Results 25,501-25,520 of 33,175 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Climate Action Plan (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I am informed by the National Treasury Management Agency that on Thursday last, 11 November, the NTMA sold €650m of the Irish Sovereign Green Bond (ISGB) maturing in 2031 in a bond auction. It sold a further €97.5m in the non-competitive auction bringing to €747.5m nominal the total issued in the auction. The cash proceeds raised from this auction were €839m. This...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Climate Action Plan (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: Action 259 of the Climate Action Plan 2021 refers to developing a roadmap for review and transitioning away from fossil fuel subsidies in the transport sector. To complete this action, analysis of the cost and impact of existing tax fossil fuel subsidies will be undertaken. My Department will engage with other relevant Departments and based on the outcome of the analysis, a roadmap to...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Climate Action Plan (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: The Climate Action Plan 2021 is the all-of-Government plan that sets out the steps and actions we need to take to halve our emissions by 2030 and aim to reach net zero no later than 2050. This transformation will impact on all sectors of the economy and finance flows should be consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate resilient development. Ireland...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Climate Action Plan (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: One of the actions set out in the recently published Climate Action Plan is that my Department will explore the potential for new tax measures to support retrofit. As provided in the action plan, the timeline established for this action is Q4 2022. Details of the process are yet to be finalised. In relation to the process of assessing proposals for tax expenditures generally, I would make...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: National Asset Management Agency (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: As indicated in my response of 2ndNovember 2021 to Questions 246, 247, 253, 265, 266, NAMA’s loans are secured by an estimated 638 hectares of land of which 426 of these hectares have residential zoning and will be suitable for residential development between now and 2035. 212 hectares are not currently zoned residential. A breakdown of this land by planning status and unit capacity,...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Insurance Coverage (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: As referred to in my answer to the earlier question from the Deputy, it was estimated that on an annual basis only 0.05% of mortgage applications were refused due to the fact that the applicant did not put in place an acceptable policy of mortgage insurance and that on an annual basis around 2% of primary home mortgages were provided without the requirement for mortgage protection insurance....

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Departmental Policies (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I understand that this matter is currently before the Courts. Accordingly, I do not believe it is appropriate to comment at this time.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I move amendment No. 1: In page 10, between lines 8 and 9, to insert the following: "(2) Subsection (1)applies for the year of assessment 2022 and each subsequent year of assessment.". It is considered appropriate to explicitly provide that the budget 2022 changes in respect of universal social charge, USC, apply from 1 January 2022. This amendment is to specifically include a...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: As Deputy Nash acknowledged, this is a process whereby the Government receives a recommendation from the Low Pay Commission and acts on it. A process with an independent group acting on behalf of the State, evaluating information independently of the Government or its view on the matter, is the right process. It has been a reason this is just one of a series of increases to the minimum wage...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: That plan was not included in the programme for Government commitments. I looked at it in the last Government. Having considered it in detail, it became apparent to me that there would be considerable complexity in doing this. Looking at the many challenges that we face with regard to tax revenue and how we pay for public services that we need, this Government believed that a more targeted...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: It will come as a surprise to them too.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputies for their amendments. There are a considerable number of issues with this amendment. These include the cost on the Exchequer, the significant erosion of the tax base, and the impact on the competiveness of our tax code. On Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett’s proposal to abolish the universal social charge, it is estimated that this would cost €4.4 billion in a...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: Some extraordinary role reversal has happened here without me noticing. Deputy Boyd Barrett is making the case for tax reductions that would make the most hardened neoliberal wince. He is arguing not just for the reduction of a tax but for its complete abolition below a certain level. They tend to be the kind of arguments I hear from the other end of the political spectrum than the one the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: Okay. However, many of the companies that the Deputy is arguing should pay an even higher level of tax on top of the major change that Ireland has already committed to making employ as workers the people that the Deputy referred to and correctly acknowledged. I want those workers in Ireland. I want that investment in Ireland. To move forward with a further increase in the taxation of any...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I have no issue with a debate occurring in this regard. I disagree on the need for a wealth tax. The reason I disagree with it is that, first, we already have a set of wealth taxes in our country - capital acquisitions tax, CAT, capital gains tax, CGT, and DIRT, and one could argue that the local property tax, LPT, is also a form of wealth of tax. We already have four taxes that perform...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: We frequently hear of the need for those who have more to pay more on the basis of the 1% principle. It is important to be clear that we live in a country in which the top 1% of taxpayers pay just under one quarter of all of the income tax and USC collected. That is a progressive tax code in operation. That is a tax code under which the more income one has, the more tax one pays. In...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: Amendment No. 5 would require the Minster for Finance of the day to prepare and lay a report within three months of the passing of the Finance Bill on the revenue that would be raised by abolishing the local property tax and applying a graduated non-principal private residence tax starting at €1,000 for a second home, rising to €2,500 for eleventh and subsequent homes. ...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: It is important to note, however, that these estimates are based on the current local property tax register of properties and, therefore, much of the underlying data relate back to 2013. That means it is likely the position will change once the 2022 returns are filed because revaluation updates and extensions to the register will all provide new valuations data. It must be noted that a...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: We would end up in a situation where fewer properties would pay more tax, which is the very kind of concentration risk we get warned about all the time. We are continually advised that it is better to have more taxpayers and tax units all making a contribution. Yet again, what Deputies Boyd Barrett and Mairéad Farrell are proposing is a narrowing of our tax base. In the circumstances...