Results 7,221-7,240 of 27,945 for speaker:Michael McGrath

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing Data (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: 501. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the number of housing starts in each month since January 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43895/14]

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Irish Water Staff (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: 510. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if the performance-related targets for Irish Water staff relate to collection of revenue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44167/14]

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Broadband Service Provision (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: 542. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if a location (details supplied) in County Cork is part of the national broadband scheme or the rural broadband scheme; if he will provide an estimate of when this area may expect to receive broadband; the likely speed of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44171/14]

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: I wish to make a few points about section 2. We will come to the income tax side - the band and the rate reduction - in a moment, but section 2 relates to the USC. Given the way in which this budget was approached and the lack of information that we had as an Opposition party, no one could have foreseen that the Government would have had the resources to introduce a €642 million...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: That was clear.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: I think it was 2.4%.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: The Minister did not know it would be 4.7% at that stage?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: I accept that.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: All of the submissions had been made by that stage. It was too late. Fair enough, the White Paper was published before the budget, but that was after every submission had been made. The Minister knows that.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: Through the Chair, I did not accuse the Minister or anyone of misleading me. I am just laying out the facts.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: I have a letter dated 2 October, some 12 days before the budget.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: The Secretary General of the Minister's Department. It was in response to specific questions that I asked.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: It was not in response to a costing request. It was in response to a question on what the basis of the budget was and what would have been required to achieve a deficit of less than 3%. Having noted that there were many moving parts, the Minister's response is on record as "... a deficit of less than 3% of GDP can be achieved with a broadly neutral budget." He said that on 2 October....

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: I assume it was not deliberate, but the Minister is missing the point I am making. This was not in response to me asking for costings of various proposals. This was similar to the response we received to parliamentary questions we submitted, that when we were seeking to establish----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: Yes, 12 days.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: It did not swing that much.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: I was deliberately cautious.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: Deputy Doherty has made the case very well. In recent years, although not so much this year given the nature of the fiscal position going into the budget, very often the sting in the tail of the budget was in the detailed measures announced by line Ministers on the expenditure side on budget day or in the days after the budget. A budget must be assessed in the round and in totality so it is...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: What is published in the budget booklet is helpful in so far as it goes but it is not the complete picture. Not only does it take into account all the expenditure adjustments but it takes into account some of them on the social welfare side. As the Minister indicated, child benefit is included in the eight examples given this year but it does not take into account measures that are...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael McGrath: The issue I have is regarding the distribution of the benefit of the Minister's tax package. He has put forward a definition in terms of people in the middle income bracket. The reality is that an individual earning €32,000 a year - who falls just below the threshold at which one enters the higher rate - would only benefit from the USC changes. That individual would benefit to the...