Results 81-100 of 36,748 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: Okay. I appreciate that and obviously that is a completely accurate answer. On the whole premise, however, this is not just a guarantee, is it not? Europe is raising the capital and then lending it to member states. Am I right in that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: It is not a guarantee, as such; Europe is a non-lender in this regard. Europe is taking its financial power to be able to borrow at a lower cost and then providing the benefit to other countries.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: There must be some kind of estimate as to what range we are looking at in terms of interest rates. Are we looking at somewhere in the range of 0.5% to 1.5% or between 2% and 3%?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: Yes, okay.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: Okay. The point made here at the committee is that it is the member states that will service the debt, because they will be charged interest rates. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: What is the grace period that exists for member states that draw down these loans?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: Will the Commission have the same grace period for servicing its debt?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: Is it not the case that it is unlikely? You do not go to a capital market and say, "I am not paying you any interest for ten years." Is that not the case?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: Just for clarity, is the Commission telling the Irish finance committee that there is a possibility that this funding will be secured in the capital markets with a grace period of ten years?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: Does Mr. de la Brosse think there is any possibility of securing such an arrangement?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: Of course there would not be. That is the reality. The markets do not lend like that. We all understand that. Therefore, the Commission will have to service this debt before member states repay it. Is that not the case? Where does that debt come from? This is the point I was making earlier: where does the servicing of the debt come from? It comes from the European budget. Is that not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: Okay. In relation to the contingent liability, member states do not default - although we unfortunately know that member states do default, in particular when we have wars and all of that, we have a higher risk in that regard. We can see the challenges that Ukraine, for example, faces at this point in time as a result of the illegal invasion and bombardment of that country by Russia. S and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: I appreciate that. I would not expect an exact figure but are we talking about a potential full drop? Contingent liability may never materialise but we have to look at the outer limits. If we are talking about loans of up to a certain value, we have to assume that they are being drawn down and then we have to assume an average interest rate based on historical performance. I have no doubt...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: That is helpful but it does not really answer the question because our liability would be spread. Is it not correct that if there is a default, Ireland would be on the hook for a portion of this? When we are discussing legislation, we should know what something looks like. Is it €100 million, €1 billion, €2 billion or €10 billion? I have no idea, but I suspect...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: It is based on Ireland's share of the €150 billion. I thank Ms Ralph for the clarification on that. We will park the interest rate. What is our factor?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: It was 2.35%

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: If the ratio stayed the same, our contingent liability would be at least €3.5 billion before we factor in interest rates. I thank our witnesses for the clarity in relation to that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: I ask the Commission representatives their views on an issue we discussed earlier, which I think is a workaround, although I know the Commission will have a different view. I refer to the complete ban on using the EU budget for military and defence purposes. If I sit down with my 15-year-old children and tell them that Europe is potentially giving €150 billion in loans to increase...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: We will wait and see.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (15 Oct 2025)

Pearse Doherty: When Europe draws down these loans and then lends them on to a member state, is it the case that Europe will have to service that debt? Is that not correct? There will be a debt on Europe's books and it will have to service the debt. Is it not correct that there will be an interest charge?