Results 17,461-17,480 of 32,983 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Staff Retirements (9 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: On 5 December 2017, the Government made the decision to increase the compulsory retirement age to 70, for public servants recruited prior to 1 April 2004. Primary legislation was necessary in order to bring that change into effect. It was made clear at the time that until such legislation was enacted, the compulsory retirement age of 65, which applied to the vast majority of this cohort,...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Home Loan Scheme (9 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan launched on 1 February 2018. Prior to its launch, an initial tranche of €200 million of long-term fixed-rate finance was borrowed by the Housing Finance Agency to provide funds for the scheme to local authorities. When the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan was initially being developed it was estimated that the drawdown of loans under the scheme would...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Legislative Measures (9 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Article 33 of the Constitution provides that there shall be a Comptroller and Auditor General to control on behalf of the State all disbursements and to audit all accounts of moneys administered by or under the authority of the Oireachtas. The constitution also provides that the Comptroller and Auditor General shall be appointed by the President on the nomination of Dáil...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Brexit Preparations (9 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Since the referendum result in 2016, a number of steps have been taken to build up the resilience of the economy so that we have the capacity to deal with adverse economic shocks. These include building up our fiscal buffers by balancing our books, reducing our debt burden and establishing the Rainy Day Fund. The steady increases in public spending implemented in recent years with a...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Procurement Contracts Data (9 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The details sought by the Deputy are not available centrally. The management of individual contracts is a matter for the relevant contracting authorities and my Department does not have a central coordination role in relation to contracts entered into by all state authorities.

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (10 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 51 and 52 together. Commission Regulation (EU) No. 702/2014 of 25 June 2014, commonly known as the Agricultural Block Exemption Regulation (ABER), is the Regulation under which certain categories of State aid can be granted for the agricultural and forestry sectors. Article 18 of the ABER sets out the specific requirements for the granting of aid for young...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Customs and Excise Staff (10 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: In September 2018, the Government granted approval in principle for the phased recruitment of an additional 600 Revenue staff to meet the challenges posed by Brexit. Revenue has appointed over 470 staff from open recruitment and interdepartmental competitions since the start of 2019, the majority of these have been assigned to customs roles or to backfill existing Revenue staff assigned to...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: VAT Rate Increases (10 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The background to this issue is that VAT legislation does not apply the zero rate of VAT to food supplements but shortly after the introduction of VAT Revenue applied a concessionary zero rating to certain vitamin, mineral and fish oil food supplement products. As the market developed over the years this treatment resulted in the zero rating by Revenue of further similar products, including...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Insurance Compensation Fund (10 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Setanta Insurance ("Setanta") was placed into liquidation by the Malta Financial Services Authority on 30 April 2014.  As it was a Maltese incorporated company, the liquidation is being carried out under Maltese law. The Deputy will be aware that under the Insurance Act 1964, as amended, monies may only be paid out of the Insurance Compensation Fund (ICF), with the approval of the...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Financial Services Regulation (10 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: It is important to keep the market for the provision of financial services under review to ensure that the level of consumer protection continues to be robust.  In this context, last summer I asked Mr. Michael Tutty to conduct a review of the PCP market and regulatory structure and his report was subsequently published by my Department in November. That report found...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Small and Medium Enterprises Supports (10 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: S128F of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 provides for the Key Employee Engagement Programme (KEEP) which came into effect on 1 January 2018. The aim of the incentive is to support SMEs in Ireland in competing with larger enterprises to recruit and retain key employees, by way of a targetted share option programme. I am advised by Revenue that the ‘KEEP...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Employment Investment Incentive Scheme Data (10 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 58 and 59 together. With regard to the Deputy’s first question on the number of applications for tax relief certificates under the Employment and Investment Incentive scheme (EII) in each year since its creation and in each month of 2018, Revenue have provided me with the following data:  Table 1: No. of applications for EII Scheme 2012 –...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Central Bank of Ireland Reports (10 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: As the Deputy will be aware, I am on record stating that I am committed to increasing individual accountability in the financial sector. On foot of a request I made to the Governor of the Central Bank for a review of the culture and behaviour within the retail banking sector in Ireland, the Behaviour and Culture of the Irish Retail Banks report was published in July 2018. Since...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Capital Expenditure Programme (10 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: As the Deputy will be aware, the National Development Plan, published last year, demonstrates the Government’s commitment to meeting Ireland’s infrastructure and investment requirements over the next 10 years, through a total estimated investment of €116 billion over the period to 2027.  In 2019, capital expenditure of €7.3 billion represents an increase of...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Staff Retirements (10 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: In my role as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, I have statutory responsibility for the terms and conditions of public servants only.  Employees of commercial State bodies, such as RTÉ, are not public servants.  The terms and conditions, including compulsory retirement age, of employees of commercial State bodies (other than the Chief Executive Officer), are...

Estimates for Public Services 2019 (11 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I move the following Revised Estimates:

Vote 42 — Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (11 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes.

Vote 42 — Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (11 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputies for their contributions and I will respond to the points they made. First, as was acknowledged by Deputy Cowen, these Estimates have gone through their relevant committees. I took the Estimates for both of my Departments to the committee a number of weeks ago and my colleagues did the same with theirs. That means all the Votes in these Revised Estimates went through...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Insurance Coverage (11 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: In replying to this question, I am making the assumption that the Deputy is seeking the introduction of a Declined Cases type agreement similar to that found for the motor sector.  However, it is important to point out that unlike third party motor insurance, employer and public liability insurance is not a compulsory requirement in Ireland, and therefore there is no legal requirement to...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: VAT Registration (11 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 51 to 53, inclusive, together. I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the number of institutions registered for Value Added Tax between 2015 and 2018 is provided in the table below. These figures represent the number of live VAT registrations at 31 December for each year in question. Year Primary Post-primary Third-level 2015 2,127 577 63...