Results 7,501-7,520 of 32,610 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: Correct.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy is asking who is being realistic and unrealistic.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: That is similar to his earlier question about superiority and inferiority and he should consider how I answered it. Each Minister who comes to me is highly realistic in what he or she seeks for his or her Department. They all are aware of the issues and social matters to which the Deputy has referred and all of them are doing their very best to try to make progress within the Department for...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: On the Deputy's first question, from the point of view of process, I do not get the figures directly from the HSE. While it is the Department of Health that primarily engages with the executive, I note that it has raised with me all of the matters the Deputy has raised. The Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, has raised with me and my Department the different issues raised by the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I will deal with each of the questions in turn. I will begin with the Government expenditure as a percentage of national income and how Ireland stacks up versus peer countries. I do not accept that Ireland is low in relation to it and this is one of the very reasons I have asked my officials to devote a chapter to this topic in the mid-year expenditure report. Two different factors emerged...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: No, I am just going to finish off answering the questions and I am happy to come back to anything then. With regard to the facilities for schools, and I acknowledge the Deputy has raised this matter with me on behalf of her constituents, we have a pipeline of projects that are coming through at any point in time for educational facilities and facilities for the elderly. It is absolutely not...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I am sorry. It involves a facility and building which, I understand, we do not own. We are engaged now in negotiation on that matter. Given the sensitivity of the work that goes on in that building and the personnel involved, I accept the importance of the need for a secure facility to do that work. I accept that. If there is a further update I can give to the Deputy or the committee in...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy put a point to me about the arts. Of course the arts community wants the further €50 million made available to it last year to be maintained. Of course it does. I understand why it would want that to be maintained. However, the challenge I have, and I am engaged in this with the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Humphreys, is how...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. I meet constituents of my own every day who are dealing with the kind of real pressure which the Deputy has described. I absolutely understand the stress and anxiety it causes people as I know the Deputy also understands. Why do we ask people to pay their taxes? It is because it contributes to the public services that are essential for meeting our citizens' needs. Of...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank Deputy Donnelly. I will come back to him on the voluntary sector and section 39 organisations. My understanding is that the forum to which he refers has met.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: My understanding is that it has, but I will come back to the Deputy on it in case I am in any way misinforming him. The Deputy asked me about wage restoration. One of the challenges is that many of these organisations were outside the Lansdowne Road agreement. In the case of some of them at any rate, wages are raised in other ways. Future wages in those organisations will in many cases be...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I ask the Deputy to let me finish answering the question. I am happy to take more questions then. My understanding is that the forum has met and is dealing with the matter. A wide variety of issues are being raised and that is one of them. One of the challenges in this will be that I am responsible for people who are paid for by the State directly, and for groups which draw funding from...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: It is reasonable to outline what I have said. I have never said it is not my problem. What I have simply said is that there is a distinction between the people the State employs and those it does not. That is a reasonable point of view. At no point would I wish to wash my hands of any indirect responsibility for those individuals because I am aware of the very good work they do. I have...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: Does the Deputy want me to answer his question on Brexit?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I refer to Brexit and privatisation. I agree with Deputy Donnelly on Brexit. In particular, I agree with him regarding the effect it will have on small companies. We are already seeing the signs of this in agriculture in particular. One of the things that struck me in the aftermath of the Brexit period is that the Government said when it happened that we did not expect the world to change...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for his questions. I will start with the first. We make a provision for demographic expenditure in the outlook for the State. The clearest example of that is where we are in 2017. We have a figure laid out of €900 million that Deputy Brophy quizzed me about earlier, a portion of which is for demographics. That is then laid out in the summer economic statement...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I have a differing view to IFAC on indexation. I will have another look at the figures to see if the scale of the gap to which the Deputy refers exists. So much of the analysis put forward by IFAC is based on the concept that increases in expenditure have to be automatic and I disagree with the council on that. It is certainly my understanding of the figures I have seen that indexation...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: Does the Deputy think we should be in the euro?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: No.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: Does the Deputy think we should be in the euro - in the shared currency zone - now?