Results 5,221-5,240 of 32,432 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (10 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 282 and 283 together. Officials in my Department are currently reviewing the options now available to Ireland in setting VAT rates. This will include consideration of the new options available to Member States  as a result of the recently updated EU VAT rules when setting VAT rates as well as the new limitations introduced on how reduced rates may be...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Banking Sector (10 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: Minister for State Fleming and I, as well as my officials, have regular contact with the Financial Services Union (FSU). I recently met with the General Secretary and the Head of Communications and Public Affairs of the FSU on 11 April 2022. At that meeting, I advised that my Department will be monitoring closely the number of accounts that have closed/switched over the...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Health Services (5 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: Tax relief in respect of health expenses is allowed in accordance with the provisions of section 469 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. In order to qualify for relief an individual must show that he or she has incurred "health expenses" for the provision of "health care". For the purposes of section 469 "health care" is the prevention, diagnosis, alleviation or treatment of an ailment,...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Ukraine War (5 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: A Council Recommendation on the conversion of hryvnia banknotes into the currency of host Member States for the benefit of persons fleeing the war in Ukraine was published on 01 April and was agreed by the Committee of Permanent Representatives on 13 April.   The recommendation does not prescribe exact procedures to be put in place, but focuses on the consistency of...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Banking Sector (5 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I wish to highlight, as Minister for Finance, I am precluded from intervening in commercial and operational decisions in any particular bank, even one in which the State has a shareholding. Decisions in this regard are the sole responsibility of the board and management of the banks, which must be run on an independent and commercial basis.  The bank's...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: State Bodies (5 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: The Department of Health and the Public Appointments Service, with input from Department of Finance officials, issued a call for expressions of interest from medical practitioners to participate in the Board. The call closed on April 29th 2022, with the original deadline being extended as no expressions of interest had been received. I am informed by Department of Health officials that...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (5 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I am informed by Revenue that the estimated cost of extending the 9% VAT rate for hospitality and tourism related services beyond 1stSeptember 2022 until 31stDecember 2023 would be in the region of €500m. This estimate is based on the most recently available third-party consumption data and assumes no behavioural changes by consumers. The estimated full-year cost of this measure is...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (5 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I am advised by Revenue that the VAT rating of goods and services is subject to the requirements of EU VAT law, with which Irish VAT law must comply. In general, the EU VAT Directive provides that all goods and services are liable to VAT at the standard rate, unless they fall within categories of goods and services specified in Annex III of the VAT Directive, in respect of which Member States...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (5 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that goods which are imported from outside the EU are subject to VAT and Customs Duty upon importation into the State.  The rate of VAT which applies to imports is the rate that would apply to the same goods within the State; thus the zero rate of VAT applies on the importation of printed books.  The rate of Customs Duty on printed books...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the committee for the opportunity to be here to discuss and present the stability programme update to it. This document sets out the Government's macroeconomic and budgetary forecasts out to 2025. It was published in draft form on 13 April and in accordance with our legal requirements, the final version was submitted to European authorities on 29 April. I stress that forecasts...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for her questions. What we have attempted to do is to capture some of these scenarios in chapter 6 of the stability programme update. As she correctly stated, it is incredibly difficult to model how the war will develop and what could be the policy decisions that are taken by the rest of the world in response. However, I believed that to publish an economic forecast for...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: If we look at the consumption forecast, overall we are still expecting consumption in our economy to grow but, as Deputy Farrell noted, at a slower pace than would have been the case in the absence of this war. We are still expecting consumption growth, albeit at a slower pace. To deal with Deputy Farrell's question on the SME impact and what that will look like, the reason we put in...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: We have not done anything significant yet to model beyond 2023 because of all of the different factors that could drive the need for us to support people who are coming to our country looking for humanitarian support. Even doing it for next year was a difficult process in terms of trying to form a view on that because of all of the different sources of uncertainty on who will come to our...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank Deputy Durkan. If one looks at where we are now with the stability programme update, we are in the early days, I hope, of the Covid pandemic not being the health threat that it has been for the past two years. We have more people working in Ireland than we have ever had previously. We have public finances that, for this year, are projecting a deficit of less than 1% of our national...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. We all just tried to play our part during what was an awfully challenging and difficult two years. I remember being in this committee and releasing previous stability programme updates at a time in which we had more than 600,000 on the employment wage subsidy scheme. I vividly remember many of the moments over the last two years in which we were so concerned regarding...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: The Department, the Government and I acknowledge that the challenges many families and businesses now face with the rising cost of living are a real challenge for many. However, this is the reason why at different points this year, we brought forward different measures to try to help people with the rising cost of living. They involve the change to excise on fuel, the reduction in VAT on...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for his points. I wish to return briefly to a figure I shared earlier with the committee. I referred to 2.5 million people at work. That 2.5 million is for 2023 as opposed to 2022. I will comment on the points made by Deputy Canney. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform is aware of the impact that cost price inflation is having on the viability of contracts....

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I will come back to the Deputy with the detail of that. When we did Housing for All and when we did the revision in the budgetary strategy for the Government last year, funding was set aside to help local authorities in that work. I will come back to him with the detail of that funding and how it is being made available.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: Regarding rent caps, as the Deputy will know, the Government has in place limits on the degree to which rent can be increased at any point in time. The reason we do not have the kind of cap the Deputy wants is that we believe it will ultimately lead to a reduction in the supply of rental accommodation and to even more landlords leaving the rental sector, with the accommodation and rental...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update 2022: Minister for Finance (4 May 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for the two messages he sent to me. They were appreciated. I appreciate the impact that so many face, particularly those on social welfare and fixed incomes, due to the rising cost of energy. That is why, since the start of the year, we have put in place three separate packages of measures, with much of them being aimed at those who are on low incomes. It is why we...