Results 15,941-15,960 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: Why is the Deputy always on the begrudgery agenda?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: I have given absolutely full and frank answers to all the questions that have been asked here. I have given the Deputy full and frank answers. To all the parliamentary questions he has put down, he has received full and frank answers when the questions are in order. He should not complain here that he is not getting the service to which he is entitled when he puts down parliamentary...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: I do not know whether that is the Deputy’s view or not.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: It is a question that is rhetorical in many of its aspects. Effectively, the Deputy is trying to get an answer and then will twist my views subsequently. I have laid out what the situation is. If the Deputy believes it would be of greater benefit to the taxpayer to sell the bank shares on the open market than anything we would get from the ESM, he will be right. However, that is not going...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: No, no, no. The Deputy has laid a number of charges against me, to which I would like to reply.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: The Deputy is getting all the answers. The problem is that he just does not like them. He claims the negotiating strategy adopted by me is leading to a situation in which we will not be successful, and that we should be more forceful. He took the exact same view when we were negotiating the promissory note, the maturity of the official loans from Europe, as well as the reduction of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: I know the Deputy likes bad news rather than good news. He has to listen to the good news as well, however.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: No; there was no surprise there. Several technical issues were discussed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: We have raised some technical and drafting issues with the Commission on the introductory assessment of the country-specific recommendations, CSRs. These include the language on the binding nature of the expenditure ceilings, the timeline for introducing health identifiers, and the purpose of improved data collection in the Courts Service. We expect to see agreement on suitable amendments...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: We will look at all the issues at budget time. As I announced in last year’s budget, we are looking at the appropriateness of all the tax measures in the agrifood industry and are in full consultation with all the interest groups involved. The OECD, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, will probably bring forward recommendations in September on the BEPS, base...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: There is a commitment to achieve a balanced budget over the medium term. Hopefully, we will achieve that point by 2018, but not necessarily so. We think there is enough growth now in the system to take us from a deficit of below 3% in 2015 to a balanced position.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: There is merit in the Deputy’s opinion on this. My officials will consult with Professor John McHale’s organisation to reconcile the data and the manner in which it was treated. We are also consulting with the Commission to see exactly whether it will be 2018 or 2019. There is flexibility to allow for the structural deficit position whereby one can be at 0% or even a minus...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: It is part of the budgetary process to look at all expenditure heads. They are looked at by my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. I think everybody knows that there have been difficulties in health but in a very big budget, the kind of deficits it has run from a percentage point of view are quite small relative to a budget of €13.2 billion. In respect of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: It is a matter for the CSO to come up with the figure. I understand it might do so before the end of this month. It is undertaking two distinct pieces of work. One involves having Ireland's GDP calculation in compliance with the new European rules. In the new European rules, as the Deputy outlined, illegality, the proceeds of crime and various other things can now be brought in for the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: GDP at the moment is about €166 billion. The Deputy can do the sums himself. I do not want to give him a false-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: It could be significantly ahead of 1%.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: One is only raising the level of denominator so it does not have the big effect the Deputy thinks of.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: I think the Deputy is talking about the impact of the GDP through a growing economy increasing by 1% and the tax that will generate because it has that kind of effect on the budget. This is purely a technical adjustment. There is no growth reflected in this.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: Yes. It is smaller but it is still-----