Results 13,881-13,900 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

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: First, not all the expertise being sought through consultancy is economic expertise. It is economic, legal and communications expertise in some respects. The amounts of money, in their totality, are not huge in comparison with overall budgets. I have given Deputy Boyd Barrett the explanation previously that the expertise is not available in-house and it is more economic to get it through...

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 project will be led by two divisions of the Department and the allocation is spread across the two divisions.

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. This is driving economic and fiscal policy in the post-bailout period. The strategy which is brought forward will provide the tramlines within which we will operate now that the bailout is over and we do not have the troika providing the similar service. It is a low cost when one considers the intention.

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: They are driving the project. In a public service which is by its nature generalist, expertise is always required. Expertise is brought in by getting consultants in and it is cost effective when it is operated properly. I would argue strongly that there is no waste of money in this respect in the Department of Finance. If we were to follow Deputy Boyd Barrett's advice, it would be like...

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 not yet procured the advice.

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: No. There is a range of accountancy firms, which would be the ones who deal with the multinationals. This is by and large a multinational issue. Sometimes we even get pro bono advice because we would have good connections. When we made that change in the Finance (No. 2) Bill 2013, we discussed the change widely. IDA Ireland is usually our first port of call because it has a strong set of...

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 small country when it comes to conflicts of interests.

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: On the arrears, the explanation is that they concentrate on the larger accounts. If one looks at the percentages, they are high on the larger accounts. It is the smaller accounts where they are falling behind but that is because of the method of allocating the work. In value terms, they deal with a very high proportion of them. On the NAMA question, when NAMA commenced it had liabilities...

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 will respond to some general questions first and then I will look for advice on some of the specifics. Solicitors’ fees are paid to recover tax. Far more is recovered than fees paid so that is an advantage. If we increase activity in this area, we collect more revenue. Deputy Doherty is probably familiar with the background to the disabled drivers grant. The European Commission...

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 will try to get that information. The targeted audits concentrate predominantly on sectors most susceptible to the shadow economy and shadow activity. They maintain a specific focus on cash businesses; the detection of serious sales suppression in pubs and restaurants and the entertainment and hospitality industries; checking the compliance of white-collar professionals, doctors,...

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 was a question on staffing in Revenue. There is a staffing mix. There is the equivalent of 130 full-time posts in temporary staff on top of those figures. There was outsourcing of the call centres in the property tax arrangements, so the Deputy is getting the net full-time staff figures but there are temporary and outsourced staff in addition to that. There is a trade-off between 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: No.

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 do not allocate staff to the Revenue. That is the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. I have frequent meetings with the chairperson of the Revenue and she did not raise staff issues with me in recent meetings. The last time she raised staff issues with me, as far as I can recall, was in the preparation for the property tax.

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 commitment I made in the budget to reform the recruitment process for new appointments as appeal commissioners will require legislation, which I hope to introduce this year. I intend to appoint a third appeals commissioner.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: IBRC Liquidation (16 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: I am very pleased with the progress made to date in the liquidation of IBRC. The special liquidators continue to implement the orderly and efficient wind-down of IBRC in accordance with the provisions of the IBRC Act 2013 and instructions that have been provided to the special liquidators by me under the IBRC Act 2013. In relation to the timelines set out in my instructions, I can confirm...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: IBRC Liquidation (16 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: The special liquidators are appointed under legislation passed by the Houses of the Oireachtas and are working in accordance with that. That empowered the Minister for Finance to issue instructions. I issued instructions. They have valued everything up to 30 November and are proceeding to sell. The special liquidators have divided the portfolio initially into tranches and have sold 84%...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: IBRC Liquidation (16 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: The liquidators are conscious of those issues. It would be impractical to sell mortgage by mortgage, so what is on sale is the mortgage book, and it will then be bought by some financial institution. I am assured that because one's mortgage arrangement is a matter of contract law, all the rights one had initially when arranging the mortgage will be preserved on the transfer, and the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: IBRC Liquidation (16 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: Yes, but the liquidators are aware of this. On the Deputy's other question, there are code names on the different tranches. Evergreen, the first one I was describing, has a face value of €2.5 billion. Some 84% of this is gone already and more of it will go. The second one has the code name Sand, which has €1.8 billion of residential mortgages. The special liquidators have...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Mortgage Arrears Proposals (16 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: The Government is aware of the significant difficulties some homeowners are facing in meeting their mortgage obligations and the Deputy will know that a comprehensive strategy to tackle the problem is in place. Implementation of that strategy is a major priority and, in that context, the Central Bank mortgage arrears resolution targets – or MART – framework is key. Under this...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Mortgage Arrears Proposals (16 Jan 2014)

Michael Noonan: I agree with the Deputy that everybody in the House would like it if better progress was being made by the banks. Even though, as the Deputy said, there has been crisis in the banking industry for almost six years now, when I became Minister in March 2011, we effectively had a broken banking system. The doors were open but it was barely ticking over, and demoralised staff without capital...