Results 7,201-7,220 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: Yes.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: Usually exceptional circumstances are difficult to foresee. If one takes a recent exceptional circumstance, who would have foreseen that an earthquake in Japan would have led to a tsunami which led to a nuclear accident? Exceptional circumstances, by their nature, are hard to foresee. If they were foreseeable they might not happen because one would take preventative measures. As outlined...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: Section 4 deals with the debt rule specified in Article 4 of the stability treaty. The requirements of the debt rule are already law under EU Regulation 1467/97, as amended under the European six-pack of reforms. However, as the debt rule is specifically included in the stability treaty, we are providing for its implementation in domestic law through this Bill. The text accomplishes this...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: Exceptional circumstances are provided for under article 3 of the treaty in respect of the budgetary rule. As the debt rule is not similarly provided for, we are reflecting the treaty position in the legislation. The debt rule is based on a three year average, which means it is not as absolute and there is thus less need to include the exceptional rule. I am not sure of the legal position...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: The democratic sequence is that the people changed the Constitution by way of referendum to enable the treaty to be passed. As we legislate we must reflect the terms of the treaty. While exceptional circumstances are provided for in one article, they are not mentioned in the other. If we were to include exceptional circumstances in the legislation we would be going beyond the treaty. I am...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: Our commitment is to be at less than 3% by 2015. The fiscal council examined this issue recently and suggested that, based on the current stability programme update and a number of technical economic assumptions, including tight expenditure control, Ireland may reach its medium-term budgetary objective as early as 2019. However, this forecast must be treated with caution because the council...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: It is part of the dialogue.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: Apart from what I have put on the record already, no.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: As I noted earlier, it is difficult to forecast so far ahead.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: We will be the prime movers and, as in all relationships with Europe, it will be a matter of dialogue. The final arbiter will be ECOFIN, as always, but usually matters are decided at subsidiary level. It is only in the event of disagreement that matters are decided by ECOFIN.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: We have some material here and I will supply the Deputy with a copy because a tabular statement accompanies it. The text says that the IMF also calculated the structural balance for Ireland but was allowed to vary its methodology to take account of country-specific circumstances. The text states that its estimates show that by 2015, the actual deficit of 2.8% is still larger than the...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: We will provide the Deputy with that information.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: I think we have it to 2015 and possibly slightly beyond it.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: The policy issues raised in these amendments are of a much wider scope than the substance of the Bill. The Deputy has identified some of the issues that any Government would have to consider in preparing a correction plan or any budgetary plan. However, it should be noted that we are talking about a plan and not the actual detailed legislative budgetary proposals that will have to be...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: The Deputy's comments are interesting but they are well outside the scope and scheme of the legislation and outside the treaty. His claims about social and economic assessments are subjective and I do not blame him for this. My reading of the Sinn Féin economic paper suggests to me that it risks putting another 100,000 people out of work rather than creating jobs but Deputy Doherty...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: There is a fundamental misunderstanding on the Deputy's side about what we are actually doing. This is not a train at the station to which we can keep adding carriages, that is, loading all economic and social policy onto it. There are several other opportunities to do that. This Bill is concerned with the corrections required by deviations from fiscal objectives. The methodology of...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: He never existed.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: Does the Deputy mean the guy from Athenry?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: I do not propose to accept the amendments proposed by Deputies Doherty and McGrath. The fiscal council has been established to address gaps in fiscal policy analysis and to provide assessments and recommendations relating to fiscal policy. Imposing a very wide mandate on the fiscal council would require much larger resources in terms of both staff and budgetary allocations. Expanding the...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)
Michael Noonan: I was referring to pensions paid by the State.