Results 8,621-8,640 of 32,527 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: The Minister, Deputy McGrath, looked at measures that would be needed, for example, to support semi-State companies, the continuation of social distancing within public transport and some of the measures that are in place in our schools and made a judgment on the need for that to continue into next year. That is related to decisions the Government has made that are implemented in our current...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: On the Deputy's point about employment, it does not assume the continuation of the EWSS, for example, next year. That is the case. The Deputy is correct with regard to employment. My expectation is that inside the €2.5 billion there would be figures that relate to health. That is a matter directly for the Minister, Deputy McGrath, but I will double-check that with him and confirm...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: The Government has not made a decision in that regard. We have said we want to provide clarity on income and business supports in the coming weeks. We have not made a decision on that but it is the case that over time, as our economy reopens, we will have to change these payments in a very careful way. For example, getting our national finances back into a healthy position and recognising...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: We expect an average rate of unemployment for this year of 11%. We expect a significant improvement on where we are at the moment. We expect total employment this year to grow by 80,000. Next year, we expect unemployment to fall to approximately 7%, with an average of 8% to 8.25% for the year overall. I do not have what that equals in terms of numbers of people.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: The way the Government dealt with that matter last year was, as we changed public health guidance to allow businesses to reopen, we would over time change some of the payments, for example, the PUP. That is what we did last year and the Government will have to carefully consider how we do this across this and next year. We are not in a position to continue to maintain very high levels of...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: The Government has not yet made a decision on what our medium-term budgetary anchor will be.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I imagine we will aim to conclude on that work, as things stand now, before the summer.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes. It is my aim to do a summer economic statement but if the SPU has taught me anything, it is how difficult it is to do that with all the uncertainty we are confronting at the moment. As things stand, it is my aim that we would do that.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I expect it will be higher than 3.5% but how much higher it will be depends on two factors, the first of which is the decisions the Government makes over time in the management of the Covid levels of expenditure we have. Second, it depends on the Estimates process and the work the Minister for Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform does. That work is yet to be done but I expect it will be...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: On the Deputy's second point, the Government will do what we can to speed up the delivery of the national broadband plan. The Deputy and I were involved in that decision in the previous Government and time has proven it to have been the correct decision. I understand that the difficulty in speeding it up is related not to funding or even to the contract but rather to the impact of the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I absolutely understand we are facing an inflationary risk in the pricing of raw materials, an issue that has been raised with me by businesses. On the other hand, the great challenge we faced in construction over recent years concerned the degree to which construction was competing with other priorities apart from housing within the economy, such as the delivery of commercial property, the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I will indeed. I thank the Deputy for his contribution. The first thing I would say is that I never pretend for a moment that any decision I made is perfect. All I can do, which I do my best to do, is weigh up the pros and cons of every decision. I make a decision motivated by the public good and then justify that decision to the Oireachtas and to our country. It is in that spirit I will...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I am afraid I am going to have to disappoint the Deputy. Perhaps she can explain the issue to me a little more as our session goes on. I am not aware of all of the detail regarding the relationship between residency and qualifying for an old age pension in our country. I know what the criteria are for a contributory pension, non-contributory pension and so on. I am aware of that. Perhaps...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: We have a commission at the moment that was put in place by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, that will be reporting back to the Government in the coming months. One of the issues at which I will be looking is the sufficiency of contributions that people have made and what that will mean for their future pension provision. We expect a report back from the commission on that and other topics...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: Did the Deputy say "community wealth building"?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: Does she mean social capital and the resilience of local communities? Is that the issue to which she is referring?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: The resilience of local communities and the work they have done from supporting local authorities to the work done by sports associations to home help to delivering meals to our elderly has been incredibly important over the past year. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, is making different decisions to look at how we can support those parts of society in the important work they are doing. If...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: The main way in which we are trying to enable our local authorities to build more housing is through the scale of the budgets that we are making available to them. The funding for the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has significantly increased to allow our local authorities to build more housing directly. The Land Development Agency will begin its work mainly in Dublin....

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: While I do not have the detail in front of me, I recollect that funding was made available in last year's budget, as it was in previous budgets, to deal with voids. I am sure the Deputy is familiar with that issue from her local authority. That funding has increased. I am most familiar with the housing work of Dublin City Council, which has put considerable effort into void conversion and...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Draft Stability Programme Update: Engagement with Minister for Finance (27 Apr 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: This is covered off in the stability programme update that I know the committee has considered. We get into the issue of trying to look at different scenarios that our economy could face in that update. In particular, we look at what different scenarios relating to the spread of the disease could mean for our economic forecasts. The scenario analysis we have done here is more advanced than...