Results 9,681-9,700 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: It will go on to the budget Council on 14 November. Normally I do not attend the budget Council meetings. The former Minister of State, Brian Hayes, used to attend. He will be succeeded by the Minister of State, Deputy Simon Harris.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: I have not seen the basis of the calculations. Our economist, Mr. John McCarthy, will speak on this point.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: The trend is better than one might have anticipated earlier in the year. I had a look at it today and growth forecast goes from 0.8% to 1.7% in 2016. The trend is in the right direction. It is positive. Obviously one hopes it will be better. The factors driving the Irish economy are fairly well known. Ours is an export-led model and the UK and US are growing quite strongly. The US is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: The European Stability Mechanism, ESM is a new institution. Its primary function is to act as a backstop to protect the euro currency in the event of another currency crisis across the Union. In addition to that, as a result of discussions at Eurogroup and ECOFIN level, an additional set of powers was attached. Those powers were to do with the recapitalisation of banks. The European...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: I understand what the Deputy is saying but there is a context. In the interests of briefing the committee, I wish to give the context. The policy has changed dramatically in Europe. When the Irish, Portuguese and Greek banks got into trouble, the process was bail out, where taxpayers' money bailed out the banks. Now it is bail in, where the assets of the banks are systematically rolled in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: Mr. Regling is the director of the ESM. One starts off by having an informal discussion with him and the regulation says that it will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, one would ask what way we proceed here. No one has ever done this before. It is only coming into effect. They said they would establish the procedures and rules on a case-by-case basis and it requires...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: There would not be unanimity at the moment. Everyone knows that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: No.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: Any negotiation needs time, especially in Europe. Usually timelines are quite long. Processes are slow. To tie one to a timeline is making sure nothing happens that is useful. I said previously we have other options.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: No. I did not say that, at all. I said I will have conversations on the margins.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: This has been highlighted with comments made by the UK Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron, when an extra demand was made on the UK Government as a result of the adjustments to the balancing repayments required from different countries. I will read the briefing note to the Deputy. I think that is the best thing to do. The UK has requested that this item be added to the ECOFIN agenda. This...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: We have no say on the calculation. The calculation is done at European Commission level and we know the framework used to calculate it. No one is stating the sums were not done correctly. It is there.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: The discussion will involve a state-of-play report on discussions regarding the FTT proposal. As I said in my speech, there were originally 11 participants. One has now dropped out and the number is reduced to ten. However, progress on the FTT proposal remains slow, with many open issues to be resolved. Ireland is not one of the countries intending to implement the FTT. We believe an FTT...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: It is the strong advice from the industry and those who promote Ireland, particularly Dublin, as a location for financial services industries. These things move on very tight margins. One should consider the proximity of London. The Deputy is very well aware, because we discussed this previously, that for hundreds of years the United Kingdom and Ireland have had a single labour market....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: It is effectively the same thing. It would reduce the figure to €25 million, or one tenth.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: That is correct but, with the formalities, it might be three days' time. There are two dates, namely 4 November and either 7 November or 8 November. In general terms, the Deputy is correct in that the window is opening this week.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: We have not made a decision on it. I will try to obtain more information at the margins of the Eurogroup and ECOFIN meetings on Thursday and Friday. We will proceed cautiously, as I outlined.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: They usually go together. This committee scrutinises ECOFIN meetings, but the two go together, and the Eurogroup meeting always precedes the ECOFIN meeting. The Eurogroup meets on Thursday afternoon. Greece will probably be the main item on the agenda. The meeting may run late, depending on whether there is agreement. The following morning, there is usually a series of meetings at which...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: I will talk to individuals. As usual, however, there is a huge turnover of finance Ministers. At the upcoming meeting, there will be many new finance Ministers I need to greet and introduce myself to so as to establish some kind of relationship. One of the current difficulties, which I mentioned before, is that there are 18 Eurogroup countries. I was a participant for three years last...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-ECOFIN Briefing: Minister for Finance (4 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: Agreement will be sought to agree a minimum anti-abuse provision under the directive. This will limit the benefit of the directive, which seeks to ensure there is no double taxation when companies pay dividends to their subsidiaries. They need to be genuine business transactions. Ireland's position, which we have already stated, is that we have strong anti-avoidance rules in domestic law....