Results 8,201-8,220 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: The spend was €598,000 compared to a budget of €541,000. We have sought an allocation of €585,000 for 2015 to reflect the expenditure pressures arising from an increase in European Union and international engagements. Of this allocation, approximately €105,000 is allocated for ministerial travel, including the Minister of State and ministerial drivers. Key items...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: The spend was €347,000 in 2014 compared to an allocation of €649,000. The underspend was largely driven by a delay in progressing areas premises projects as tendering and procurement processes were required. We have sought an allocation of €1.389 million for 2015. This reflects the expected costs of a number of remedial and health and safety works required in the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: The 2014 allocation was €6.544 million and was provided to cover a wide range of deliverables including banking sector policy, personal debt, small and medium enterprise lending, financial services reform and the cost of implementing the national payments plan project, all of which were being led by the Department. The allocation sought for 2015 is €5.62 million, a reduction of...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: The 2014 allocation was €0.575 million. It was provided to enable the unit to continue its programme of rolling reviews of tax categories and expenditures. The committee will be aware that the division has been engaged in a number of legal challenges, which will continue during 2015. If, for example, the Apple case in Europe goes the distance, there will obviously be associated...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: There are no plans at present. The systems are technically outsourced to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, which handles them for us. It is still a Department.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: No. There is no major move in that regard.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: Some €4.3 million of the total the Deputy mentioned was for the banking sector, while €0.6 million was for the NPP and €0.27 million was for legislation. An example of the latter is the Central Bank Acts. A total of €0.5 million was for SME personal debt, mortgage arrears advice and services.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: We have re-tendered and we have appointed a panel of advisers across the areas in which we need advice. When something occurs and we need to draw on external advice, we have a competition between the advisers on the panel.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: A report published on our website sets out details of costs incurred by the Department in regard to all consultancy-type expenditure from 2008 to 2013. We are updating it and we will shortly publish the 2014 report. Cumulative spending at the end of 2013 was some €22 million. That is taking 2008 as the base year, with the period extending to the end of 2014. We expect that the 2014...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: The legal expenditure was €1.7 million. Many of the big companies would be involved. Arthur Cox does a significant amount of legal work for the Departments. It was paid €84,000. Various others - various barristers and individual advisers, including legal advisers - were paid.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: The sum of €4.3 million was the Estimate. The actual expenditure was €1.7 million.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: Yes. Owing to the forward provisioning for unexpected bills, especially legal bills, the Estimate tends to be inexact in this area. The Estimate was well ahead of the expenditure in 2014.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: There were some consultants. I do not have the detail to hand but we will forward it to the Deputy.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: Yes.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: It is just a matter of the sequencing of Estimates debates. Public expenditure was covered last week. There is no particular policy position on it. I would be as happy to take the Estimates on 15 January as on 18 February.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: We do not know until we are a little more into the year what the precise outturn is for some Votes. The calculations have not been finalised. That is the position.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: Dr. Don Thornhill did the original work of scoping out the possibilities of a property tax. He was a former Secretary General in the Department of Education. He has been a distinguished public servant for a long time. We asked him to do a desktop review, to generally examine how it worked out and to make some recommendations on it. The amount of money involved would be nugatory. It would...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: Yes. He is working on his own with the help of officials in the Revenue Commissioners and the Department. I spoke to him about it but I did not even raise the issue of a fee with him.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: He is a former civil servant. He was the head of the Competition Authority. The reason I asked him to do this job was that he did the original Thornhill report on the possibility of a property tax. The Deputy would be familiar with it. It was published and we discussed it at various points. It was the main piece of policy work on the property tax and it is frequently referenced. Coming...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (18 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: I am working on the basis that if there is a fee it will be pretty nominal. I would not regard it as a consultant's fee.