Results 27,161-27,180 of 33,214 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Insurance Industry (28 Apr 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I note that the details supplied relate to the cost of Employers’ Liability insurance for an SME, and the Government’s insurance reform agenda. As the Deputy will appreciate, I am unable to comment on individual cases. Moreover, neither I nor the Central Bank of Ireland can direct the pricing or provision of insurance products, as this is a commercial matter which individual...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Banking Sector (28 Apr 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: While it is regrettable that Ulster Bank and KBC have decided to exit the Irish market, as Minister for Finance, I have no role in the operational matters of any bank in the State. Decisions in this regard are the sole responsibility of the board and management of the banks, which must be run on an independent and commercial basis. The withdrawal of KBC and Ulster Bank is a challenge...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Credits (28 Apr 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 185 and 186 together. The Incapacitated Child Tax Credit (ICTC) is provided for in section 465 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (TCA 1997) and is available to any individual who proves that he or she has living, at any time during a year of assessment, a child who: - if under the age of 18, is permanently incapacitated by reason of mental or physical...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Mortgage Interest Rates (28 Apr 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I am aware that the general level of new lending interest rates in Ireland is higher than is the case in many other European countries.  The most recent data published by the Central Bank on this issue indicates that, at end February 2022, the weighted average interest rate on new Irish mortgages was 2.76% compared to an average of 1.36% for the euro area.  However, the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the committee for the opportunity to be here to discuss and present the stability programme update to it. This document sets out the Government's macroeconomic and budgetary forecasts out to 2025. It was published in draft form on 13 April and in accordance with our legal requirements, the final version was submitted to European authorities on 29 April. I stress that forecasts...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for her questions. What we have attempted to do is to capture some of these scenarios in chapter 6 of the stability programme update. As she correctly stated, it is incredibly difficult to model how the war will develop and what could be the policy decisions that are taken by the rest of the world in response. However, I believed that to publish an economic forecast for...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: If we look at the consumption forecast, overall we are still expecting consumption in our economy to grow but, as Deputy Farrell noted, at a slower pace than would have been the case in the absence of this war. We are still expecting consumption growth, albeit at a slower pace. To deal with Deputy Farrell's question on the SME impact and what that will look like, the reason we put in...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: We have not done anything significant yet to model beyond 2023 because of all of the different factors that could drive the need for us to support people who are coming to our country looking for humanitarian support. Even doing it for next year was a difficult process in terms of trying to form a view on that because of all of the different sources of uncertainty on who will come to our...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank Deputy Durkan. If one looks at where we are now with the stability programme update, we are in the early days, I hope, of the Covid pandemic not being the health threat that it has been for the past two years. We have more people working in Ireland than we have ever had previously. We have public finances that, for this year, are projecting a deficit of less than 1% of our national...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. We all just tried to play our part during what was an awfully challenging and difficult two years. I remember being in this committee and releasing previous stability programme updates at a time in which we had more than 600,000 on the employment wage subsidy scheme. I vividly remember many of the moments over the last two years in which we were so concerned regarding...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: The Department, the Government and I acknowledge that the challenges many families and businesses now face with the rising cost of living are a real challenge for many. However, this is the reason why at different points this year, we brought forward different measures to try to help people with the rising cost of living. They involve the change to excise on fuel, the reduction in VAT on...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for his points. I wish to return briefly to a figure I shared earlier with the committee. I referred to 2.5 million people at work. That 2.5 million is for 2023 as opposed to 2022. I will comment on the points made by Deputy Canney. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform is aware of the impact that cost price inflation is having on the viability of contracts....

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I will come back to the Deputy with the detail of that. When we did Housing for All and when we did the revision in the budgetary strategy for the Government last year, funding was set aside to help local authorities in that work. I will come back to him with the detail of that funding and how it is being made available.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: Regarding rent caps, as the Deputy will know, the Government has in place limits on the degree to which rent can be increased at any point in time. The reason we do not have the kind of cap the Deputy wants is that we believe it will ultimately lead to a reduction in the supply of rental accommodation and to even more landlords leaving the rental sector, with the accommodation and rental...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for the two messages he sent to me. They were appreciated. I appreciate the impact that so many face, particularly those on social welfare and fixed incomes, due to the rising cost of energy. That is why, since the start of the year, we have put in place three separate packages of measures, with much of them being aimed at those who are on low incomes. It is why we...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: With respect to the Deputy, he made a point that many of the measures that we brought in are general. That is true, but at the same time he has criticised me for those general measures not being big enough. I am sorry I was not present at the debate on the Finance (Covid-19 and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022 recently. I was here making a presentation. I am sure the Deputy was saying...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I am confused by the Deputy's stance. Earlier in our exchange, he was critical of the nature of general measures and the fact that he and I benefit from them. A moment ago, he said they should still be bigger.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I am confused by what the Deputy said. We have targeted measures, which are aimed particularly at those at greatest risk of fuel poverty. The Deputy made a point about a prolonged effect of a change in energy pricing. As he knows, in our document, we outlined other scenarios that could take place that would see an increase in energy prices of between 50% and 75%, and the impact that could...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: At the moment we have no reason to update our forecast again in respect of corporate tax revenue for 2023. Our reason for that is that while I still think it is more likely than not that the corporate tax directive will be agreed later in the year in respect of the minimum effective tax rate, it has not yet been agreed. Furthermore, the OECD is committed to making a statement by the summer...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: We are not in a position at the moment to forecast what it will be beyond 2023. We found it a difficult enough process trying to reach a view on the number of people who could come to the country next year and then the cost per person or per family that could be involved. As it is, there was a fair bit of judgment involved in that figure. As to what the figure will be beyond 2023, I think...