Results 26,581-26,600 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Disabled Drivers and Passengers Scheme (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: The Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers (Tax Concessions) Scheme provides relief from VAT and VRT, up to a certain limit, on the purchase of an adapted car for transport of a person with specific severe and permanent physical disabilities, payment of a fuel grant, and an exemption from Motor Tax. To qualify for the Scheme an applicant must be in possession of a Primary Medical...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: Where a person is generating electricity from solar panels and sells that electricity into the national grid the income from such activity would, in general, be considered a business activity and accordingly the income would be assessed as trading income chargeable under Case I of Schedule D.  In cases where the generation of electricity is primarily for own use, and only surplus...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Information and Communications Technology (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: The Capital Plan includes an amount of €25m for the Finance Vote Group. This comprises an allocation of €2m for the Department of Finance and €23m for the Office of the Revenue Commissioners which is provided to cover both the information technology infrastructure and any project development work provided for within the strategic plans of these organisations for...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: I welcome the opportunity to discuss the stability programme update. The stability programme sets out the Governments macroeconomic and fiscal forecasts for Ireland and is the first update of the Government's projections since budget 2017 was introduced in October of last year. The stability programme is presented in draft form - I am, as usual, willing to take on board constructive...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: We are maintaining the same fiscal space as we announced in the budget. The fiscal space is €1.2 billion but there has been a strong carryover effect from the budgetary decisions of last October. These amount to approximately €500 million on the expenditure side and in the region of €175 million to €180 million on the tax side. When we put the two together, that...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: When the figures first emerged, we were a bit puzzled by that. When we drilled down, however, we found that the shortfall related to USC rather than income tax. We reduced the take from USC in the budget and perhaps that had an additional impact beyond forecast, but I do not think so. PAYE was up by 6% year on year and PRSI was up 7%. There is a quirk in the USC and I have asked the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: The first position is the current position. That position was set out by the then Minister, Deputy Brendan Howlin, in 2015 when he announced the capital budget. When one takes commercial State bodies and everything else into account, that amounts to €42 billion over the period to 2021. Since then, further revenue streams have come up with the growing economy. There is a review of...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: I thank Deputy Barrett for the compliments he paid to the officials in the Department of Finance and, indeed, everyone who has been involved in the recovery. Colleagues know the Government has prioritised recovering the house building market in order that there is a supply of houses and apartments right through the country but also in the Dublin area, which again might be sufficient. We...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: I thank the Deputy for raising a number of interesting issues. On the headroom available, there is nothing in my speech that is optimistic about headroom at the end of the year. What everybody needs to remember is that the amount of money available will be the excess of the tax flow over expenditure when the deficit of 0.9% of GDP is taken into account. We are behind the curve in that...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: Perhaps the Deputy would allow me to continue. On the question regarding the varying forecasts made last year about fiscal space up to the Friday night prior to the budget, what I am saying is that we are not adjusting the fiscal space arising from the new information because we have not got an awful lot to contribute yet with certainty. The first readjustment of the forecast on fiscal...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, is doing well. For the first time in my memory, after three months the Department of Health is on line in terms of budget. That has not happened over the previous six budgets. In terms of the Exchequer figures published last week, spend across Departments is running at 0.9% below on the current side and is slightly up on the capital side because of the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: No, I am saying that the provision for Irish Water as an institution is already in place but it has to be matched. If water charges are abolished, there will be no funding stream for Irish Water. The intake in terms of water charges was estimated to be €240 million and expenditure in terms of the conservation grant amounted to approximately €100 million. These figures were...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: The big advantage of PPP is that, while one cannot ignore costs, one can get the funding off the balance sheet. Bearing in mind what the NTMA was raising money for yesterday, we could get money now for investment purposes. We would certainly get it at 1% over a long period, certainly over ten years. We would not have to go up too far to get it for 15 or 20 years. In comparing the public...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: There is no doubt at all that, in times of recession, people who are looking for their first jobs and homes and trying to establish themselves in life and society have it more difficult than those who are established and have homes, families, jobs, pension provisions, etc. That is a given and is borne out by all of the evidence. The best thing a government can do for a younger generation is...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: An injection of €10 million into the housing market since Christmas could not possibly have driven up prices. The price rises are due to other factors, principally the lack of supply in the market, the availability of money now that mortgage houses are writing mortgages and the changes in the Central Bank's prudential rules allowing people to borrow more. The committee will recall...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: I am simply saying that it is not due to the help-to-buy scheme.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: There is merit in the Deputy's point but in any supply and demand situation, price is the link. If there is no supply and high demand, there is something wrong with the pricing structure. Everyone in politics meets and talks to builders. We meet them in the normal course of events. I spent five years with builders telling me that they could not afford to build because the cost of building...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: We did not have money.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: Due to the events of the past, which I do not want to recite.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: I do not believe that the Deputy opposed-----