Results 13,841-13,860 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Written Answers — Department of Finance: EU Budget Contribution (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: The Department of Finance publishes information on EU Budget payments and public sector receiptsin the annual Budget & Economic Statistics (BES) bulletin. The data for 2011 and 2012 are reproduced in the following table. A provisional EU budget payment figure for 2013 and an estimate for 2014 are also included. EU receipts data for 2013 and 2014 are not yet available. The EU also...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council Resources (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council was established on a non-statutory basis in July 2011 and established on a statutory basis on the 31 December 2012 under the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2012. The Fiscal Responsibility Act 2012 provides for a ceiling of €800,000 for the Fiscal Council in 2012. This sum is to be adjusted by the annual percentage change in the Harmonised Index of...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Consultancy Contracts (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: My response is in relation to the Department of Finance only. No such costs have been incurred by my Department in relation to either of these issues to date and there are no budgets allocated for same during 2014 or 2015.

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that provisions covering the Travel Agents Margin Scheme are contained in Section 88 of the VAT Consolidation Act 2010. This scheme, which is provided for in Articles 306 to 310 of the EU VAT Directive, with which Irish VAT law must comply, was introduced with effect from 1 January 2010. Detailed discussions with the travel industry were carried out...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Banking Sector Regulation (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: The Irish banks’ financial statements are prepared in accordance with International Accounting Standards and International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union. The requirement for commercial banks to prepare financial statements is laid out in the Companies Acts, 1963 – 2013. The Central Bank of Ireland has informed me that it has no role in the...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Credits (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: As you are aware the One-Parent Family Tax Credit (OPFTC) has been replaced with a new Single Person Child Carer Tax Credit from 1 January 2014. The restructured credit is of the same value i.e. €1,650 per annum as the OPFTC and also carries the same entitlement to the additional €4,000 extended standard rate band, which increases it to €36,800 per annum, before...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Legislative Reviews (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: Minister for Finance ( Mr Noonan): The Programme Documents (the Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Economic Policy Conditionality and the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies) agreed following the 10th Review of the EU-IMF Programme of Financial Support include a commitment to carry out an assessment of banks’ fee income by end-December 2013 as follows: The authorities...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Basic Payments Account (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 167 to 169, inclusive, together. The Report on the Standard Bank Account pilot project was published on my Department’s website on 10 January 2014. The Financial Inclusion Working Group (FIWG), chaired by my Department, and including stakeholders from other Government Departments, the Central Bank of Ireland, retail banks, An Post, the National...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Consumer Protection (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: Regulation 18(2) of S.I. No. 281/2010 - European Communities (Consumer Credit Agreements) Regulations 2010 provides that “Where the goods or services covered by a linked credit agreement are not supplied, or are supplied only in part, or are not in conformity with the contract for their supply, the consumer has the right to pursue remedies against the creditor if the consumer has...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: I am pleased to have the opportunity to appear before the select sub-committee today in connection with the 2014 Estimates for my Department and for the offices under the ambit of my Department, including the Revenue Commissioners, the Appeal Commissioners and the Comptroller and Auditor General. I record my thanks to all the officials at the Department who worked together to continue to...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: Shall I reply?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: The first opening statement was a series of questions, all of which deserve replies.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: The travel and subsistence expenditure relates to all the Department's travel costs undertaken by Ministers, Ministers of State and officers of the Department, and includes ministerial drivers, involvement in EU activities generally, including the ECOFIN Councils, travel to World Bank and other International Monetary Fund meetings and other miscellaneous travel costs. The Estimates for 2013...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: It is a quantum of money that is there to deal with the human resource issue. It is an issue that is foreseeable and is almost resolved to the point at which an estimate of costs can be put on it. However, because it is to do with personnel, it is confidential in nature. It is a once-off charge in 2014 and will not recur.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: We can provide details to the Deputy on a confidential basis.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: That allocation applies to the economic planning initiative. Under international postings there is a figure of €220,000, and the total comes out at €720,000.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: Following the publication of the medium-term economic strategy the Department of Finance will need to co-ordinate and implement actions and projects arising out of the plan. The provision is allocated across the two subdivisions that will lead the project. It represents the implementation costs of the economic strategy - that is, the cost of actually carrying out the work.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: It will be done by a mix of staff in the Department working with outside assistance, if such assistance is necessary. Provision is being made for the possibility of external assistance. The Deputy will appreciate that the amounts allocated are quite small. There is no point in bringing forward economic strategy documents if there is not the wherewithal to implement them. That is what is...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: We have moved over the three-year period to which the Chairman refers from sovereigns in the eurozone being de factoin charge of their own budgetary systems to a situation in which there is a fiscal union and the various requirements of the six-pack, two-pack, excessive deficit procedures and European semesters, all of which require compliance. That compliance requirement is met, in the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: Yes, I do. In the case of the excessive deficit procedure, to give a practical example, our commitment is to get under 3% by 2015. It is regarded across the eurozone that a deficit is in excess if it is over 3% of GDP. We are getting into the mainstream, therefore, once we get under 3%. If at any stage there was a drift above that - say, for example, as a consequence of budgetary...