Results 6,981-7,000 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: We are coming up to a difficult position. The triggers are always the repayment dates for Greece, of which there were four in the month of June for the IMF. There is small print in IMF contract documents and there is at least one precedent that if a country owes a number of repayments to the IMF in the one month, it can bundle them and put them to the end of the month. There was a decision...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: The IMF agreed to the document that emanated from the Berlin meeting. When the negotiations appeared at first to be successful and then went off the rails again, the IMF withdrew from the negotiations. That does not mean it is out. People withdraw from negotiations and come back again. What is absolute is that the timeframe is now very tight and, even with the best will in the world,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: We are not on the negotiating team, but neither are representatives from any other country because the negotiations are done by technical teams on both sides and there are references back. Large countries such as France and Germany, which are major creditors and would be major paymasters if there was a new Greek programme or anything along those lines, organise meetings and bilateral...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: I would like to answer Deputy Tóibín's question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: Our position from the start has been that we want Greece to stay in the euro, but we do not want write-offs in its nominal debt. We are prepared to accommodate it in other ways to make its debt more sustainable, and do not have a principled objection to that. Our red lines are very limited and would be same as many other small European countries.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: They have more skin in the game.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: Our Government?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: I do not agree with write-downs of Greek debt.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: Our position is that we have to look after our own interests as a sovereign country. I have a lot of sympathy for the Greek people and would like the situation there to be resolved. I can see that it cannot continue under the current arrangements and I am prepared to participate in negotiating new arrangements in the context of the Eurogroup, which is the context in which I and all of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: That is what the treaties say.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: I do not think they have. As I said, I am not familiar with the details of the negotiation. When we were involved with the troika, it made certain proposals to us, but we could accept or reject those on taxation. If we did not accept a taxation proposal, we had a obligation to bring forward a proposal of equal fiscal value, whether by way of expenditure cut or an alternative tax increase....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: The referral of Apple to the appropriate Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, is because it is a state aid issue rather than a taxation issue. It is an assessment by the Competition Commission that it needed to examine the Apple position, which it is doing. It is a quasi-judicial process. It does not prejudge the position. It has not signalled where it will go. It may find that Ireland has...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: The fiscal council has a specific job to do under law. In summary, it is supposed to give a contrarian view, an opposite view to that of the Government. If one goes back to the research done into the banking crisis and the collapse of the Irish economy, it was identified on a number of occasions-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: The Deputy has asked a question. He should let me answer it as I am not reluctant to answer questions, despite the propaganda that emanates from his party. May I go ahead?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: The work of the fiscal council is enshrined in law. If it said, "Great Government - throw your hats into the air. Three cheers for the Government.", I do not think it would be doing its job. That does not mean that, while it exercises its independent view, I as Minister for Finance have to agree with it. It made a statement to the effect that we would not meet European fiscal rules. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: As a politician I have a problem with people telling me that I should tie the hands of the next Government. The next Government is reaching out to 2020. We gave very specific indicators of the budget for 2016 but we said that, beyond that, we had identified the fiscal space. The projections are on a no policy change basis so the policy changes will be a matter for the Minister for Finance...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: I will make one last point. The fiscal council suggests it is unwise to use the fiscal space of €1.2 billion in next year's budget but that €750 million would be more appropriate. Does the Deputy think that macroeconomics is such a refined art that the spending of an extra €450 million will ruin a country with a budget in excess of €50 billion? The amount of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: We have no doubt at all but that you are a tax and spend party.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: We do not block roads when Ministers are going about their legitimate business either.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (16 Jun 2015)

Michael Noonan: We need no lessons in democracy from you, sir.