Results 2,261-2,280 of 6,631 for speaker:Rose Conway-Walsh
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: I have two main questions, one of which is on public investment in the context of the budget. In its bulletin, the Central Bank projects housing completions to be 29,000 next year and 30,000 in 2025. That compares with targets of 33,450 next year and 34,600 in 2025 under the Government's housing plan, and we know that these targets are well below what is required. Would the Central Bank...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: I am trying to get at the drag of productivity and how concerned the Central Bank is about that in terms of our growth potential in the future and our productivity levels, because housing and productivity are so closely linked, particularly when we are at this stage of the crisis.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: What does the Central Bank offer as a solution to that? It obviously is of concern to the Central Bank. What proposals would the Central Bank provide to address that situation?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: Is that not the real dilemma for us? If we look at the published article, Managing the Public Finances in a Full-Employment Economy, we are trying to balance things. Dr. O'Brien has just given us the message from the Central Bank that we are not to spend any more and should tighten everything, yet we can see the threat to our competitiveness as well as the impact that has on immigration,...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: I thank Professor McQuinn for his statement and I welcome both witnesses. The recent research to which Professor McQuinn referred showed that in 2021 half of all households saw their incomes decline or stagnate. In 2022 there was a sharp rise in the rate of material deprivation. As Professor McQuinn stated, this raises the prospect of three years without real income growth for most of our...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: Has an examination been done of the lower unemployment levels and the increase in household incomes? What is the relationship between increased employment and household incomes?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: What I am trying to get at is there are so many struggling households and people appear never to have been working harder. People are working multiple jobs as well. It is important not to take low unemployment as people being better off in the economy. I turn to housing because Dr. McQuinn's opening statement outlined how inflation is being driven by housing. Will the witnesses...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: Is Professor McQuinn surprised that housing prices are not reducing at a greater rate at this point or is just due to the lag effect that they are not?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: Have some of the housing policies around the help to buy scheme and others contributed to inflationary aspects, in Dr. McQuinn's opinion?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: Dr. McQuinn also touched on the important issue of how interest rate increases will affect the private sector housing construction and how that will be negatively impacted as the Government relies heavily on the private sector to deliver the housing targets. Do the increased rates increase the risk of these targets being missed in the short term?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: Is there potential there, with the right ambition from Government, to ensure the decline in the private sector is then made up by the public sector to ensure the skills are maintained and ultimately there to deliver the houses we so badly need?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: You could have both. Obviously, what has contributed to this as well, is the overconcentration on the housing assistance payment, HAP, and the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, and the €1 billion per year which we are transferring to the private sector without having any long-term gains from that.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: I will leave it at that for the moment unless Dr. Keane wants to speak to any of those.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: Yes. Dr. McQuinn answered my next question in his last statements. I want to expand a bit on the fact that there is room to get a balance. There is nobody across the board who is advocating that the windfall tax would be used in current expenditure-----
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: -----but there is the threat to productivity and the threat to competitiveness going forward if we do not invest in our infrastructure. We have, as Dr. McQuinn rightly says, housing and health to deal with and things should be thrown at them because of the impact they will have in the longer term. In terms of regional imbalance, when we look at the European Regional Competitiveness Index...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: I am talking about some of the windfall tax.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: The Cathaoirleach was not engaged carefully enough. One can certainly have both, if we look to next year and the year after. We know it is not just dependence on corporation tax-----
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: -----but the fact that it is reliant on ten companies, and even three when we decide we are enough-----
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: That is clearly what I am saying.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement: Central Bank of Ireland and ESRI (19 Sep 2023)
Rose Conway-Walsh: There is no need to draw lines. That is absolutely and clearly what I am saying. It would be crazy to do it any other way. Because of the drawback on competitiveness and productivity as a result of us not having the necessary infrastructure in place to guarantee growth in future, there is an opportunity for us. We have to look to the demographic challenges, the challenges with pensions...