Results 8,521-8,540 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: State Banking Sector (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: I am not sure of the weight that should be attributed to Rolling Stonemagazine in terms of being a financial adviser. If it was me, I would telephone Mick Jagger rather than read the magazine if I was looking for financial advice.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: State Banking Sector (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: The position is that we anticipated a year or so ago that we would have a need for advice and three panels were put together of possible advisers with different areas of expertise. The panel from which we were getting advice to restructure AIB had 11 advisory groups on it, including Goldman Sachs. All 11 tendered and there was an objective selection process. Goldman Sachs was marginally...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: State Banking Sector (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: I have answered this question on innumerable occasions. The Government's policy position is that we do not intend retaining the banks and, in particular AIB, in public ownership indefinitely but indefinitely could stretch out a long way. I have been advised by my Swedish colleague that the last of the shares held by the Swedish Government in its banking system following the country's...

Other Questions: Bank Charges (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: All credit institutions in Ireland are independent commercial entities. I have no statutory in respect of the charges applied by them. Section 149 of the Consumer Credit Act 1995 requires that credit institutions, prescribed credit institutions and bureaux de change must make a submission to the Central Bank if they wish to introduce new customer charges or increase existing customer...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Gambling Legislation (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: The Betting (Amendment) Bill 2013 has been the subject of a number of delays, primarily arising from the need to ensure that the provisions relating to prosecution and enforcement were robust and the need to notify the EU Commission under the EU Technical Standards Directive. The Bill was first published in July 2012 but further work was required around the area of prosecution and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Gambling Legislation (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: Obviously, the delays were unsatisfactory but they were out of our hands. Most of the delays were caused by the directive of the European Commission to which I referred. The Committee Stage is now scheduled for 11 February in the Seanad. The Deputy will recall that we took out a whole section of the Bill about the longer opening hours for bookies' premises, etc., and enacted it in the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Gambling Legislation (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: Agreement between my Department and the Revenue Commissioners was achieved last summer. The further delays were to do with the technical directive from Europe. At the end of the process, there was an objective submitted to the Commission from the Maltese authorities and that had to run its course as well. After that three-month period elapsed, the European authorities are satisfied with...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: State Banking Sector (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: As the Deputy will be aware the Irish banking system is in a much stronger position than it has been in recent years. Profits are recovering, balance sheets have been restructured and we have started the process of returning cash to the taxpayer following the huge investments that were made over the 2009-11 period. Much of the banking-related work in the Department of Finance this year...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Debt Restructuring (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: I do not know what the new Greek finance Minister is tweeting because my Greek is very poor.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Debt Restructuring (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: I have friends in strange places so I am looking forward to meeting the Greek finance Minister for the first time at the next Eurogroup meeting in Brussels. It is up to the Greek Government to bring forward proposals on how to deal with its problem. It is not up to the other partners in Europe to be the initiators. It is up to the Greek Government to ask for what it wants. When it asks...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Debt Restructuring (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: I thank the Deputy for his question. While the Greek debt to GDP ratio is currently very high, my view is that when countries encounter difficulties, a process of negotiation is always better than one of conflict. Specifically in the case of euro area member states, all programme negotiations have been conducted within the Eurogroup and ECOFIN, with IMF involvement as appropriate. My view...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Debt Restructuring (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: Different things have been said by the representatives of the new Greek Government during the election campaign and since the election. So far there has not been a consistent set of demands. Different people have said different things, or at least different people have been putting a different degree of emphasis on what they have been saying. We will see what the Greek ask is at the end of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Debt Restructuring (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: I would not exonerate anybody. There is always poetry during the campaign and prose when one must govern. Greece is in the prose stage now and we will see the hard proposals. I read with interest the reports of the press conference in London with Chancellor George Osborne and the Greek finance Minister. I thought an interesting set of proposals emerged. It is incorrect to state a...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Debt Restructuring (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: Austerity in Ireland ended more than 12 months ago. The most recent budget imposed no new expenditure cuts or no new taxes, and a significant amount of tax relief was given in the budget, both in terms of reductions in universal social charge and in income tax. Deputy Paul Murphy can keep singing the same song, but it is the hit parade of last year or two years ago. There is no austerity...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: NAMA Operations (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: There is no pressure from me or the Department of Finance. What I have outlined in the House is the mandate for NAMA which it is fulfilling very satisfactorily. As market conditions and its perception of them change, NAMA speed up or slows down disposals. I understand market conditions are very good and that NAMA is speeding up disposals. I do not know where the figure of €8...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Debt Restructuring (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: Prior to the recent elections in Greece, I was asked my view on the need for a European debt conference, given the high level of public debt in Greece. My position was and remains that the best method of addressing the issue is through multilateral discussions, rather than unilateral action. Specifically, in the case of euro area member states, all programme negotiations have been conducted...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Debt Restructuring (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: The Irish debt position is entirely sustainable. The problem is in Greece, not in Ireland. If one looks at the money raised by the NTMA since Christmas, yesterday a 30-year bond was issued for the first time in the history of the State. Some 380 investors wished to buy 30-year Irish paper, at just over 2%. If we are getting money for 30 years at a rate of 2%, it is very hard to say...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: NAMA Operations (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: I thank the Deputy for the question. I am advised that the NAMA chief executive, in his opening address to the Committee of Public Accounts in December 2014, stated that NAMA is aiming to redeem a cumulative 80% - that is €24 billion - of its senior debt by the end of 2016 and that it hopes it will have redeemed all of it by the end of 2018. He stated that those targets were...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: NAMA Operations (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: There is no change in the indicative dates given by the chairman and the chief executive and it is hoped, market conditions permitting, that NAMA will have disposed of all its assets by 2018. It expects also to show a surplus at the end of that period. The stories there were a few years ago of a black hole emerging in NAMA are not correct. As the Deputy said, it will at least break even...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Corporation Tax Regime (4 Feb 2015)

Michael Noonan: Last year, the Competition Directorate of the European Commission announced their intention to open formal state aid investigations into tax rulings provided to a number of companies in various Member States of the European Union.  This announcement is part of a much wider review of tax ruling practice that is currently being undertaken by the European Commission and recently the...