Results 5,261-5,280 of 33,118 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I will make a brief response to the points aimed at me. I confirmed earlier today at a public event where I launched the report of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare that I will not be bringing to the Government proposals in relation to inheritance. I have made that clear. I respect and recognise the work that the commission has done. It is a 500-page report containing over 100...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: The question the Deputy put to me in many ways sums up the challenge we have. Out of the additional surplus we have delivered this year, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and I will make a decision and recommend to the Government how much of that should be used. We have not made that decision yet.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: We are working on our final surplus estimate for the year but it will be higher than we indicated in the summer economic statement. How much higher it will be I am not in a position to confirm now because that work is under way. As the Deputy acknowledged in his question, the challenge is that much of that additional surplus is delivered by corporate tax.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: The scenario we have to grapple with concerns what would happen if we were funding one-offs out of corporate tax revenue and had to repeat one-offs at another point when the corporate tax revenue was gone.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: This is the challenge we have.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: We are nowhere near making a decision as to the principle of doing it, let alone the figure. The approach both of us are using is to try to see what are the right measures and what will help. Once we are clear on the right measures, and both of us are keenly aware of the business issue the Deputy raises, then the cost follows from those measures.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: The surplus is higher than in the summer economic statement. Given that higher figure, the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, and I are trying to work to identify the measures.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: They will be once-off measures. IFAC also warned us about the need to get the balance right between them being affordable beyond 2022 and not adding to inflation. We are keenly aware - and the Deputy has acknowledged this in his question - of the possibility of finding ourselves in a world undergoing a further and prolonged energy shock. That affects the profitability of very large...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I fully agree with that. If the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and I are in a position to have clarity regarding what a revenue gain will be 2023, of course, we will want to bring that forward and inform the Oireachtas and use that in our work. I think both of us are being quite clear this evening in saying that is not what we are banking on. There is much work to be done in...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: On the freak budgetary interventions, we have not even completed this budget, as the Deputy knows. He has summarised very well the fact that it is only a few days away, which the Minister, Deputy McGrath, and I are keenly aware of. When we do our budget and announce our measures, that will include measures for 2022 that we do not anticipate changing. The Minister has made the point, and I...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: Covid was a period in which we had very low inflation. In fact, we had deflation on a few occasions. Economies were closed. We are now in a high-inflation environment, with a record number of people at work. We need to put measures in place that will work and make a difference but are appropriate to that different environment. That is what we are trying to do.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I see a real contradiction in what Deputy Boyd Barrett has said. On one hand, he views the corporate sector as being at the root of many of the difficulties we are in. He has said many times that he wants to nationalise many large corporate companies that are located here and he said that again this evening. On one hand, he sees the corporate sector as being the cause of the many...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy knows I have the height of respect for him but the cause of all the higher level of difficulty we have is Putin invading Ukraine. That is causing the huge challenge we have and the Deputy has not made any reference to it this evening. It is the invasion of Ukraine by Putin.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy is shaking his head but that is the cause.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: The invasion has done more than made matters worse. What is happening at the moment is that energy - its price and availability - has been weaponised by somebody who has invaded another country. Whatever ills or challenges global capitalism may well have-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: It has been weaponised by a man who has invaded a country. That is who it has been weaponised by.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank Deputy Michael Healy-Rae for the points he raised. I know he has an understanding of the real world, especially small businesses. Like the Minister, Deputy McGrath, I have been approached directly by businesses, which have sent me pictures of their bills. I fully understand the challenge that is developing and the need to respond to it. I agree with everything the Minister, Deputy...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy very much. It is not the case that there is a Government agreement in place regarding the scale of measures for this year and that money is going to be set aside for the future challenges, but we are not telling people; it is that we are working on all of this at the moment. The decisions will be made just before the budget and we will announce them at that point. In...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: The taxation commission has brought forward the set of options for this and future Governments to consider. Some of the recommendations it brought forward are difficult in the current economic environment with the pressures on living standards that we discussed at length here this evening. The Government will consider the report fully now that we have noted it this morning. There will be...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Updated Economic and Fiscal Position in Advance of Budget 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: We have just seen an energy company leave Ireland. The prices being charged by many of the energy companies to which the Deputy refers are determined by the purchase price of the energy they need. I strongly reject Deputy Boyd Barrett's suggestion that the cause of where we are at the moment is corporate malpractice or companies charging more for energy than they should. I do not accept...