Results 21,661-21,680 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: It simply needed to be clarified; it was not a big issue. The note I have says the Ireland-US tax treaty makes express reference to Irish regulated funds in the definition of who is a resident of Ireland in Article 4 of the treaty. The treaty provides that collective investment undertakings in Ireland are treated as residents of Ireland for treaty purposes. The funds industry has raised a...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: The funds industry.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: The section makes a number of changes to the scheme of accelerated industrial building allowances for certain specialist aviation service facilities which I introduced in Finance Act 2013. The scheme focuses on the construction and refurbishment of buildings and structures to be used for the maintenance, repair and overhaul of commercial aircraft and the dismantling of such aircraft for the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: It is just available to airports.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: It proved difficult to get state aid agreement, as originally intended, under the state aid rules. The advice was that there were de minimis rules which would apply if the amount invested was below a certain level and that it would then not run foul of the rules. Having found a solution to the original problem, there was no reason to restrict it to certain airports.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: It is always possible to make the case that more deprived parts of the country are entitled to exceptions from state aid rules, which is the way we approached the scheme initially. The availability of tax relief under the scheme was made subject to a ministerial commencement order in the 2013 Finance Act to allow for the granting of state aid approval for the scheme by the EU Commission....

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: The general challenge is that an incentive through the tax code which would be seen to favour either a geographical region or an individual sector would not be automatically given state aid approval. If we do something for the country as a whole, which is in accordance with law and practice, EU treaties and so on, it should not run foul of state aid rules. State aid rules come into play...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: Of course it did not know that.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: In my experience, the method adopted is that one decides the policy, includes it in a Finance Bill and indicates that there are state aid considerations. After the will of the Oireachtas is identified, one goes to the Commission to examine its attitude to the policy. Of course one tries to tailor it in a way that is in accordance with state aid guidelines. The Commission needs to examine...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: Section 396(1) of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 entitles companies to carry forward losses incurred in a trade for an accounting period for offset against income of the same trade for succeeding accounting periods. A restriction on losses was previously in place which limited the amount of prior-year losses that a NAMA-participating institution could offset against trading profits to 50%...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Mortgage Lending (18 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: The Central Bank of Ireland, in line with its mandate to safeguard financial stability, has put in place new macro-prudential measures for residential mortgage lending effective from last February. These measures apply proportionate loan-to-value and loan-to-income limits to mortgage lending by regulated financial service providers in the Irish market. The key objective of these measures is...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Mortgage Lending (18 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: Deputy McGrath's allegation that I am not going to do anything about it suggests that he does not fully understand the statutory position of the Central Bank-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Mortgage Lending (18 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: -----and that it is independent in the exercise of its functions. These rules were introduced last February and only apply to mortgages that were sought and approved since then, so there is a limited amount of data available. The bank usually reviews these things on an ongoing basis. It is not a question of one review. It monitors the data to determine the effect of measures such as...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Mortgage Lending (18 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: Again, I thank the Deputy for his intervention. The 35% increase in mortgage lending to date this year is not only a big increase from a low base, as I indicated, at €3.4 billion, it also amounts to a good wedge of money going into mortgages. If the figure is increasing at a rate of more than 30%, it will, over a few years, return to a significant amount. The Deputy ascribes all...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Mortgage Lending (18 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: There was also considerable commentary in the newspapers suggesting we were heading straight back to a housing spiral, which would result in inflated housing prices, more people being in negative equity and another bust.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Mortgage Lending (18 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: "Housing bubble" is the phrase that is usually used in this context. Whether the Central Bank was right or wrong, there is no argument about the reasons it intervened. It did so because it feared another housing bubble which would lead to an economic collapse. My position is that it constantly collects data and is engaged in an ongoing review of the matter. If it believes the rules need...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Mortgage Arrears (18 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: On the Deputy's first point, neither I nor the Department rules any question out of order. Questions are ruled out of order by the Ceann Comhairle on the advice of his office. The Government has made significant efforts to deal with the issue of mortgage arrears. Central Bank data for the second quarter of 2015 which were published on 2 September show just how much progress has been...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Mortgage Arrears (18 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I fully agree that the position was little short of a disaster. The Government of the day decided that the sole engine of growth in the economy would be construction and development. It incentivised construction activity through an assortment of tax breaks. People paid too much for buy-to-let properties and domestic homes. There was no...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Mortgage Arrears (18 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: Everyone agrees this is a very difficult problem. It almost looked as if it was intractable at the start of our period in government. However, because we assessed the situation and provided a menu of possible solutions for restructuring mortgages, it has worked pretty well. A total of 120,000 mortgages have been restructured, which is well beyond the halfway point of mortgages in arrears....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Corporation Tax Regime (18 Nov 2015)

Michael Noonan: The question referred specifically to performance in the month of October. Corporation tax receipts finished the month €806 million ahead of target. A negative amount of €3 million had been profiled in respect of corporation tax receipts in October 2015 because the Revenue Commissioners had forecast repayments of approximately €200 million that would have offset the...