Results 16,061-16,080 of 32,961 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Of course, I have very carefully studied the assessment report of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council. In each of the other two budgets in which I was involved as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, the council did not raise issues of the kind it raised in the most recent report. That is one of the reasons I take what it has stated so seriously. I do not dismiss the views of the IFAC...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for his questions. The only commitment I have given is that if information on the likely effects of a disorderly Brexit on our economy becomes available to me, I will make this information available in advance of when I normally would, that is, in the stability programme update. At no point in this meeting have I said that there would be a need for a new budget this year....

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy made a number of points. I am not sure where the questions were in his comments but I will respond to his points. He also made an assertion earlier that I had not responded to a number of questions that were put to me. That is not the case. However, any Deputy who is unhappy with an answer I have given has the option of putting another question to me or to ask the question...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: In responding to the Deputy, I said that he was repeating the assertions of others. I acknowledged that.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: In particular, there was the point he made about a surplus-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: What I am saying is the case. I said two things: first, that the Deputy was repeating the assertions of others, which he is and as I have acknowledged, and, second, that in the budget I have delivered in any given year I have either met or exceeded any target I have set in that year from a surplus or deficit point of view. That has been the case in my two budgets as Minister for Finance. To...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Within the next week.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: If I may respond, I am currently working on the draft because I work on all these things myself. It will be in line with what I have told the committee. What will be different from what I have had the opportunity to say in the committee so far is that I believe the decisions that we made in relation to the VAT rate could have got more prominence in the discussion since the budget. I am due...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I believe that the budget which we put in place is a sensible budget and the one that was best available for me to deliver to this Oireachtas. I do not accept that it was a reckless budget. There are specific points in the IFAC report that I accept. The ones I particularly accept, which the Deputy has outlined, relate to where we are with unplanned expenditure, particularly in health, and...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: This is one of the areas on which I take a different view because decisions are made each year, budget to budget, that are the result of policy decisions which must be made by the Government of the day. Different Ministers for Finance and different Governments in the future - obviously, I hope the current Government continues for as long as possible - must make decisions each year in...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: What I expect will happen is that as we move through these budgets, decisions will be made in respect of maintaining services in some areas, on new services in others and with regard to capital expenditure, which will change that.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I was going to say-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: That is fair enough. I will conclude my point and then respond to the Deputy. From much of the thinking I have read on medium-term forecasts, my view is that it underestimates the fact that a Government of the day will have to make policy choices in three different areas, that is, does it retain services in a particular area, does it need new services or does it need to change levels of...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy has put five different points to me. He asked whether my officials give me advice about-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I thought he said advice, but I will deal with that question.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: They certainly give me advice. We all worked very hard in the run-up to budget 2019, in the context of many competing pressures, to put together the best possible budget that could be implemented. I take some specific points on board but I differ in that I believe this is a budget which, by virtue of the rate of expenditure growth, the moving to a balance and then a surplus last year, meets...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: He suggested that I should spend more. The key proposal that he put on the table on how we should raise revenue in order that we can spend more was centred on the corporation tax. He voted against all the measures we brought in on budget day that sought to pay for the expenditure growth that is now being challenged. It is important to remember-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: -----when the Deputy is making his points that he voted against-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: He voted against the betting levy and the VAT rate and his main proposal was that the rate of corporation tax should be raised.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: These are key facts and I am happy to engage in as much debate around them as the Deputy wishes. On the particular questions he asked about Brexit-----