Results 2,681-2,700 of 33,118 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I have not decided yet because engagement is under way with the unions on this matter. The core point the Deputy has put to me, that it will come from the €2 billion, is correct.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I cannot give the Deputy that indication this afternoon because that is a very important process which is under way with the Department of Health. I do not want to prejudge what the outcome of that will be, given the importance of this matter to our health services and budgetary plans. We are looking to identify better what share of the overspend will recur and therefore what impact that...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I do not want to be disrespectful to the Deputy or the work of the committee but it is a big question he is asking me to give a clear answer to given that work is under way in relation to it. It would be fair to say that at other points in dealing with them, health overspends have already been many hundreds of millions of euro. Even at this point, I prefer not to give an indication of what...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I will deal with the point on what is or is not unacceptable with regard to me answering a question from the Deputy. My preference and duty is to give the Deputy an exact figure, rather than a range. I stand by what I said earlier and reiterate that point. When that work is complete, I will be back in the Oireachtas and will give the Deputy a figure and explain it. On the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I am pleased to be able to correct the Deputy on that.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: Our plans for next year are focused on, for example, maintaining and building our housing output and ensuring the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, has the resources he needs to meet the targets laid out in Housing for All because we are conscious of the social need. It is fine to quote that part of the Central Bank analysis but that body also warned about the Government making...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I concur with what the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, has just said. We published our expenditure report for the year in the aftermath of budget 2023. What it indicated is that for the lowest income decile within society, the combination of the energy credits, social welfare, tax changes, and changes in regard to public transport, the change in income for them across this year due to the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: All I can do in response to the points the Deputy makes is to reiterate the reality of what happened this year. For those within our society who are on the lowest income, through a combination of the €12 increase in core payment rates and the one-off measures, the additional double payments that were made last autumn, the additional measures that were repeated before the summer, plus...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I am well aware of the concerns of those in the mental health sector in regard to funding for their services for next year in the context of the overspend that has now fully developed in other parts of the health service. I am doing all I can to try to protect the other health services. I assure Deputy Boyd Barrett that I am well aware of the risk. That issue is very important in the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: As I answer that I want to emphasise how important the work is that is under way regarding this fund for our country that will give us the best chance possible of making sure that the ups and downs of how economies grow and fall do not ruin again our ability to keep on building homes and investing in our future. The work that the Minister for Finance has just updated the Deputy on is of huge...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: With regard to the Brexit Adjustment Reserve, BAR, fund, of the €565 million that was available under that for 2023, €238 million of it was available for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The BAR is coming to an end this year. That is the period of eligibility that was contained in the regulation that was passed by the European Parliament, and I need to be...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: The level of ELS that is available to different Departments forms a very big part of our discussions with them because it then sets the scene for the negotiation regarding plans for next year. Has the inflationary environment that we are still in had an impact on the real value of ELS? I would say the answer to that question is that, yes, it has. That, in turn, is one of the reasons the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I do not believe we are. In the engagement I have with Departments and on the Deputy's point on the effect of inflation on ELS, my assessment is that inflation is having a bigger impact on the delivery of capital programmes, the number of companies that want to bid to deliver projects for the State and the cost of those projects. In this area, the carry-through from inflation into the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: That is a reflection of the fact that we expect to have corporate tax receipts at a high level for some time more, but I, like the Minister for Finance, am absolutely certain that they will begin to diminish. When they do, we will have to be ready. For some time more, they will be at the level included in the Department of Finance's forecasts. While the Government believes it is important...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: That is a matter I will work on with the Minister for Finance. Any agreement or offer made from an industrial relations perspective always comes from the budget of the Department involved in the issue. Any in-year sector-specific pay changes that result from an issue such as the one the Deputy has referred to will come from the Department involved. I do not have a central fund anywhere...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I met the Minister for Social Protection this afternoon and we engaged on this very issue. We are well aware of the needs of our elderly citizens, particularly those on fixed incomes whose only income may be the pension from the State. I am well aware of how hard the past several years have been for them. As is always the case with any group representing a particular part of our society,...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I have little doubt that if our package contained no broad measures at all, we would be criticised for that. What we are trying to do is get the package overall right. As the Minister for Finance just said, the package needs to reflect the fact that inflation is now a lot lower last year than it was this year. As a result, the scale of the package must and should be smaller. We are...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: Absolutely.

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Environmental Policy (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: The National Development Plan 2021-2030 committed my Department to reviewing certain elements of the Public Spending Code to improve the Government’s understanding of the relationship and impacts of investment decisions on the wider environment and climate. As part of this programme of works, my officials worked with the OECD, funded by the EU Commission through DG REFORM’s...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Pay (27 Sep 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: On 27 June Government agreed to progress the establishment of the Senior Posts Remuneration Committee on a statutory basis, in line with the recommendations of the Report of the Independent Review Panel on senior public service recruitment and pay determination processes. This Committee, on its establishment, will advise on remuneration arrangements for senior posts in the public service and...