Results 25,361-25,380 of 27,945 for speaker:Michael McGrath

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Banking Sector (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: The merchant service charge is the fee charged by an acquirer to a business for processing card transactions. All acquirers in Ireland are independent commercial entities and the amount of the merchant service charge varies, often depending on the volume of card transactions the retailer accepts. One aspect of the merchant service charge is the interchange fee, which is charged by card...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Credit Unions (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: I thank the Deputy for his question. This Government is encouraged by the growth in Credit Union lending to date. In total, SME lending has grown 12.4 % year on year to the end of March 2023. Credit unions with over €50 million in assets and reserves greater than 5% can notify the Central Bank that they intend to use a 10% combined SME and mortgage lending limit. A number of...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Data (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: I assume that this query relates firstly to the number of employees who reside in the State and who work for an employer which is located in Northern Ireland and secondly, to the number of employees who reside in Northern Ireland and who work for an employer which is located in the State. With respect to the first category, employees who are resident in the State and who have employment...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Trade Missions (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: The Minister of State for Financial Services, Credit Unions and Insurance attended Money 2020 in Amsterdam on Wednesday 7 June as part of a trade mission. The itinerary was developed by Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland. Money 2020 is the largest global fintech event attended by over 7,000 from the fintech community, including multinational companies, banking, investors, and start-up...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Real Estate Investment Trusts (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: Institutional investors have an important role to play in the Irish property market. While it is important to facilitate collective investment in the Irish property market through appropriate regimes, it is equally important to ensure that, where such investment brings a profit, a fair share of tax is paid. Taxation occurs primarily at the level of the investor rather than within the fund as...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: National Treasury Management Agency (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: The NTMA controls and manages the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) in accordance with the National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Act 2014 (the “Act”) and has a statutory mandate to invest on a commercial basis in a manner designed to support economic activity and employment in the State. Section 47 of that Act provides the basis for payments from ISIF to the...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Credit Unions (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: I thank the Deputy for his question. As of March 2023 the total credit union mortgage book is €364 million. The average credit union mortgage is approximately €100,000. Mortgage lending in the sector is up 26.6% year on year to March 2023 and this growth demonstrates that there is demand for credit union mortgages. Credit union mortgage lending is fragmented with 20 mainly...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Yield (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: I propose to take Questions Nos. 129, 131 and 146 together. Last year, corporation tax receipts amounted to €22.6 billion, more than double their position at end-2019 immediately prior to the onset of the pandemic and surpassing VAT for the first time to become, at least temporarily, the Exchequer’s second-largest source of taxation revenue. This continued a trend of rapid...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Inflation Rate (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: The Department of Finance published updated macroeconomic forecasts as part of SPU 2023 on 18th April which set out projections for inflation. Having peaked at 9.6 per cent last summer, HICP inflation stood at 5.4 per cent in May – a decline of over 4 percentage points. This decline has been primarily driven by the significant easing in energy markets. Having peaked at around...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Credits (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: I propose to take Questions Nos. 132 and 155 together. The Finance Act 2022 introduced the Rent Tax Credit, which is provided for in s. 473B of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. This is an income tax credit of up to €500 per year (or up to €1,000 for jointly assessed couples) which may be claimed in respect of qualifying rent paid in 2022 and subsequent years to end-2025. ...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Mortgage Interest Rates (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: The formulation and implementation of monetary policy is an independent matter for the European Central Bank (ECB) and, as the Deputy is aware, the ECB has increased official interest rates over recent months as it attempts to combat inflation. The level of official interest rates influences the overall level of interest rates throughout the economy. However, the setting of retail...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: Since the UK left the EU Single Market and Customs Union, from 1 January 2021, the movement of goods from Great Britain into the EU is an importation from a third country and, in accordance with the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, such goods must be declared to Customs, and are liable to customs duty (if applicable) and VAT at import. However, the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Financial Services (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: Overall, the financial sector accounted for some €2.7 billion of corporation tax receipts in 2022. This was around 12 per cent of the corporation tax yield. According to the CSO, corporate taxes paid by the financial sector were split broadly equally between domestic (48 per cent) and foreign owned (52 per cent) financial corporates in 2021. A breakdown of the financial sectors...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Equality Issues (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: The Women in Finance Charter was developed over a number of years by the industry representative associations, Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, Financial Services Ireland, Insurance Ireland and Irish Funds, with support from government, as part of the Ireland for Finance strategy. It was launched in April 2022. Theme 3 of the Update to Ireland for Finance strategy is Diversity and...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: EU Bodies (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: The new EU Anti Money Laundering Authority - AMLA - will be established on foot of an EU Regulation that was published in July 2021 and expected to be adopted later this year. AMLA will be a significant EU institution, tasked with supervision - either directly, or indirectly - of obliged entities in the financial services sector in the first instance and eventually, those in the non-financial...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Housing Provision (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: The Department of Finance, through the Housing for All Investment Workstream, commissioned a report on the drivers of the cost and availability of finance for residential development during 2022. The key findings from this Report in relation to funding is that there has been reasonable availability of both debt and equity for viable residential development. However, increasing global...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Fiscal Policy (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: Last year a General Government Surplus of approximately €8 billion was recorded. However, my Department estimates that in 2022, windfall corporation tax receipts were in the region of €11 billion. Once these windfall receipts are stripped out, the headline budgetary surplus masks an underlying deficit somewhere in the region of €3 billion. Going forward, an annual average...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: I am advised by Revenue that the flat rate expense (FRE) regime it operates is done so on an administrative basis. It applies where both a specific commonality of expenditure exists across an employment category and the statutory requirement for the tax deduction as set out in section 114 Taxes Consolidation Act (TCA) 1997 is satisfied, namely, that the expenses are wholly, exclusively and...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Departmental Meetings (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: As the Deputy will be aware, I took office as Minister for Finance on the 17 December 2022. Since taking office, I have not corresponded or had any formal meetings with the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council. My officials have, of course, met with the Fiscal Council over this period in the context of the endorsement process of the macroeconomic forecasts. The Fiscal Council play an important role...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Insurance Industry (22 Jun 2023)

Michael McGrath: Insurance reform is a key priority for this Government as evidenced through the implementation of the Action Plan on Insurance Reform as overseen by a specific Cabinet Committee Sub-Group chaired by the Tánaiste. The latest Implementation Report demonstrates that significant progress has been made, with 90 per cent of the actions contained in the Action Plan now being delivered or...