Results 22,021-22,040 of 27,945 for speaker:Michael McGrath

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jul 2021)

Michael McGrath: That is the process we are now involved in. The review of the national development is at an advanced stage. We have held an extensive public consultation exercise at this point with well in excess of 500 submissions from the public. We have published phase 1 of the review of the NDP. That has involved an extensive amount of documentation and it provides the evidential basis for making the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jul 2021)

Michael McGrath: I thank the Deputy for the question and I am happy to take it. He rightly pointed to the scale of the issue, and the Government is acutely conscious of it. That is why we have set housing as a key priority. Consider the level of resources allocated in this regard in budget 2021, when we increased the capital envelope in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage alone by...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jul 2021)

Michael McGrath: I thank the Deputy for those questions. Looking ahead to Covid-related expenditure in 2022, we made provision in the stability programme update which we published in April for expenditure of €4 billion. Some €2.5 billion is for different Departments since there will be continued costs in health, for example, for the vaccination programme, continued costs in education for the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jul 2021)

Michael McGrath: I thank the Deputy for his question. He has rightly highlighted what will be one of the main legacies of the Covid crisis, that is, a significantly elevated level of public debt from a pre-Covid level of around €200 billion, rising to around €280 billion by 2025. I would make the point that despite that significant increase in public debt, the cost of servicing that debt has...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jul 2021)

Michael McGrath: I thank the Deputy for raising what is such an important issue. I know the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, and the HSE are determined to reinstate all of the non-Covid healthcare in as full a form as possible as quickly as they possibly can. A significant amount of progress has been made in that regard. On the overall budget position for the Department of Health and the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jul 2021)

Michael McGrath: I will be very brief. We acknowledge the huge strain which so many businesses have been under in the last 16 months, notwithstanding the massive support that the State has extended, and continues to extend, to them. It is because of that support that we have greatly mitigated the economic fallout and greatly reduced the number of businesses that might not survive. The decisions the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jul 2021)

Michael McGrath: I thank the Deputy for her question. To be fair, she should reserve judgment until she sees the housing strategy, Housing for All. There is an increase in the SES in the underlying core capital from 2021 to 2022 of €1.1 billion. In addition, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, is looking at all other possible sources of funding and...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jul 2021)

Michael McGrath: I will not be able to cover all that or anything like it in a minute, but I will make a couple of brief points. I have heard what the Deputy said about the public spending code. It is there to protect the interests of taxpayers. It kept under review. Significant changes were made in 2019. It is important that we have safeguards in place because in general, the better the homework is done...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Framework for Parliamentary Engagement Throughout the Budgetary Cycle: Discussion (9 Feb 2021)

Michael McGrath: I thank the committee for the invitation to appear before it today and to make a contribution to its deliberations on parliamentary engagement throughout the budget cycle. The interim report of the committee sets out a number of key observations, including in respect of pre-budget and performance scrutiny. I will deal with the issues that are relevant to the expenditure side of these...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Framework for Parliamentary Engagement Throughout the Budgetary Cycle: Discussion (9 Feb 2021)

Michael McGrath: I will take this to begin with. I thank the Deputy for those observations and I agree with much of what he said. What I will say, however, is that in recent months, in finding my feet in the Department, I have come to the realisation that there are a lot of very good reports written that do not get the attention they deserve. I would point to the spending review papers, for example. Since...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Framework for Parliamentary Engagement Throughout the Budgetary Cycle: Discussion (9 Feb 2021)

Michael McGrath: There are no plans for any other salary changes in the context of any Secretary General vacancies arising in the months ahead.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Framework for Parliamentary Engagement Throughout the Budgetary Cycle: Discussion (9 Feb 2021)

Michael McGrath: May I respond briefly or does the Chairman wish to move on?

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Covid-19 Tests (27 Jul 2021)

Michael McGrath: Currently, my Department through the OGCIO are producing Digital COVID certificates for Vaccination and Recovery, through a process of data transfer established with the HSE/Department of Health; and for PCR and Antigen testing, through a process of data transfer established with those laboratories that are able to comply with the Statement of Operating Procedures produced by the Department...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Civil Service (27 Jul 2021)

Michael McGrath: The establishment of the Civil Service Mobility scheme fulfils one of the requirements of both Action 15 of the Civil Service Renewal Plan which aims to ‘Expand career and mobility opportunities for staff across geographic, organisational and sectoral boundaries’, and Action 14 of the People Strategy for the Civil Service which calls for the further expansion of a coherent...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Covid-19 Pandemic (27 Jul 2021)

Michael McGrath: Workers across the economy, including of course our public servants, have made an extraordinary contribution during the COVID pandemic and I would like to pay tribute to them. Notwithstanding the sacrifices and efforts of the last year or more and the progress we have made in recent months to roll out vaccines, this pandemic remains an ongoing challenge for us all and it continues, for now,...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Summer Economic Statement (27 Jul 2021)

Michael McGrath: As set out in the Summer Economic Statement, the medium term fiscal strategy provides for an average 5% annual growth-rate increase in Voted expenditure out to 2025, equating to increases in spending of between €4.0 billion to €4.4 billion from 2022 to 2025. As set out in Box 2.1 of the Mid-Year Expenditure Report, published last week, a key part of the Estimates process...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Summer Economic Statement (27 Jul 2021)

Michael McGrath: Table 5 of the Summer Economic Statement sets out the overall Government spending projections from 2020 to 2025. These include both core capital spending as well as one-off temporary spending related to much needed supports to manage challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the impacts of Brexit. Other one-off temporary measures also include EU funding supports such as the National...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: National Development Plan (27 Jul 2021)

Michael McGrath: The review of the National Development Plan is currently ongoing. As part of the Programme for Government the review was brought forward to 2021 in order to assess the resourcing requirements for the most important challenges facing us as a nation including climate action, infrastructural challenges, housing, balanced regional development (as set out in the National Planning Framework and...