Results 11,601-11,620 of 12,388 for speaker:Paul Murphy

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Ukrainian Conflict (16 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: 691. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his views on the sanctions by the G7 states against Russia. [23785/15]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Patronage (16 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: 740. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her views on the existence of a religious ethos in education; her further views that this has a negative impact on employment equality in education; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23788/15]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: I thank Professor McHale for the presentation. I want to take up where Deputy Boyd Barrett left off concerning water charges and the EUROSTAT test being off-balance sheet. The test is that over 50% of the revenue comes from market sources in effect. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: Based on figures from the stability programme update and from the Department of Finance, Professor McHale is estimating that €500 million is down as revenue, domestic and non-domestic charges, and €400 million is support from the local government fund and the Exchequer. Would it be correct to say that Irish Water would fail the off-balance sheet market test if the total revenue...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: Only billable revenue?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: If one company in the whole country pays, and no one else paid, it would still pass the test because it is only billable revenue.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: Is that a formal note or assessment by EUROSTAT on how it will assess it? Where did Professor McHale get that information? I do not mean to put him on the spot.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: Yes. That is no problem.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: Okay. That is interesting.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: That is interesting because if that had not been the case, and if the support from the Exchequer was counted, one could then do the figures based on that. For example, one could estimate a 50% rate of non-payment and the domestic water charges would result in Irish Water failing the EUROSTAT test. Therefore, it is obviously extremely important how that is calculated. Another issue in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: Let us take 2014, for example. If one looks at the figures in mid-2014 and the different factors that make up GDP, all of them - personal consumption, Government expenditure, gross fixed capital formation and exports - with the exception of net exports, were lower at that point in mid-2014 than they were pre-crisis. The exception was gross exports which were miles above net exports.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: It is beginning to climb. How those export figures are calculated is extremely important and has an extremely significant impact on the total GDP figures.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: Therefore, as regards the point Professor McHale is raising - and he is not the only one to have raised it - about contract manufacturing, as I understand it, from mid-2013 to 2014 according to the national accounts, goods exports had increased by 18.4%. According to the external trade statistics, however, they had increased by 1%, the difference being contract manufacturing. It is not the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: Professor McHale does not think it has any substantial impact on GDP. One could have multinational or Irish corporations here that are contracting the production of whatever products in China or elsewhere, which are exported elsewhere and have nothing to do with the Irish economy in reality. If that contract manufacturing was stripped out and not counted, it would not make any difference in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: I have just one general remark, which is not meant to be personally offensive to any of the witnesses. I have a real problem with the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, or IFAC, in the sense that its role and the way in which it has been set up is part of the deliberate technocratisation of decision-making. It is making economics not something that is political, but the idea that there is a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: That is exactly the point of it. I agree.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (11 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: To stop democratic pressures from below. That is the idea that defines everything else.

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Water Services Provision (11 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: 23. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will report on any meetings he had with his Department's officials and Irish Water on prospective legislation on water services. [22332/15]

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Homelessness Strategy (11 Jun 2015)

Paul Murphy: 30. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he is aware of the Focus Ireland report on family homelessness in the Dublin area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22331/15]