Results 22,221-22,240 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Home Repossession (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: There is a relationship framework, signed by my predecessors in office, with the banks and the essential component is that the political side will not interfere in commercial decisions. That is for a very good reason as we do not want to politicise the banks. It would be a very sad day for the country if the first port of call for a person seeking a loan had to be the local Deputy rather...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Home Repossession (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: There will be no political interference with the banks. On the question of repossessions, 207 houses were repossessed on foot of a court order, which does not equate to the tens of thousands of houses sometimes mentioned in commentary. There are 121,000 restructured mortgages on private dwellings, with a success rate of 86.6%. That means the arrangements stick in just under 87% of cases....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Mortgage Interest Rates (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: The Government's position is that competition is the best way to achieve a sustainable long-term solution to the issue of high mortgage repayments. The Government made a commitment in the statement of Government priorities for 2014 to 2016 to applying downward pressure on mortgage rates by increasing and supporting competition in the market and it has undertaken a number of initiatives in...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Mortgage Interest Rates (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: Competition is working in the market now and it will continue to work as more institutions get involved. The Central Bank's statistical release of 11 December 2015 stated that mortgage interest rates generally declined during the third quarter of 2015. Variable principal dwelling house rates declined by 17 basis points over the second quarter, with corresponding buy-to-let rates falling by...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Mortgage Interest Rates (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: Yes, but in the majority of cases, those inhibitions do not apply. However, there is a very significant inertia in the desire of people to switch to a different mortgage provider even when they can make significant savings. It is hard to understand this at times and probably is to do with the fact that if people have a mortgage for several years, even if they are to make cash savings, they...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Tax Code (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: I thank Deputy Healy for this question. The Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2015 provides a range of data in the area of global household wealth, its composition and distribution over the period 2000 to 2015. The report covers all regions and countries and brings together available data from a variety of sources. The authors of the report acknowledge the study of global household wealth...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Tax Code (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: There are not recent reliable data in Ireland on wealth distribution. It has only been very recently, particularly in the Central Statistics Office report published in 2015, that reliable data have been emerging. These data indicate that wealth inequality in Ireland for 2013, that is, the year examined, is lower than the eurozone average as measured by the Gini coefficient. The results...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Tax Code (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: As the economy recovers, obviously the value of assets is increasing. However, there are capital taxes in Ireland which are, in effect, wealth taxes. When assets are transferred on the death of an owner, inheritance tax applies and if assets are transferred prior to someone's death, gift tax then applies. In addition, money on deposit in banks is liable to a DIRT rate of 41%, which also is...

Other Questions: Mortgage Arrears Proposals (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: The Deputy will be aware that Central Bank residential mortgage arrears data published last month indicate that the level of mortgages in arrears continues to decline and has done so for the past nine consecutive quarters.  It is particularly welcome that the latest bulletin reported that all maturity categories of arrears, including the over 720 days' category, declined in quarter three...

Other Questions: Mortgage Arrears Proposals (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: As everybody here knows, when this Government came into office five years ago, the situation in this area was disastrous and it appeared it would not be resolved. Following the putting in place of a series of measures, which have been constantly reviewed, significant progress has been made. It now appears that this is a solvable problem. Over time, as the economy improves, it is solvable....

Other Questions: Mortgage Arrears Proposals (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: The initiatives are constantly reviewed. The initiatives introduced in the past 12 months by the Tánaiste and the Minister for Justice and Equality have added to the portfolio of interventions and have been successful also.

Other Questions: Economic Growth Initiatives (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: Under the European Central Bank, ECB, expanded asset purchase programme, often referred to as quantitative easing, QE, the eurosystem, comprising the ECB and the national central banks of the euro area, has been purchasing €60 billion of public and private assets per month and plans to do so until at least March 2017, or until inflation returns to levels consistent with price...

Other Questions: Economic Growth Initiatives (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: We can attempt to measure the effect of QE. In the October 2014 budget, the growth estimate for 2015 was 4%. We put some money back into the economy, which increased demand in the domestic economy and drove the 4% higher. In 2015, two tail winds occurred which had not been accounted for in the budget. One of these was QE. Although I had campaigned for it for three years, I did not expect...

Other Questions: Economic Growth Initiatives (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: It is a matter of monetary policy, and while I have much control over fiscal policy through the budget, monetary policy is for the ECB and the national central banks. Monetary policy is for the new banking union, driven by the people in Frankfurt. I advocated QE when it was very unpopular to do so in Europe. I campaigned for it for approximately three years and, eventually, a majority...

Other Questions: NAMA Operations (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: I thank the Deputy for this very important question. Yesterday, I signed off on the most recent quarterly report for NAMA to go to the Government next week. We will publish it immediately after that, providing a very full update on the quarterly position with reflections back on the annual position. Under section 10 of the NAMA Act 2009, NAMA's principal commercial objective is to...

Other Questions: NAMA Operations (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: There are three points to be made. When the chairman of NAMA, Mr. Frank Daly, spoke at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, he said that subject to market conditions remaining favourable, NAMA "will have generated a surplus of the order of €2 billion to hand over to the Exchequer". That has been confirmed by the chairman. There was market...

Other Questions: NAMA Operations (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: NAMA expects that its deleveraging work will be completed by 2018. Its focus over the period from 2018 to 2020 will be on the completion of the docklands residential funding programme. As I have said, NAMA is in a position to fully pay all of its senior bonds. It also expects to pay its subordinate debt in full by 2020. In light of the extensive work and challenges that face NAMA over the...

Other Questions: Tax Compliance (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: In June 2014, the competition directorate of the European Commission announced its intention to open formal state aid investigations into tax rulings provided by a number of companies in various member states of the European Union.  This announcement is part of a much wider review of tax ruling practice that is currently being undertaken by the European Commission. In late 2014, the...

Other Questions: Tax Compliance (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: The dogs on the street that the Deputy calls as his witnesses have never been renowned as great tax advisers. I suggest that he needs to base his argument on stronger evidence. The position is that the EU Commission and the competition authorities in Europe have challenged the tax treatment of Apple by the Irish Revenue Commissioners and the Irish authorities on state aid grounds. There is...

Other Questions: Tax Compliance (14 Jan 2016)

Michael Noonan: What the Deputy has outlined is not the basis of a state aid case. State aid cases always have at their centre the contention that one company or one set of companies was treated more favourably than another company or set of companies involved in similar activity. That is the essential piece.