Results 25,401-25,420 of 32,924 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: As the Deputy understands, the lead Department in responding is the Department of Education and Skills. The Minister and his officials are responding and engaging with me on their current and capital needs as part of the normal Estimates process. I am trying to reconcile this with the fact that everybody else is doing the same. On the Cassells report, the Minister has not yet come...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I can give the Deputy an absolute guarantee that I am not lacking a direction or encouragement from the Minister for Education and Skills about what to do in this regard.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: The Minister is full of leadership and has made clear to me the views of the Department. I look forward to a cross-party consensus developing.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: What does the Deputy mean by “tax expenditure”?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: Tax breaks.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: No, I do not. That is a matter for the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: My role focuses on the expenditure side of the equation. The design of the tax system and the collection of charges are matters for the Minister for Finance.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I certainly pass on my views. The Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform work closely together, but part of the reason the relationship has worked so well in the past six years is that each of them has a different job to do.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: How does the Deputy expect me to answer that question?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: Let me explain our roles, as opposed to getting involved in dealing with allegations of superiority or inferiority. I cannot see how I could win in answering that question. The Minister for Finance and his Department, among other things, are responsibile for dealing with the overall macroeconomic situation. It is the role of the Minister for Finance to assign functions as between taxation...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: Correct.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy is asking who is being realistic and unrealistic.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: That is similar to his earlier question about superiority and inferiority and he should consider how I answered it. Each Minister who comes to me is highly realistic in what he or she seeks for his or her Department. They all are aware of the issues and social matters to which the Deputy has referred and all of them are doing their very best to try to make progress within the Department for...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: On the Deputy's first question, from the point of view of process, I do not get the figures directly from the HSE. While it is the Department of Health that primarily engages with the executive, I note that it has raised with me all of the matters the Deputy has raised. The Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, has raised with me and my Department the different issues raised by the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I will deal with each of the questions in turn. I will begin with the Government expenditure as a percentage of national income and how Ireland stacks up versus peer countries. I do not accept that Ireland is low in relation to it and this is one of the very reasons I have asked my officials to devote a chapter to this topic in the mid-year expenditure report. Two different factors emerged...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: No, I am just going to finish off answering the questions and I am happy to come back to anything then. With regard to the facilities for schools, and I acknowledge the Deputy has raised this matter with me on behalf of her constituents, we have a pipeline of projects that are coming through at any point in time for educational facilities and facilities for the elderly. It is absolutely not...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I am sorry. It involves a facility and building which, I understand, we do not own. We are engaged now in negotiation on that matter. Given the sensitivity of the work that goes on in that building and the personnel involved, I accept the importance of the need for a secure facility to do that work. I accept that. If there is a further update I can give to the Deputy or the committee in...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy put a point to me about the arts. Of course the arts community wants the further €50 million made available to it last year to be maintained. Of course it does. I understand why it would want that to be maintained. However, the challenge I have, and I am engaged in this with the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Humphreys, is how...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. I meet constituents of my own every day who are dealing with the kind of real pressure which the Deputy has described. I absolutely understand the stress and anxiety it causes people as I know the Deputy also understands. Why do we ask people to pay their taxes? It is because it contributes to the public services that are essential for meeting our citizens' needs. Of...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Current and Capital Expenditure: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (21 Sep 2016)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank Deputy Donnelly. I will come back to him on the voluntary sector and section 39 organisations. My understanding is that the forum to which he refers has met.