Results 23,481-23,500 of 32,961 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Property Tax Collection (6 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I am advised by Revenue that the outstanding Local Property Tax (LPT) liabilities in respect of the property in question have been paid in recent days. The payments covered the tax element only and did not include interest liabilities that accrued at 4% per annum on foot of LPT deferrals for the years 2015, 2016 and 2017. Revenue has confirmed that it will make direct contact with the liable...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Compliance (6 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Revenue’s primary goal is to ensure that all taxpayers and businesses meet their tax obligations in a timely fashion. Any delay in the collection of tax revenue impacts on the level and timeliness of the financial resources available to the Exchequer and adds to Government borrowing and public debt interest. Accordingly, Revenue has a strong focus on making sure that everyone...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Procurement Contracts (6 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: The Office of Government Procurement (OGP) established a framework contract for the provision of taxi services in the Greater Dublin Area in April 2015. This contract is renewable annually up to a maximum duration of four years. While the OGP established this framework contract, the OGP is not the Contracting Authority on any other taxi contracts. Prior to establishing this framework...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Private Partnerships (6 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: PPPs offer an alternative model for delivering infrastructure, that can facilitate the delivery of additional capital projects and that can be effective in particular circumstances. However, the long-term nature of the financial commitments arising under PPPs require that the use of such arrangements must be carefully planned in order to ensure that they are used to address infrastructural...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Legal Costs (6 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: The case, details supplied by the Deputy, involved allegations concerning substantial loans covering a period of approximately six years. The charges preferred involved (inter alia) breaches of the section 197 of the Companies Act 1990. My officials were advised by the DPP’s Office that the case was a difficult and complicated one involving a large number of offences covering an...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Procurement Contracts (6 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 88 and 89 together. Public procurement is the acquisition, whether under formal contract or not, of works, supplies and services by public bodies.  National rules governing public procurement must comply with the relevant EU, WTO and national legal requirements and obligations.  Under EU law, public contracts above a certain value must be...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Infrastructure and Capital Investment Programme (6 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I assume the Deputy's question refers to the Public Investment Management Assessment (PIMA) which is being carried out by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in July.  The possibility of undertaking a PIMA study was raised with me by the IMF during my visit to Washington earlier this year, in the context of a discussion on capital planning in Ireland.  ...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Capital Expenditure Programme Review (6 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Work on Spending Review 2017 has been ongoing since January of this year. The Mid-Year Expenditure Report (MYER) will include a substantive overview of this process in the coming weeks. In addition, a series of papers will be published with the MYER and will present the results of the analysis of the wide range of expenditure schemes and programmes that have been examined this year. This...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Pensions (6 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I understand that the deceased person referred to in the Deputy's question was a pensionable public servant, and that a dependant public service pension is payable to his surviving spouse. The original Lansdowne Road Agreement, whose terms were agreed in 2015 following negotiations between Government and the public service trade unions, does not contain any provisions in relation to...

Other Questions: NAMA Transactions (5 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I will always be straight with Deputy Wallace but I fear he might be disappointed with the answers I can give him on this matter. I will always try to give him the fullest information I can as a Member of the Oireachtas. Many Deputies called for the establishment of a commission of investigation in the aftermath of the Committee of Public Accounts work on aspects of Project Eagle. I cannot...

Other Questions: Sale of State Assets (5 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Yesterday, my Department was clear and careful not to use the proceeds of the sale in the AIB share to influence the half-year figures for income and expenditure. The changes in our position overall were mostly driven by the improvement in tax collection, especially throughout June. We did not use the sale of the AIB share to influence the presentation of those figures, but of course it did...

Other Questions: NAMA Transactions (5 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: As outlined to the Deputy in my written response to Parliamentary Question No. 107 on 29 June 2017, I am advised by NAMA that while Project Shift began as an asset sale it ultimately transacted as a loan sale. While Project Shift and Project Eagle were two separate transactions and were completed as such, given that the same purchaser ultimately was involved in both transactions, it made...

Other Questions: NAMA Operations (5 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I will come back to the Deputy on his question about NAMA being a public interest entity. To answer the main question he asked, it arises from a change to the audit requirements. Because the audit requirements emanated from an EU directive, we had to change how we were dealing with these matters. All of the bodies affected, including NAMA and the Comptroller and Auditor General, worked...

Other Questions: NAMA Operations (5 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: To answer the Deputy's question, I am not aware that my Department sought an exemption. If I am wrong in that understanding, I will respond to the Deputy with the information. There has been no change in the recognition of the constitutional role of the Comptroller and Auditor General as auditor of the State. It has not been affected. The Deputy asked my view on the role of the...

Other Questions: Sale of State Assets (5 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: As the Deputy will be aware, the State has now sold 25% of AIB's ordinary share capital at a price of €4.40 per share for a consideration of almost €3 billion. The offering was strongly supported by a broad range of international institutional investors, with all of the top investors being categorised as longer term investors and sovereign wealth funds. The State also granted...

Other Questions: Sale of State Assets (5 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: On the Deputy's first point about the share price and investors doing well, of course, the State is still an investor. It owns the vast majority of the bank and as the share price goes up, our stake in the bank also goes up. To answer the Deputy's second question, it continues to be my intention to use the money to repay the national debt. The €3 billion relating to the 25% of sales...

Other Questions: Tax Code (5 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: In his first priority question the Deputy made the point that I should not make any comment that might have consequences for the housing market in how it was structured for those who participated in it. I will abide by that principle in any comment I make on the taxation of rental income in the future, apart from confirming for the Deputy that there is a report on the way on all tax support...

Other Questions: Tax Code (5 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I outlined the way in which tax was paid by those who benefited from the funds, depending on where they were resident.

Other Questions: Tax Code (5 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I am well aware of the difficulties and challenges people face in the housing market across the country, whether they are looking to buy, living in rental accommodation or worried about the direction their rent is taking. I am as aware of them as the Deputy.

Other Questions: Tax Code (5 Jul 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: What I do not need from the Deputy every time an effort is made by the Government to try to address the housing issue, for example, we made over €5 billion available to be invested in the provision of social housing is it being condemned as being insufficient by Sinn Féin which at no time explains to us from where we will get the additional resources.