Results 3,581-3,600 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I am not throwing anything across; this is not an attack.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: Sure. When I speak to academics involved in innovation, receiving funding from Science Foundation Ireland, SFI, one of the key frustrations they repeatedly voice is the constraint on their freedom to spend the money. I will give an example. In her initial contribution, the Minister said we needed well paid and sustainable employment. The public hiring framework for researchers in this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: At the last meeting the Minister used the phrase "industry-relevant research". Some of the leading researchers are telling me there has been an imbalance in where they are being asked to work and there is too much focus on commercialisation. For example, some of our leading scientists, rather than designing new molecules in the lab, have now had to go to where the funding has been pushed,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: It was from basic scientific research to commercialisation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Minister for the information relating to 80% basic scientific research. Would it be possible for the committee to get some documentation showing the detail of that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I have one question and one observation. I will make the observation first with the indulgence of the Chair. We are seven months into this Dáil and we have yet to sit down with the Minister and have time on both sides to explore anything. The observation relates to the vulture funds. I would like to formally raise it with the Minister. There are many legitimate Irish companies...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: To return to the point that Senator James Reilly and I talked about in terms of streamlining regulation, the initial efforts on the website for workers' permits should be acknowledged. Is it possible to commission a report to look systematically at the various pieces of regulation and compliance that different types of business deal with? It is welcome that individual pieces are being...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Forecasts for Budget 2017: Department of Finance (4 Oct 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank all the witnesses. That was very useful. I want to ask a question about the presentation but I would like to make a related point on the convergence margin and the fiscal space. We have heard a lot of evidence as to why it is 1%. I presume Mr. McCarthy's team was in-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Forecasts for Budget 2017: Department of Finance (4 Oct 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: Apologies, it is €1 billion. I presume Mr. McCarthy's team is involved in the work that gets them in. The convergence margin shrinks it by €1.4 billion, that is, from a potential €2.4 billion down to €1 billion, and it is because we miss our medium-term budgetary objective, MTO. Our MTO is .5% structural deficit while our forecast is 1% structural deficit. That...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Forecasts for Budget 2017: Department of Finance (4 Oct 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: Great.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Forecasts for Budget 2017: Department of Finance (4 Oct 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank Mr. McCarthy.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Forecasts for Budget 2017: Department of Finance (4 Oct 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, but I specifically referred to the fact that the Commission said we were overheating while a lot of domestic experts are saying we are not and are approximately at potential. Does Mr. McCarthy know how much the structural deficit has grown? The Commission says we are overheating and that the structural deficit is bigger but were it to say that was not the case, and that we were at...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Forecasts for Budget 2017: Department of Finance (4 Oct 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: That is useful and I thank Mr. McCarthy. Is it, therefore, the case that a technical assumption is being made? The Commission is saying we are at full employment at 9% but we are saying we are at full employment at 5%. Were the Commission to accept Mr. McCarthy's view that the adjusted structural deficit would go down from -0.1%, which is what is in the SES, to approximately 0.4%-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Forecasts for Budget 2017: Department of Finance (4 Oct 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: -----we would hit our MTO and the fiscal space would not be €1 billion but €2.4 billion.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Forecasts for Budget 2017: Department of Finance (4 Oct 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I have one other question. Page 11 deals with consumer credit growth.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Forecasts for Budget 2017: Department of Finance (4 Oct 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes. It goes from a negative figure of approximately -0.16% in Q1 2013 to a very significant positive figure. Is that a proxy for personal borrowings? Is it the country spending money it has? Is it households beginning to borrow with unsecured debts such as car loans, credit loans, etc.? What is going on here? Are we beginning to see a new debt risk for households?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Forecasts for Budget 2017: Department of Finance (4 Oct 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: That is great. I thank Mr. Power.

Financial Resolutions 2017 - Budget Statement 2017 (11 Oct 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: Budget 2017 is obviously, by necessity, a political budget that includes diverse political priorities from pensioners to parents, from educators to entrepreneurs. Budget 2017 lacks coherence. It also lacks ambition for the country. That said, I am very pleased to see such prominence given to the issue of tax avoidance by vulture funds and a very clear statement from the Minister that this...

Financial Resolutions 2017 - Financial Resolution No. 2: General (Resumed) (12 Oct 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I spoke yesterday about some of the positives in this budget, because there are positives in it. They include closing down section 10 tax avoidance by vulture funds, a focus on special needs education and a welcome first step in moving towards an affordable, high-quality child care system. However, the complete lack of ambition in this budget means that for the limited good it has done, for...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (18 Oct 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: 188. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide the details of the costing of the measure with regard to the section 110 and funds changes item within budget 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30594/16]