Results 26,621-26,640 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

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

Michael Noonan: I have raised it at every opportunity I get at Eurogroup and ECOFIN meetings. We argue very strongly along with some of our smaller country colleagues that the methodology for calculating the structure of the fiscal space was flawed. It was not accurate in the estimate of where smaller, open economies were in the business cycle. There was a committee set up to redraft the rules in that...

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

Michael Noonan: The kind of work we are doing now with the European Investment Bank, EIB, in my view is the best prospect of doing so and I described it earlier.

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

Michael Noonan: I also described that if there was a definitive revenue flow coming from fares on a metro, it would be possible to construct something that would acceptable to EUROSTAT in terms of going off-balance sheet and we are working on that. I hope to be in Luxembourg at a meeting, chaired by the president of the EIB, specifically about Irish-related investment projects around mid-May. I hope we...

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

Michael Noonan: I will talk to the agency again about it. I shall mention to the NTMA that the Deputy raised the matter. I did speak to the agency before and it is pretty happy with the policies that it has in place at present. I have a note that deals with the issue that I can read for the Deputy. It is a reply to a parliamentary question.

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

Michael Noonan: I have already given the reply to the Deputy so there is no point in my reading it again. Let us consider the NTMA's plans for this year. The deficit for this year will be 0.4% of the GDP or approximately €1 billion or less. The borrowing plans for the NTMA are between €9 billion and €13 billion. The bulk of what it is borrowing is for refinancing and is to deal...

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

Michael Noonan: Yes but the Deputy was a loyal member of the Labour Party at that time.

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

Michael Noonan: It may not have been a personal decision. The Deputy may have been driven by the Whip. Was he?

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

Michael Noonan: I can tell the Deputy not to be libelling absent friends but it should be put on the record that Sinn Féin voted for the guarantee.

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

Michael Noonan: They had a very eminent Senator who voted for it in the Seanad.

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

Michael Noonan: A gentleman called Senator Doherty was the name.

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

Michael Noonan: We would have great respect for the Central Bank but my own opinion is that the change in the prudential rules has had more of an effect on prices than the help-to-buy scheme. I did, however, say that the connection between supply and demand is price. If there is a shortage of supply and there is excess demand it will have an effect on price. I would concede to the Deputy that the...

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

Michael Noonan: Sometimes I think a psychotherapist has a better insight than an economist into Ireland.

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

Michael Noonan: First, if the Deputy is going to beat me up with statements from the Governor of the Central Bank he should quote him in full. The Deputy probably knows that he went on to say any increase in price will work its way through the system and would not be a permanent feature.

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

Michael Noonan: I think he said it would wash out. I think that was the phrase he used. That is a relevant piece of information.

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

Michael Noonan: He did not put a timeline on it either. The Deputy put his question as if there was nothing happening on the supply side. The Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government is Deputy Coveney. He got an enormous budget last year of €5.5 billion and has introduced dozens of supply side initiatives to help the supply of houses. He is the Minister responsible for...

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

Michael Noonan: The Deputy must be fair to him in his absence as well.

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

Michael Noonan: I cannot let inaccuracies rest on the record.

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

Michael Noonan: It is like what Dermot Morgan said, they will be sleeping in the account. We cannot have that. The point is that the then Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, changed the building regulations, which were brought in at the bottom of the recession when things were worst and they made it worse. The price of a site is a factor in Dublin. It is especially a factor in the cost of apartments, but it is...

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

Michael Noonan: I am dealing with a subtle questioner.

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

Michael Noonan: Every time I cross O'Connell Bridge my route is inhibited by the construction work that is going on for the Luas extension. That is a major initiative on public transport in Dublin, taking in the north side of the city. That is the big initiative which is under construction at present. I am the finance Minister not the transport Minister but we had to fund that and we funded it in bad...