Results 6,261-6,280 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: I thank the Chair for raising the matter. I will deal with the issue of tied agents first. The Chair raised it with me in one of my previous appearances before the committee. Since then, I have received correspondence on the matter from some of the individuals who were involved in this issue. I want to acknowledge to them the Chair's ongoing interest in the matter and that he has raised...

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 reiterate that since the Chairman raised it with me, I have received communication on the matter. I want to acknowledge that this is an issue he has taken a lot of interest in and I am sure he has played a role in trying to support people who were affected.

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 fact is that the Chairman has outlined a very clear legal process that may happen. While it is appropriate for him to raise the matter, I cannot comment on it. I know this issue is under consideration at the moment. It is being dealt with in the courts, perhaps in the way the Chairman has just indicated. At this point, however, given how long this has been going on and some of the...

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 already received it.

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 did so on foot of the Chairman raising this matter with me at the previous committee meeting.

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 Chairman.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (16 Dec 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I was aware of the rates issue and I thank the Deputy for bringing it up. I will have my officials look into it because I appreciate that at this point in the year, given everything that has happened with this disease, the strain and anxiety that smaller hospitality businesses are facing is very intense. I will look into that for the Deputy. On the EWSS, I need to indicate to the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (16 Dec 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for her question. I will share the full breakdown with her by sector which I have available to me. Very broadly, around 26% of the scheme was made available to the hospitality sector. After that, sectors such as retail are very high recipients of funding from the EWSS. It is available for sectors. I do not have the figures available now, but I will get the information...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (16 Dec 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 94, 98 and 106 together. I am advised by Revenue that 22,100 businesses have claimed the CRSS and that a total of €704 million has been paid out. For the EWSS, that figure is now at more than €6.6 billion in respect of 696,900 employees and 51,700 employers. In County Clare, the EWSS is in use for 630 employers and 6,725 employees, while...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (16 Dec 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for recognising the role this role this scheme has played. It has been invaluable in supporting our domestic economy and it will lay the foundation for the continued economic recovery of Ireland from this pandemic. It is valued by many businesses that are on it at the moment. Regarding the particular matter the Deputy has raised, I respectfully say that there is not an...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (16 Dec 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I am not interfering with any business; I am supporting business. While I appreciate the companies to which the Deputy has referred are facing many difficulties and challenges and they have like many other businesses had a tough couple of years, I reiterate that fundamentally the reason they are outside the scheme at the moment is their trading performance is better than a 30% decline versus...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Reviews (16 Dec 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. I do not see any reason as to why the good cheer would evaporate and it certainly will not for me-----

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Reviews (16 Dec 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I want to return the festive wishes to the Deputy. The short answer to her question is that I just finished the Finance Bill last night in the Dáil, including with her good self. We have just completed the Finance Bill for this year. The review will be completed well in advance of next year's finance Bill. As of yet, I have not set the terms of reference, initiated the process as to...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Reviews (16 Dec 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: The scheme is helping many to get on the properly ladder and it is helping many who need support when they are buying their first home. More than 29,000 first-home purchasers have benefited from the scheme since it was set up. On the reviews that we have had, while the Deputy is correct that the most recent independent cost-benefit analysis of this was in 2018, this process is subject to a...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Reviews (16 Dec 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: On the additional points that the Deputy has made, 11% of the purchases that were made of homes in our country over the past 12 months or so were covered by the help-to-buy scheme. I do not accept that a scheme that supports the purchase of approximately one in ten homes is itself the cause of the significant house price inflation that we are facing. The cause of where we are at the moment...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (16 Dec 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 90 and 91 together. The objective of the wage subsidy scheme is to support employment and maintain the link between the employer and the employee insofar as is possible. The EWSS has been a key component of the Government's response to the Covid-19 crisis. It is an economy-wide scheme that operates across all sectors. In monetary terms, the overall...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (16 Dec 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: The answer to the Deputy's first question is "Yes". In order for a company to participate in this scheme from next year, it must be participating in the scheme for the month of December. I am aware of concerns that have been raised by a number of hotels that have a very high seasonal dimension to their business. For a hotel or any business to be excluded from the scheme at the moment,...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (16 Dec 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: The overwhelming majority of companies that have participated in the EWSS went into it because they genuinely believed they would need it at that point. They did so based on the effect of the pandemic on their business. The near overwhelming experience both Revenue and I have had is that of employers participating in the scheme in good faith. It is the case that a number of companies that...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (16 Dec 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I acknowledge that he has raised this with me on a number of occasions. I appreciate that a number of businesses we value and that provide very valuable employment to our country find themselves in a position that they are slightly outside the entry threshold of a 30% decline in their business. This figure of 70% has now been consistently in place...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Code (16 Dec 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I want to begin by apologising to the Acting Chairman and the Deputies for the fact that I will need to leave early because I have an engagement at the European Council this evening. I have already conveyed apologies to Deputy Pearse Doherty and Mairéad Farrell, and I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, who will take over from me in a few moments. I will quickly answer the...