Results 7,141-7,160 of 32,610 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I want to answer the final question asked by Deputy Chambers about the level of engagement in a normal year. I believe such engagement should be year-long. If we publish a mid-year expenditure report in July 2017 and start the same engagement that we are about to start now, then we will have all collectively missed a trick. I will outline what should happen. As each Department publishes...

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes.

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: We could well face simple logistic challenges in that regard.

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes.

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I also want to be consistent in terms of what I said. I did not say that we would be able to accept every proposal that came from the Oireachtas because different Members will have different views on what should be in the budget.

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: In the spirit of new politics I look forward to having the chance to finish off my answer to the question that colleagues have put to me. Deputy Ryan made a fair point about Ministers coming in and saying what they want to do with this year's budget, which I shall convey to my colleagues. I had envisaged that they would have to do so anyway. It would be very difficult for any Minister to...

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes.

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I did when I was Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport.

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: Deputy MacSharry was talking about the past, and it happened to me when I was Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. Issues were raised in the Dáil regarding the safety of children in residential estates and that had a direct effect on a decision I made as Minister.

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, it does. It happened.

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I can cover that in my concluding comments.

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: On the timing of the mid-year expenditure report, the objective of that document is to give us a starting point for the budget for the following year. For that reason, it would be very challenging to provide that information any earlier than July. That said, I will take it away and see if there is any other way of responding to that issue. The idea that I have taken on board, from what...

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I am trying to be helpful. I will take it away, discuss it with my officials and see if we can do it.

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. I inform the Chairman that I have to move a motion in the House at 12.50 p.m., immediately after the Order of Business.

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I want to answer the Deputy's question on the Department of Health. The way we would look to do that is by the HSE national service plan. We are aiming to move to a health budget that will ensure the delivery of existing and new commitments. I expect the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, will deal with the health spokespersons in his own committee in regard to how that will happen....

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: My Department.

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: As announced, on the additional funding provided to the Department of Health, I want to see a change in how we account for funding to ensure the budget delivers the objectives that Government has set for it and that we verify it. That is what we are going to do.

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: We have tried to outline the process by which we are going to respond to what Deputy Barrett said earlier in terms of the mid-year expenditure report and publication of the taxation papers. The main constraint we have is from an input point of view, that if we share that information with the Oireachtas, we want to be confident it will not change. Even in my early weeks in the Department, in...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Policy (16 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: As the Deputy is aware, under the preventive arm of the Stability and Growth Pact, Ireland's fiscal policy is set in accordance with reaching the Medium Term Objective (MTO). Compliance with this requirement is assessed in two ways. Firstly, until the MTO is reached, a minimum annual improvement in the structural balance greater than 0.5 per cent of GDP is required. The...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Data (16 Jun 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: The Programme for a Partnership Government sets out a commitment to spend in aggregate at least €6.75 billion more on public services in 2021 than this year. The fiscal forecasts in the Stability Programme Update for the period 2017 to 2021 were set out on a technical, no-policy change basis, consistent with the approach adopted in the Budget 2016 book published by the Department...