Results 10,281-10,300 of 32,864 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: In structural terms there will be because, as I just said, the objective is -0.5%. I shall return to the question that Deputy Calleary asked me. The budgetary performance definition that we must use has been set by the European Commission, which defines it as a medium-term objective and is a structural deficit.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I understand we are dealing with a general Government balance. When I translate the 0.5% into a general Government balance the measure that I have to meet is the structural balance, which is equal to -0.1% of a general Government balance. If it is -0.1% that means it is, in essence, as close as we can get it to being balanced.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, roughly so.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Or €355 million. Everybody thinks that expenditure will meet income. The Taoiseach referred to the matter yesterday but that is not the case. I wish to clarify that we have not seen a departure from the economic stance stipulated in the summer economic statement. Is the Minister targeting the structural balance?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, it is the structural balance that I am targeting. At all times the language that I have used to describe what we are doing is "broadly balancing our books".

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I ask my colleague, Mr. John McCarthy, to answer the question .

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: The figure is 0.5%.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I have always said that there is a legal framework within which I must operate. Independent of that, however, I believe it is appropriate, given many of the risks we face and the way our domestic economy is performing, that Ireland gets to a point where it has a general Government balance that is in line with what I said at the start of my contribution. I wish to ensure that, at a time when...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I might not be obliged but I am happy to answer the question and give the background to it. I have answered questions on the matter in the past and am happy to do so again, even though I am not obliged to do so. The background to it is that my wife worked for Diageo. She no longer works there. During the time she was working for Diageo she received a number of shares. As we are a married...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I will begin with the landlord tax and I will make no comment on decisions I may or may not make on budget day. I will only offer a general observation that a challenge we have at present is the decreasing number of landlords who provide rental accommodation, and any decision to increase taxation in this sector would have to take account of this. With regard to employers' PRSI, what the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I was going on to answer it. The Deputy asked me about ten questions and I am working my way through each of them.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: With regard to the performance of the housing market overall, we know we need to increase supply but, for example, up to the end of this May we saw more than 16,000 homes being completed and made available to people, which is an increase of just under one fifth versus the same period a year ago. With regard to the Deputy's question on the trade-off between direct build and the use of the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: When the Deputy uses the phrase "direct provision", what does he mean by it?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I cannot say now, primarily because it is a matter for the Minister, Deputy Murphy, and I must engage with him on what the long-term capital allocation would be for the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. If there is to be a change in the split versus what is laid down in Rebuilding Ireland, it will be a matter for the Minister, Deputy Murphy, and I will help him in any way...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: -----at the end of the day in terms of decisions we make, but I try to make all these decisions in the context of what I said to Deputy Ryan earlier, that I am deeply aware of the anxiety and difficulty faced by people who cannot get a home. We are trying to do the right thing to change the supply of homes in Ireland to deal with this. The matter of the long-term direction of Rebuilding...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: In respect of the plan on which the Minister, Deputy Murphy, is working, he will make that decision but it will be funded. I am engaged in discussions with him at the moment regarding the future of funding for the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government for 2018. Any decision he makes will be in the context of the base funding he had for 2017 and any agreement I make with him...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy is correct. I meant as we become even more of a net contributor. That contribution is definitely worth paying for our membership of the Single Market and a project which is all about realising the political freedoms of our citizens. The value of the European Union in the coming years will become even more apparent than it is now.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: The figure moved to €4.1 billion because we made available a further €1.5 billion, or €500 million for each year from 2019 to 2021. My expectation from dealing with many large infrastructural projects, be they roads, public transport, schools or homes, is that, due to the length of the planning process and the need to go to tender, the large expenditure on many of them...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I enjoy many forms of fizzy drinks.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Business of Select Committee
Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018 (Resumed): Minister for Finance (27 Sep 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I just refer to them as that.