Results 3,861-3,880 of 7,412 for speaker:Neasa Hourigan
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: Absolutely, but people on a lower income level are buying necessities, not luxuries, which is mostly what will fuel inflation. I wonder about the thinking around once-off measures as opposed to the 67% of tax measures which benefited higher income earners, which could be seen as more permanent.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: During Covid, we were all hoping it would be over within three months. None of us think that is going to happen with the current Ukrainian crisis and the cost-of-living crisis. I want to stay with the idea of uncertainty, particularly in my questions to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. In terms of budgetary costings, considering how volatile the situation is at the moment,...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: The costings in terms of funding particular programmes and capital costs. What is the methodology of the Department when it is so incredibly volatile at the moment in regard to everything from construction costs to the cost of medicines, for example? I suppose there is a particular challenge in ensuring the Department has adequately funded the things it thinks it has adequately funded.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: Most of the costing or the funding allocation is annual, and I know every NGO and every service in the country would like it to be multi-annual. Is there a halfway house whereby we would forecast out multi-annual requirements or needs without actually allocating the money to give people more certainty in terms of what their requirements will be?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: That is quite high level.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: I will stay on that topic in my questions to the Department of Finance. I know Mr. McGann said he watched the meeting last week and he might be the only person here who did. We talked to Professor Stephen Kinsella about the cost of borrowing and the fact some of our national debt will mature in the next five to seven years. Again, we are in a volatile place, not just in Ireland but...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: How many years into the future does the Department go?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: Having said that, there is a certain amount that will mature in five to seven years and our debt servicing costs will then rise.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: To bring it back to that fairly immediate question, what percentage of our debt is below that ten years maturity?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: And how much that will be. If it is 3%, it is not so worrisome, but if we are talking about 35%, it is very worrisome. We are trying to get a sense of that.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: If the Department can pass anything on to the committee, we would appreciate it. I want to finish on performance budgeting. I am glad to hear so much work is being done and I commend the work of both Departments on moving ahead with this as I think it is going to be the future of all policy decisions. It is to be hoped that will be evidence-based and we can only do that with good data....
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: Yes, we get this every year.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: One of the things that has come across this committee's desk previously - and it came up at the health committee too - is that often the performance indicators are written by the people or the Department who are running the programme. This might not always be the best reflection of outcomes. Sometimes the authors write a performance indicator because they are looking for an answer that they...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: Does the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform ever audit other Departments for whether they are picking the right metric?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: Has the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform ever told a Department that its performance indicators are not right?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: Can the Department require them to change it?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: No Department is going to set themselves up to fail. Ms O'Loughlin can see why that might be-----
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: I thank Ms O'Loughlin for that. I have one more question.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: I would suspect that it is challenging to get Departments to do that when it is not a legislative necessity. I noticed that some countries have a future generations commission that require and make well-being budgeting a mandatory exercise. We can only hope that we could do that some day.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-budget 2023 Examination: Discussion (Resumed) (26 Oct 2022)
Neasa Hourigan: Do we know by which quarter in 2023?