Results 7,521-7,540 of 32,643 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

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

Paschal Donohoe: What would the Deputy be willing to threaten?

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

Paschal Donohoe: It was not me who made that statement.

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

Paschal Donohoe: I am glad we have confirmed that.

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

Paschal Donohoe: I would not like to get Deputy Boyd Barrett and any of his party colleagues mixed up.

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

Paschal Donohoe: I would not like to attribute any of their comments to him. I certainly did not say that. I said on many occasions during the period in question that despite the great difficulty and challenge we had to manage, I was convinced that Ireland's continued membership of the eurozone was essential to how we would help our economy to grow and continue to improve the services we provide to the...

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

Paschal Donohoe: I am laying out what I believe is the Deputy's point of view. We have a different view on the matter. I do not believe we can increase taxes to fund the expenditure in the way the Deputy wants without having a negative effect on the lives of many of the people I represent. He is talking about significant increases in expenditure that would either break the fiscal rules, which will have...

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

Paschal Donohoe: Please do.

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

Paschal Donohoe: Under each one of those headings, will the Deputy not acknowledge the investment already under way?

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

Paschal Donohoe: I have acknowledged our different political views that get to the points he is making, but will he acknowledge, for example, under public transport, on which he quizzed me, the investment we already have that is being funded from the resources that are available to us and the resources that are available under education to our universities and institutes of technology? In terms of where we...

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

Paschal Donohoe: Where? Where are we doing that in Dominick Street?

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

Paschal Donohoe: There are other considerations apart from economics. If we consider the public housing projects that are under way, it is my view and that of the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and of many parties in the House - I believe it is likely to be the view of Dublin City Council - that if we are delivering significant urban regeneration projects, we should have mixed tenure on them. We should have...

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

Paschal Donohoe: I do not think so.

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

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, there is. The National Transport Authority has published a greater Dublin transport strategy, which outlines various projects it believes need to be delivered to address the matters to which the Deputy referred. He mentioned in particular how we can introduce shorter travel times between Dublin city, County Dublin and adjacent counties. The NTA wants to electrify the existing...

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

Paschal Donohoe: As regards outstanding capital projects and requirements that need to be met, housing is crucial. This is why we have already chosen to allocate to housing so many of the resources the State might have available to it over the next five years. Of the €5 billion in the fiscal space that is available for capital expenditure, we have committed over €2 billion to building homes....

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

Paschal Donohoe: No decision has been reached by the Government on the first-time buyers grant. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, will bring forward a proposal on this. He shares the view that if we bring forward an initiative in the area, it is very important that it contributes to supply because we need more homes to be built. We know the views of the Commission on water charges. We know the...

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

Paschal Donohoe: There are not, but it is a matter of which I am very much aware. There is forestry and more greenery than is commonly attributed to it.

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

Paschal Donohoe: I absolutely appreciate the importance of agriculture and food production to our society and economy. I have met the IFA, and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, has raised these matters with me. The normal challenges faced by farmers are exacerbated by price and income volatility, the potential early consequences of Brexit and the farmers' needs for new...

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

Paschal Donohoe: With regard to the effect of demographics on our ability to recruit, in my opening contribution I referred to the fact that we are now recruiting for all front-line services. In some areas we are back to where we were pre-crisis and we are beginning to make progress in others. We expect to need to hire 648 more teachers to deal with the effect of demographics on our schools. We have the...

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

Paschal Donohoe: I understand the genuine difficulty people face when the buses are not running. It is a huge problem, not only for those trying to get to work but, to agree with Deputy Burton, for elderly members of our community who are trying to go about their daily lives, get to appointments and so on. The challenge they face is a very big problem. Not to make a flippant point on a difficult issue,...

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

Paschal Donohoe: Absolutely.