be included in the Bill: Where the Minister, having considered the representations, if any, made in...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: The amendment proposes to delete a lot of section 23, one subsection of which states: "[t]he Minister may, notwithstanding subsection (3), authorise in writing an association to be associated with a trade union or any other body outside of the Defence Forces". It is extraordinary. I read it out in detail on Second Stage. When we read it out it is extraordinarily prescriptive in terms of...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: My father was a trade union official.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: If you ask trade union officials what they want, the answer is "more".

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: If we read it, it sounds as though we are allowing it to be a trade union after a fashion-----

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: Yes but the Minister may, notwithstanding the authorisation, authorise an association to be associated with a trade union or any other body outside of the Defence Forces in such cases, in such manner and subject to such conditions or restrictions as he or she may specify. They can organise but in such a way, and in such fashion and subject to it. The section goes on to state the...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: Will the Tánaiste even consider making the language less restrictive?

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: It is not in the final draft of the Bill.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: I withdraw the amendment. I will wait for the Tánaiste to come back on Report Stage with his own amendment and retain the right to resubmit mine just in case.