Results 19,541-19,560 of 32,999 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Value for Money Reviews (22 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I wish to advise the Deputy that all of the consultancy costs of my Department since its establishment in 2011 up to the end of August 2019 can be found at the following link:

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Value for Money Reviews (22 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: My Department did not conduct any Value for Money and Policy Reviews between 1 January 2018 and 1 January 2019.   My Department has conducted a large amount of analytical work including through the Spending Review process. A total of 81 papers, completed by staff in my Department and within other Departments, have been published over the last three years covering a range of policy...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Expenditure (22 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The information requested is set out in tabular form. 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 (f) Voted Health Expenditure (€ 000's) 13,340,748 14,107,220 14,798,316 15,976,091 17,107,000 18,272,781 % of Public Expenditure 24.4% 25.2% 25.2% ...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: National Development Plan (22 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy can find the equivalent Exchequer expenditure figures in millions contained in Annex 1, on page 104 of the National Development Plan (NDP), out to 2022.  Government has made a €91 billion Exchequer allocation to deliver the NDP priorities over the full duration of the plan, as explained by Table 3.1. As I have not yet finalised individual...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Pay (22 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Under the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA) 2018 – 2020, it was agreed to examine the remaining salary scale issues in respect of post January 2011 entry grades. The report in the following link, laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas in March 2018, estimates the point in time cost of advancing new entrants to the public service two points along their incremental scales....

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Pension Provisions (22 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Public Service Pension Reduction (PSPR) was introduced on 1 January 2011 under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act (FEMPI) 2010. A three-stage partial reversal of PSPR was provided for in the FEMPI Act 2015, with rate reductions (via revised PSPR tables) occurring on 1 January in each of the years 2016, 2017 and 2018. The cost of these FEMPI 2015 changes is...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (23 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I would have hoped the Deputy would recognise the measures I introduced in the budget to support small and medium-sized companies. Those measures have been recognised by many of the firms' representatives as delivering the change for which they were looking.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (23 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: On Deputy Howlin's point about food supplements, the only problem with his analysis is that the Revenue Commissioners do not agree with it.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (23 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Revenue Commissioners have indicated that in the absence of any change, they will adjust the VAT rate to 23% on 1 November. This time last year Deputy Howlin and others were calling on me to prevent that from happening. I have now made it clear that those products that are regulated by the agencies of the Department of Health will retain the 0% rate. The VAT rate of products without...

Finance Bill 2019: Order for Second Stage (23 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I move: "That Second Stage be taken now."

Finance Bill 2019: Second Stage (23 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." Two weeks ago, I made my Budget Statement and outlined the many challenges that our economy had gone through. Despite those challenges and issues, we have economic growth that is broadly based, public capital investment will increase by 22% and the unemployment rate has fallen to 5.3%. Tax revenues are largely in line with forecasts and...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Pension Provisions (23 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Standard Fund Threshold (SFT) is the maximum allowable pension fund on retirement for tax purposes which was introduced in Budget and Finance Act 2006 to prevent over-funding of pensions through tax-relieved arrangements. The threshold was initially set at €5 million, which was subsequently reduced to €2.3 million in 2010 and further reduced in Budget 2014 and Finance (No 2)...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Insurance Costs (23 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I can assure the Deputy that insurance reform remains a priority for the Government.  The Cost of Insurance Working Group (CIWG), which was established in July 2016, has produced two reports, and is continuing to work to implement the recommendations of the Cost of Motor Insurance Report and the Cost of Employer and Public Liability Insurance Report.  The most recent Update Report,...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Reliefs Application (23 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I am advised by Revenue that tax relief for employees may be granted for contributions to an “exempt approved” occupational pension scheme under section 774 Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (TCA); contributions to a statutory scheme under section 776 TCA; contributions to a retirement annuity under section 784 TCA; contributions to a Personal Retirement Savings Account (PRSA) under...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Foreign Earnings Deduction (23 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Foreign Earnings Deduction applies to taxpayers who work abroad during a tax year and one of the conditions of receiving the deduction is that the taxpayer must work in a relevant state, of which there are 30 eligible states. All of these 30 relevant states are non-EEA states.  In 2017, the most recent year for which data are available, the incentive cost €3.9 million and...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (23 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The OECD is currently undertaking a significant project to address the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy.  The work is being divided across two Pillars – Pillar One and Pillar Two.  The work under ‘Pillar One’ focuses on the distribution of taxing rights in respect of highly digitalised activities and seeks to undertake a...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Reliefs Costs (23 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: It is assumed that the Deputy is referring to Life Assurance Exit Tax (LAET). Based on a pre-Budget base the estimated cost of reducing LAET from 41% to 33% is €39m. Costs and yields for changes to LAET are published on page 13 of the Ready Reckoner on Revenue’s website at link: . The Ready Reckoner will be updated to a Post Budget 2020 basis shortly and will be available at...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Revenue Commissioners Investigations (23 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I am advised by Revenue that its clear preference is to engage with taxpayers experiencing tax payment difficulties and to agree mutually acceptable solutions, rather than deploying debt collection/enforcement sanctions. Where there is no engagement, or where there is a lack of commitment to achieving a mutually acceptable arrangement, then Revenue is left with no option but to use its...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: General Government Debt (23 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The exchequer balance is the domestic budgetary aggregate which measures the net surplus or deficit position (the difference between cash inflows and outflows) of central government’s main treasury account, the Central fund. The general government balance (GGB) is an EU national accounting aggregate which measures the net surplus or deficit position of all arms of Government, i.e....

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Staff Data (23 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The authorities responsible for the administration of the large number of pension schemes operating in the various sectors of the Irish public service are, in general, the relevant employers and Ministers in those sectors. It would be a matter for those sectorial authorities, including relevant Ministers, to supply such information as may be available in respect of the number of retirees in...