Results 6,241-6,260 of 32,433 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: Of course, in my answers to the Deputy, I pointed to the legislation we were going to bring forward and I also pointed to the legal advice I have received that does, to a degree, constrain me. I could go on to all of the other legislation that the Government has brought forward, for example, the guidelines with regard to personal injuries, and the other things the Government is also doing to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I have ongoing discussions with my officials in regard to all matters with regard to banks. That particular matter has received their attention over the last number of years.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I think it has been, maybe, referenced on an occasional paper that I have received but it is not something that I have considered or am minded to do.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: That is a decision that is made budget to budget but I have no plans to bring it forward. No plans.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: That is a matter that will be dealt with in the context of the review of the retail banking sector that is now under way. I am very much aware that there are concerns regarding customer access and ability to access the kind of local decision-makers. This is something that we are considering in the context of the banking review. In terms of the engagement that I have had with banks...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I am a little but I did accept the invitation to come in and I will answer all of the questions that are put to me. I hope that I do not live to regret that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: They are higher, Deputy. The reason they are higher is because of the requirement that our Central Bank has, and the ECB has, for our banks to hold a high share of capital in the context of the consequences of the banking crisis a decade ago. So they are higher and the reason for that is that the level of capital one is required to hold is judged by looking backwards over a number of years,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I would not characterise it in terms of punishment at all. What we are discussing here, and what the Deputy is questioning me on, is how much capital the banks are required to hold and why. As I said, they do hold a higher level of capital than their European peers. In fairness, to describe that as punishment, if that is what the Deputy is doing, is not a term I would use. While I do...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: While the Senator asks his other questions I will get the information.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: The Senator asked about the value of what is currently warehoused. The answer is €2.9 billion, relating to 98,000 individual businesses. It comprises €1.36 billion in VAT and €1.4 billion of employers' PAYE. Clearly, the warehoused sum is large. On the future of supports, as I have said many times in the Oireachtas, we have to get to a point where the change in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: On the first question, our plan is to phase out the payments gradually, beginning on 1 February. We are not going to move to a position whereby the payments will fall from €350 for some workers to zero. The plan we have, as it is currently legislated for, although I do have the ability to vary much of it by ministerial order, is that we will move from €350, to €203, to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I do not anticipate that we will revise the 30% guidance in a way that makes it easier for companies to move onto the scheme. I will impart a key message regarding the future of these schemes across 2022: as public health regulations allow and as we get to a point where our economy is able to normalise and businesses are able to have more normal trading conditions for longer, the Government...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: There are some businesses that did not get the level of support they felt they should have but we moved heaven and earth to support as many employers as we could. From the Deputy's point of view, he will raise with me employers that are not in the schemes but we have had more than 70,000 employers who were in them. The Deputy might be able to tell me at this meeting. If the business...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: -----but if it is a company and is down 30% or more, the EWSS is only conditional on turnover. It does not require a business to have a premises as well.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: Sure.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: The members of the Government who are directly involved in this have given an indication that they are hopeful about our ability to remove many of the public health restrictions that we have in place. The legal ability is there for some of them to be in place up to 31 March but I hope that, if the trends of the past number of days continue over the coming days, we will be in a position to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: The banking review is up and running and we have a team in place in my Department which will work on and oversee it. We will soon seek the views of members of the public and stakeholders on retail banking. I will let the Deputy and committee know about that. We will give consideration to the kind of event or format in which those views can be heard publicly and considered. That process is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: It is for the CCPC, which is involved in evaluating that transaction, to make a conclusion on that matter. I categorically cannot make any assessment of or offer a view on that matter, while the CCPC is evaluating a very important commercial transaction. That is a matter for another day and one for the CCPC to answer. It would not be appropriate for me to give a view on it. It begs a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. No, I cannot comment but I thank her for raising the matter.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Covid-19 Payments and the Sale of AIB shares: Minister for Finance (19 Jan 2022)

Paschal Donohoe: We will do that this week.