Results 18,461-18,480 of 35,924 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sports Capital Programme Applications (11 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: 693. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport when a decision will be made in respect of an application for the sports capital programme by a club (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32735/17]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: This is the Minister's first time in front of the committee and I hope we will have many good engagements during his period as Minister for Finance. As we enter into the budgetary process, he can trigger the process whereby his officials engage with members of the Opposition in the preparation of an alternative budget. It requires annual sanction and I ask him to sanction the process for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: I thank the Minister. I would not expect anything less of him and welcome his clarification on whether officials can engage with members of the Opposition. I wish to discuss the fiscal rules, the Commission's stance on the budget and banking union. This will be the Minister's second ECOFIN meeting and the first we have had a chance to discuss with him. Did he discuss the need for reform...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: It is welcome that the Minister raised the issue with the EIB. I have raised it with the governor and there is nothing to prevent the bank from continuing to invest in a non-European Union country. There should be special recognition for the North. It is now accepted across the board that there is a need for an adjustment to the fiscal rules and I encourage the Minister to put the matter...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: I appreciate that and the fact that Brexit will be a dominant factor for a number of years. Even without Brexit we still need a change to the fiscal rules. Everybody who is tuned in around this table knows there will be changes to the fiscal rules. There has to be because they are not working. They could not have worked because of the way they were designed and they are definitely not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: Is it the Minister's view, because I am a wee bit confused, given some of the major policy changes and given we have a new Minister for Finance and new Taoiseach, that we need changes to the fiscal rules?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: Does that mean changes to the fiscal rules?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: Nobody disagrees with the objectives of the fiscal rules. The objectives of the fiscal rules are keeping debt low and running balanced budgets. Nobody disagrees with the objectives. It is the criteria being used to get to those objectives that are not working and require change. We need to formally put that demand for change onto ECOFIN. If the Minister delays any longer on the summer...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: When will it be published?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: Will the Minister get it on Thursday or Friday? Is that what he is suggesting?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: Will the debate be next Thursday or Friday?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: The summer economic statement will be published earlier next week.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: Are we likely to see any significant changes to the fiscal space in the summer economic statement?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: We will come back to it in the budgetary committee because many of the ingredients that are locked into the fiscal space are locked in at this point in time. There should not be that much flexibility at any time during the year in terms of the fiscal space. It should be very much locked in at this point in time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: My last question is on the issue of the banking union. It seems that the whole plan of the banking union has now untangled. It has fallen at the first hurdle. We had this great promise from the European Union that taxpayers' money would not be used in rescuing the banks. The first challenge to the European Union on that was in Italy and lo and behold, MPS, a bank in Italy, has been...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: Was there a bail-in in the Spanish scenario?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: Was it of senior bondholders?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: That is the point I am making. There were bail-ins of junior bondholders in other areas but the significance of the new model was that senior bondholders were bailed in before there would be any call on funds. That is the point about Italy. I am sorry to split hairs.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: It was a major blow to the process and serious questions need to be asked about the Commission's decision to allow it to happen. There is either a new model or there is not. If this were to happen in Ireland or Luxembourg next, there would be an expectation in the markets that rather than applying the new "suck it up, folks" model that is supposed to involve the bail-in of junior and senior...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: ECOFIN Meeting: Minister for Finance (6 Jul 2017)

Pearse Doherty: I thank the Minister.