Results 13,341-13,360 of 13,375 for speaker:Pat Rabbitte

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Supplementary)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: They are brown bread.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Supplementary)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: It will push up the quality of the intake.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on the Department of the Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: I mean no disrespect when I say that this is a fairly arcane area as far as parliamentarians are concerned. We would not really be in a position to evaluate or assess the information we get at Estimate time about the Office of the Chief State Solicitor. It is very difficult to form a view on it. There have been celebrated cases in the past fitting into the first category mentioned by the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on the Department of the Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: Is it anticipated that the Court of Appeal will abbreviate the time it takes to crystallise a case?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on the Department of the Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: The assumption then is that the Supreme Court waiting time will be greatly foreshortened under the new arrangement.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on the Department of the Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: Has the staffing level at the office changed over the last seven years?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (3 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: I have a couple of questions. I thank Professor McHale and his colleagues for being here. I agree with Deputy Tóibín that the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has done the State some service. It has certainly done some service if it has converted to Sinn Féin to the views to which I have been listening for the last 12 or 15 minutes. I calculated recently that some of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (3 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: -----would involve a spend of approximately €11 billion in modest terms. I welcome the influence of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council purely for that contribution alone. Is Professor McHale not being a bit severe? When Professor McHale says the unplanned expenditure at the end of 2015 echoes the last boom, when property-related revenues funded large increases in spending, I am not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (3 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: Is it a fair parallel? Building 95,000 houses for the population, as we were doing at the time, was manifestly unwise but only a policy of devastation would cause international companies to withdraw, or to retrench dramatically, causing something similar to what happened in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Is it fair to raise the fear that something such as this could happen to the export sector?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (3 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: Is the professor saying some in the international sector might be declaring more tax than they would otherwise do in preparation for the implementation of the BEPS? Does implementation of the BEPS threaten the quantum of corporation tax we are likely to see in the future?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (3 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: If the professor was not chairman of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council but spoke simply as a professional economist, would he give any credence at all to the strains put on the system in the seven years we have been through? I refer, in particular, to the health sector and the cases my eminent colleagues raise every day in the Dáil in the course of looking for more expenditure. Does he...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (3 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: Professor McHale made reference to the extra spending at the end of 2015, saying we could have reduced the deficit by a further 0.5% of GDP had it not taken place, but is it not remarkable that we are forecasting the figures we are forecasting for the deficit? The latest Department of Finance figure is somewhat below what the professor suggested it would be - 1.7% at the end of the year. Is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (3 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: When this Government was formed all of the emphasis and all of the lecturing to it concerned the deficit. The deficit was the Holy Grail we had to aim for at the end of the lifetime of the Government and further down the line into 2018. I doubt that any economist reasonably could have forecast that we would be heading into the end of 2016 with a balanced budget, arguably, given the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (3 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: I have a final question. Is the witness articulating his conviction about the analysis he is making about the dangers of procyclical budgeting and so forth or is he expressing his satisfaction with the fiscal rules as they have been laid down for us?

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Product Labelling (8 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: 605. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he is aware that there is inadequate enforcement of what is known as the Dim2/Erp legislation in respect of the import and sales of non-compliant LED lamps; his plans to improve enforcement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44095/15]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: I suppose it is the case that if we have moved on to discussing NAMA as a housing agency, then it must signal some satisfaction with the job for which NAMA was set up in 2009. Is that the position?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: I am keen to put one more question on that point.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: The NAMA deputation has referenced the success to date and the projected surplus of €2 billion. They have pointed to some commentary - in some cases serious commentary and in other cases commentary by people who do not know the first thing they are talking about, which is not novel. To be out by €10 million is not insignificant. Could it be said that the price at which NAMA...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: All colleagues are concerned about housing provision for obvious reasons. Back in 2011 there was such an overhang of housing, including in this city, that anyone who wanted to start building houses, even if the money was available - it was not - would have been taken away by people in white coats. However, rapidly we developed an acute housing shortage and a real supply problem. The NAMA...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functioning of NAMA: Discussion (16 Dec 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: Does Mr. Daly wish to say anything in this regard?