Results 7,541-7,560 of 32,527 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for the questions. I will deal with each of them in turn. On the role of private savings within our economy, it is the case that those private savings are playing a role in the purchase of homes and decisions around the purchase of large items. We may well see that come through in, for example, the VAT returns and the figures we have in regard to the purchase of...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: It will be possible. Our ability to do that is reflected in the plan we have published for our public finances. We are not looking to eliminate all of our borrowing in a single year. Where we do reduce borrowing, particularly from 2023 onwards, the aim is to get to a point where at least some of our capital expenditure can be funded by tax revenue that we are collecting. We have the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I will be sticking to the figures outlined in the summer economic statement. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council's commentary of the budget package and the parameters that we outlined can be described as cautious. As we move into, and conclude, the Estimates process, it is my absolute aim that we would stay in line with the parameters we outlined before the summer.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. We have not revised the economic forecasts we have as of today. In the run-up to the budget, we will make a final run-through of our economic and tax revenue forecasts for this year and next year. On other occasions, particularly when our September tax receipts and fiscal monitor are complete, I have done a press conference to indicate where I believe our tax revenue is...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: We will lay it out on budget day. We will lay out both the scale of it and how it will be funded. The Deputy is making the point that there are great challenges at the moment and challenges relating to the cost of living are building. I would, therefore, have thought he would welcome a package that tries to protect the take-home pay of workers, particularly low income workers, who might be...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I am more than willing to go into the debate with the Deputy at the right point.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: We accept there is a crisis relating to many of the needs of our citizens and that is why we are going to be bringing out a national development plan that will have the highest level of capital expenditure in the recent history of our State. The Deputy is making the point, and I accept it, that rising costs with regard to energy are making things even more difficult, after we have already...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for the points he has made. He acknowledged, but I wish to develop a little more, the really big changes we made in respect of motor taxation last year, that is, the change in motor tax and the very significant decision we made with the introduction of the worldwide harmonised light vehicle test procedure, WLTP, using which we correlated the tax paid on a car with the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. I ask him again to be aware, as I know he will, of the need to consider all these matters in the round. Any further decision we make relating to the taxation of the purchase or use of cars will be made in the context of the commitment we have to increasing carbon taxation. We are one of the very few Governments of which I am aware that have made the commitment to change...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I would not do that.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. Given the warning that he has issued to me about not speaking for too long, I will try to be quick. In response to the Deputy's first question, I just made the same point in different words. I apologise for two speeches being issued to the committee. I will ensure the same does not happen on budget day. On the Deputy's second point about the use of HAP and...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: The ESRI report also acknowledges that there needs to be plans in place that mitigate the effect of an increase in carbon pricing for those particularly who are on fixed income, which is why, budget by budget, we have made changes in the fuel allowance. My recollection is that the changes that we have made have been successful in protecting lower income citizens within our society from the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank Deputy Nash for his questions. I might try to dispose of his earlier questions quickly and maybe spend more time dealing with his final question. His first group of questions was about where we are with estimated revenue loss. We had to form those judgments regarding revenue loss early in the OECD process. At that point, I believe that it was vital that we plug into our figures...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. He refers to all the crises. I am aware of the many challenges we face with regard to the supply of homes and the transition to a lower carbon future. In acknowledging the crises we have, we should acknowledge and make the case for the things that are going well in our country and society. I refer to where we are in the reopening of our domestic economy, the level of...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. As he said, I acknowledge our young people going back to work, some starting work for the first time and going to college and the enormously positive future we are trying to create for them and that they are trying to build. On making work pay, that is why it is important that, after two budgets in which we had no change in personal tax policies, rates, credits and...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: Did the Deputy say "January 2019"?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I do not have that answer available at the moment. I am not aware of whether the VAT directive with regard to that issue has changed. I will check that and, if there is any change, I will let the Deputy know.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: That is not a hypothetical question. We are engaged in a really sensitive and important negotiation and process on behalf of our country, and that is not a hypothetical situation in the sense that my answering that is, of course, relevant to the discussions and negotiations that we are having. Our ability to do that will be dependent on the final decision that we make in regard to the OECD...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: The Commission will be using the powers it currently has in this area. Any decision it makes on the implementation of the OECD agreement has to be consistent with the Single Market and has to be in line with the powers it has under the law of the European Union. It is the way OECD agreements have been implemented in the past and when the BEPS process was implemented, it was implemented via...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2022 Scrutiny (Resumed): Minister for Finance (23 Sep 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I will certainly see if that is possible. We do not normally break down the drawdown of capital allowances into what those capital allowances are used for and, therefore, it may not be possible on taxpayer confidentiality grounds to provide the information the Deputy is looking for, but I will certainly ask. The point I would make around data centres is that the reason the Government has...