Results 9,281-9,300 of 33,175 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

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...

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

Paschal Donohoe: In the spirit of an exchange, there is something I would like to get the Deputy's views on. I heard him continually make the case for zero Covid, particularly when we were dealing with the consequences of the third wave in our country. Given that we have not met the criteria of zero Covid, as he described, I would really be interested in hearing whether he is supportive of us reopening the...

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

Paschal Donohoe: As the Deputy would no doubt say to me, that was not the question I put to him.

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

Paschal Donohoe: I hear the Deputy's point on this matter. My view is that it is a priority. As he stated, we have good policies in this area in terms of how we develop our town centres, but the way this needs to be implemented will vary in different towns and from local authority to local authority. For example, if we have homes that are in an exceptional state of disrepair, the family that he is...

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

Paschal Donohoe: I will not. Any decision on taxation has to reside with the Minister for Finance and the recommendation that he or she makes to the Government. I will be informed and advised by what the commission will do, but given that it has not even begun its work, it would not be appropriate for me to say that I will automatically accept the outcome of said work. I will be informed by it and I am...

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

Paschal Donohoe: It was Germany and France. They are restating long-known and well-held positions on corporate tax levels within the EU. I am not at all surprised by what they said. They have in other fora recently stated that they wanted to see an increase in corporate tax rates across the world.

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

Paschal Donohoe: It is a little early to be declaring that we have a credit crisis. We still have large domestic banks that are well capable of competing with one another to meet the credit needs that our economy will have. Credit unions will be able to play a larger role in meeting the economy's credit needs in the years to come, particularly in the context of the changes in branch networks. Those...

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

Paschal Donohoe: It is US President Biden who is bringing forward these proposals. Irrespective of the impact we will have to deal with, he is the Head of State and Government of the United States. The Deputy referred to him as "Biden", but we should respect the offices other people hold. I do, even though the proposals he is bringing forward will create consequences for us. The election of President...

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

Paschal Donohoe: It is up to me and the Government to make the case for that. The truth is it will not be automatically given to us. This is the most intensely competitive area of negotiation one can imagine, and other countries will not wish to afford undue recognition to small and medium sized economies as they make the case for the kind of change they want to see happen. That is their prerogative and I...

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

Paschal Donohoe: Certainly, in small and medium sized member states of the European Union, there is a really good understanding of the case we are putting forward. Solidarity tends to be in relatively short supply in the context of foreign direct investment and of investment that can build tax revenues within the jurisdiction of each country. On the case we are making for small and medium sized countries...

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

Paschal Donohoe: Absolutely. I will definitely make the case that the issues such as those for which the Deputy has made the case for many decades, as a member of our party and a Member of the House, should be advantageous and should not disadvantage us in the negotiations under way. We made a significant statement last week on corporation tax policy and the negotiations under way. The statement was...

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

Paschal Donohoe: I have not seen the report the Deputy mentioned, and I would be very interested to see it. We need to make the case within the European Union for those areas in which we might be able to get further funding. When the Deputy sends me a copy of the report, I will certainly consider it and see if the Government can be of help on the matter.

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

Paschal Donohoe: The only reason I am not informed about it in the way the same way as the Deputy is that this area is more formally the responsibility of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform rather than the Department of Finance. When, as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, I worked with the Deputy, I would have been aware of and would have been dealing with issues like that, but it now...