Results 5,041-5,060 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: It is in place at present as a series of sovereign funds. The intention is that, as with the resolution fund, it will progress towards mutualisation. There are three phases to the proposed implementation. From 2017 to 2020 is the reinsurance phase for national deposit guarantee schemes, DGSs. From 2020 to 2024, we move to a co-insurance scheme. Finally, a full insurance scheme for the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: The resolution fund builds up over an eight-year period and it is only at the end of this period that it will be fully mutualised. During the intermediary steps in year one, member states will be using national funds and a very small proportion of the mutualised fund. Bridging finance arises in a scenario where a bank in a particular euro jurisdiction gets into difficulty and when one goes...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: During the Irish Presidency, we put FTT on the agenda so that those countries that wanted to move ahead, in a context where there was no hope of unanimity, would be able to do so. At the time the participants thought they would make quick progress but they have not. Eleven countries are involved and very little progress has been made.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: Yes, 11 countries.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: We are constructively engaged, as we always are, on these issues. Commissioner Moscovici is now in charge. He indicated at a meeting, which must be 12 months ago, that he was withdrawing the original CCCTB proposals and would come back with alternative proposals. He stated his intention to build a new proposal of a more limited design on what he thought were the aspects that were agreed in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: There is not the relationship to which the Deputy refers but the Commission is looking at implementing anti-BEPS measures at EU level, perhaps a directive as a first step. It is an attempt to bring in new CCCTBs. so there is that connection. The Commission proposal to implement the OECD's recommendations in a consistent way across the European Union is expected in January 2016. Ireland is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: Different countries would have a different perspective on the Stability and Growth Pact. The difficulties arise not in the rules but in the implementation of the rules. Certain countries look for flexibility in the implementation of the rules. The two calls on the table at present is that extra security spending in European countries to combat terrorism should be exempt from the rules and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: We have a number of issues, one of which is we would like flexibility in order to make the application of the rules more growth friendly. Let me give the example of relaxing the rules for investments and structural reform in the preventive arm. We have gone through eight years of recession and it is quite clear that during that eight year period the kinds of investment that would normally...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: The rule maker and the rule administrator for Ireland as for all other European countries is the European Commission. We deal with the Commission. The Fiscal Council has a separate and distinct role. It is very important that it should be free to give a view that is different from that of the Government. One of the problems identified in the recent past was that contrarian views were not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: First, I will provide a context. From the start of 2014 until the end of 2016, the increase in expenditure is forecast to be 4%, the increase in taxation receipts to be 15% and the increase in GDP to be 18%. Therefore, when we run the comparative figures, the Government is extraordinarily prudent in how it manages the finances of the State. In its recent report, the Irish Fiscal Advisory...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: Everybody is aware of how strong the FDI sector is in Ireland. If we look at the recent job figures, less than 20% of the jobs were created in FDI companies. Some 80% of the jobs were created across the economy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: Yes, because -----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: The Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee voted to adopt a legislative report bringing transparency, co-ordination, convergence to the corporate tax policies in the Union on 1 December 2015, yesterday. This report asks the European Commission to table measures to improve corporate tax transparency, co-ordination and EU-wide policy convergence. The recommendations contained in the report...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: The relevant Commissioner, the former Finance Minister of Denmark, Commission Margrethe Vestager, has said she does not think that will fly. There is no legal basis for it. If there is a rebate, it will go to the sovereigns which should have collected the tax in the view of the European Union in the first instance.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: The Commission has asked the equivalent of supplementary questions and we are providing the replies now. The work is going on now. From the date we received the request, we estimate it will take about three weeks. We should be able to send the material requested before Christmas. Any possible decision has now gone into the new year, however. The other relevant information in which the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: That is right. Obviously, we broadened the tax base by introducing property tax and eliminating a great many tax breaks particularly in building and construction. One could also argue that we broadened the tax base by charging for scarce resources such as water. The Deputy was saying that because we exempted another 40,000 people from USC in the last budget and because we reduced the two...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: The OECD was acting as the correspondent with the G20. It is the OECD which has completed its work. Separately, the Commission took a hand in things. The common consolidated corporate tax base, CCCTB, was a Commission initiative which was not going anywhere fast. When Commissioner Muscovici took office with the other new Commissioners last year, he announced very quickly that he would...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: That is not the direct line, but there would have been conversations between the Commission and the OECD and a general acceptance of the BEPS reports across the Union.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: It may bring forward a new anti-base erosion and profit shifting directive and legislate to provide a legislative base for the recommendations made by the OECD.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (1 Dec 2015)

Michael Noonan: It will signpost it in early 2016, but legislation takes a while, as the Acting Chairman knows. There is no resiling from the BEPS reports in any country. From my short experience on the G20 when Ireland had the Presidency, I note that the G20 countries were very hot on this topic and committed to getting the OECD to carry out a full report and see it through to implementation in all OECD...