Results 8,341-8,360 of 32,643 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Departmental Policies (16 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: The paper to which the Deputy refers calls for higher levels of borrowing to increase public spending on housing, but it is important that we place this discussion in full context. Last year, a general government deficit of €18½ billion was recorded – the equivalent of nearly 9 per cent of modified gross national income (GNI*). For this year, the Stability Programme...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Insurance Industry (16 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy will be aware that the Programme for Government includes a commitment to work to remove dual pricing, a form of differential pricing, from the insurance market. In this regard, the Action Plan for Insurance Reform also commits to examine the forthcoming final report and recommendations of the Central Bank Review of Differential Pricing in the Motor and Home Insurance Marketsand...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Electric Vehicles (16 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I can inform the Deputy that the Department of Finance has no record of purchasing any vehicles in 2020 or to date in 2021.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (15 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 65, 71, 79 to 81,inclusive, 88, 92, 95, 100, 102, 105, 120, 130 and 384 together. This has been an absolutely vital scheme. I will deal with County Carlow where, to date, under the employment wage subsidy scheme 6,800 employees have participated in the employment wage subsidy scheme. Prior to this, it was the temporary wage subsidy scheme and the number...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (15 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I very much agree with the analysis put forward by the Deputy. This scheme has made a massive difference to workers and employers throughout the country. As the Deputy knows, the Government has made the decision to extend the scheme to the end of this year, in a completely unchanged way for the next quarter and with a view to seeing whether we can make some slight changes to the scheme in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (15 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I congratulate the Deputy in advance of tomorrow. It is great to know that this week 100,000 citizens from throughout the country will be getting either their first or second jab. This will continue in the weeks and months of this year. In any decision the Government will make regarding supports in future there must be a balance. We cannot keep the supports we have in place in an...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Insurance Industry (15 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. The Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, and I are very much aware of that reality and the challenge many small businesses face with the rising cost of insurance. It is the reason this and the previous Government have had such a focus on this matter. It is the reason the Minister of State has worked previously with the former Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, and the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Insurance Industry (15 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: This is about the regulation of a sector through an independent regulator with the power to hold firms to account where there are practices not in keeping with regulation or where there is a breach of law. I accept the point that the general matters I refer to may not be of solace to the specific company referred to by the Deputy, but it is the implementation of these policies by the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Financial Services (15 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. My officials, and officials in the Central Bank of Ireland, as our independent regulator, have been carefully monitoring developments to identify potential challenges in banking and financial services that could arise from Brexit and to take steps to prevent them occurring or, if that is not possible, to mitigate them. Thus far Brexit has had limited impact on the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Financial Services (15 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I believe there are going to be further opportunities to grow the financial services sector here and to gain additional jobs. This is something the IDA is working very hard to deliver at the moment. To date we have been successful in attracting additional investment into our country as a result of the efforts of the IDA and the Department of Finance. The priorities I have at the moment are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Financial Services (15 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. The opportunities really are there. Our opportunities are more likely to relate to how we can increase the scale of the employers which are currently here, and how we can encourage them to have more operations and functions located here. If one looks at where we stand from an employer point of view, the breadth of employer and the breadth of investor we have at the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Insurance Industry (15 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for her question. As she will be aware, I am not in a position, nor indeed is the Central Bank, to intervene in the provision or pricing of insurance. This position is reinforced by the EU framework for insurance, called the Solvency II Directive. Consequently, companies cannot be directed as to how they price their policies or what terms and conditions they apply in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic (15 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I very much agree with what the Deputy said. In towns and villages throughout our country, there are small businesses that are even more important now than they normally would be. That is why the Government has put in place so many supports to help them. It is why we have the warehousing of tax liabilities and an employment wage subsidy scheme that is due to continue until the end of this...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Policy (15 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: The financial resolution passed by the Dáil on 19 May provides for a new higher stamp duty rate of 10% where at least ten residential units, excluding apartments, are acquired by an individual or corporate entity such as a company in any 12-month period. This new measure is triggered when a residential unit is acquired on or after 20 May 2021, with the look-back 12-month period...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Policy (15 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I made those decisions motivated by how we can put in place policies that deal with the issue that needed to be dealt with, which was the bulk purchase of family houses, while getting the balance right also allowing more apartments to be built in the future. I have information on the kinds of purchases, including forward purchases, that took place in recent years. However, on the question...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Policy (15 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: The 10% stamp duty rate is ten times what is applied under the standard rate. It is one third higher than the stamp duty rate that applies for commercial property. It is many times higher than the standard rate of stamp duty because of the intention I have to deter these kinds of purchases in the future. Of course, it must be seen in conjunction with the other aspect of that policy,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Economic and Social Research Institute (15 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputies for the different questions. In response to Deputy Nash, the answer is yes, I do. I am well aware of all the challenges faced by so many with regard to housing. We are putting in place a huge amount of additional investment to respond to it. I will say to Deputy Connolly that I am aware of it and I have read it. I agree with some but not all of it. Am I going to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Economic and Social Research Institute (15 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I have beliefs about the value of our society and great beliefs regarding the role of a strong State to meet the needs of our society. That is what I, this Government and the previous Government have been working so hard to do in responding to the many needs and challenges we know are there for our citizens in finding the homes they need at affordable prices and rents. I acknowledge that we...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic (15 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: One of the Department’s main concerns is to ensure that SMEs have access to sufficient lending or liquidity and that access to credit for SMEs is maintained. The Government has announced a range of measures to assist companies to deal with the consequences of the Covid-19 restrictions and to ensure that they have access to sufficient liquidity. Lenders are obliged, under the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic (15 Jun 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I respectfully suggest to the Deputy that I do not believe my answer missed the question she put to me. She asked me a question about credit scores. I made the point that we have credit records rather than credit scores and I outlined the way in which that would be dealt with by banks and by the regulator. A point on which I agree with the Deputy is that we, of course, want to put in place...