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Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Indexation of Taxation and Social Protection System: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Feb 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I thank the Chair. I appreciate the presentation and the written documentation from Dr. Keane. I have a couple of questions. There has been more discussion of indexation over the last period than there was in the preceding decade, for different reasons. Let us say we were to index social welfare rates in the context of budget 2022. If we were to index, for example, the core working age...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Indexation of Taxation and Social Protection System: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Feb 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Maybe Dr. Keane will come in on the second point but to pick up on what Dr. Doorley said, it refers to a projection but obviously we now know those figures are grossly wrong. It went from 2.1% to 5.5%. Dr. Doorley said the €5 increase was in line, or thereabouts, with inflation. Therefore, it would need to be increased by say €5, €6 or €7 to meet the real cost...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Indexation of Taxation and Social Protection System: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Feb 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Is that the best way to deal with that? Looking at where we are with inflation, there is another point I want to talk about on the average rate of inflation and the impact that has on lower-income deciles and households. If we were to keep pace with what the Central Statistics Office, CSO, is reflecting about price increases there would have to be an extra €5, €6 or €7...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Indexation of Taxation and Social Protection System: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Feb 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I hear Dr. Doorley's point on the discretionary options and there is legislation now being published to assist households with energy costs to a value of €100 before VAT. If you wanted to keep pace with inflation, and looking again at social welfare recipients, there would need to be an extra, say, €6 on average increase in social welfare rates. In the absence of that, those...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Indexation of Taxation and Social Protection System: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Feb 2022)

Pearse Doherty: No, that is perfect. I have been engaged with the Central Statistics Office, CSO, on how it calculates inflation. Obviously, the average figure is accurate and all the rest, but it does not really reflect the fact that we all, as individuals, are placed on the income scale and have different baskets and, therefore, have different rates of inflation. As Dr. Doorley knows, the Office for...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Indexation of Taxation and Social Protection System: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Feb 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I appreciate that answer. I agree with Dr. Keane's analysis. They are very close for all deciles when there is low inflation, as we have experienced for well over a decade. However, when there are spikes, there is that divergence. I thank Dr. Keane for that.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I welcome the Minister of State to the committee. Many of my questions deal with flood risk management. In the capital allocation for 2021, €88 million was allocated for flood risk management. In 2020 it was €88 million. Back in 2019 the chair of the Office of Public Works made a pitch to the Department that the funding needed in 2019 was €103 million, in 2020 was...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I understand that. That is a very genuine issue, which we have discussed previously. I acknowledge that issue, but it has nothing to do with the fact that funding requested by the OPW was left €70 million short over those three years. Let me give the Minister of State an analogy. If ten schemes are approved and, as he said, funding has to be profiled for those schemes, and we...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Pearse Doherty: When the €70 million that was requested was not provided, it meant other schemes that could have been sanctioned and where the train could have left the station, were not able to do so because the money was not profiled.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Is the reason the allocation was €70 million less than the chairperson of the OPW requested over three years because the Minister of State believed it could not be spent anyway? Is that what he is trying to say to me?