Results 10,681-10,700 of 32,547 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: The aim of carbon taxation is to implement the programme for Government commitment to another move and change in carbon taxation in this budget. Our objective is to recycle all the additional revenue for very clear purposes. The first of these purposes is to seek to protect anybody who would be at risk of fuel poverty and adversely affected by moves in carbon taxation. The second purpose...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: I believe this is the first time the Deputy and I have ever sat on the same side of a committee room.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: I think we already have one. One might have to be more optimistic to see it leading to policy agreement.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: I will deal with each of those points in turn. We have figures of the breakdown by sector of people in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, and wage subsidy scheme. I will have those figures sent to the committee. The composition will not come as a surprise to members and the sectors affected most include construction, retail and hospitality. They formed a very large share...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for his questions. On the timings for Revised Estimates, Cabinet earlier this week agreed a set of Revised Estimates. Earlier today, I was fixing a time with the finance committee as to when the finance Estimates would come before it. Many Estimates will be coming before the relevant committees over the next few weeks. The Deputy asked about the Social Insurance Fund and...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: I will deal with the Deputy's queries in reverse order. We will have to learn the lessons from the two different wage subsidy schemes that we brought in. I believe there are elements of those wage subsidy schemes that will become more permanent features of where we will be in the future. I am not saying a wage subsidy scheme would always be "on" and operational but we will have to reflect...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: If we look at the level of supports made available since July, it is an indication of the kind of policy measures likely to be needed for 2021. These measures included the wage subsidy scheme, the continuation of the pandemic unemployment payments until next year, although at a reduced level from where they were at the crisis, and the availability of restart grants. Do I believe we can keep...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: We have made a commitment on the funding of rates. For three quarters of this year, we have committed that the Exchequer would centrally fund rates income across that period. I am sure that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, and the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, are looking at what kind of commitment we can...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: I made the decision not to go ahead with a revaluation in November of this year. That was mostly for practical reasons. To be able to go ahead with that and for the Revenue Commissioners to be able to implement it, we would have had to have legislation passed relating to all of that across May and June of this year. For many reasons, that simply was not possible to do because there was...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: I can deal with each of those in turn. I will begin with accessing airlines and so on. It is the case that many very high-profile national carriers in other countries have received funding from their own governments. It is a tribute to the way in which a number of very big airlines are run here in Ireland that they are able to keep access going and the support they have received is a...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: In terms of the existing provisions, there are two important dimensions to it. The first is the supports that have been made available through Enterprise Ireland as we have got ready to deal with Brexit over many years. The supports that are available, primarily from Enterprise Ireland, EI, have been really important components of helping employers and companies get ready for dealing with...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: The statements from the Tánaiste today reflect the debate which is always under way on how we can deal with the public health consequences of this disease and try to get people back to work and keep them in their jobs. The Tánaiste, the Taoiseach, myself and the Cabinet are always looking at what that balance is and how we can get it right and that is what has underpinned the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, there are two that I would pick out at the moment. The first one is the employment wage subsidy scheme. I hope in the next 48 hours to be clear about the number of employers who are on the scheme and the number of people affected and supported by the scheme. The two wage subsidy schemes we brought in are among the most effective economic policies ever introduced in our country.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for the clarification. We are seeing it in the number of people who have moved from the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP. If we look at the number of construction workers who have moved from being on the PUP, which they were in March and April, I am certain that if we had not given clarity regarding what our public capital spending was going to be later on in the year...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes. It has already been indicated by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, that it is not just about how we can increase those levels of capital spending, it is about how we can preserve them. When I was before this committee several years ago, we had capital spending of between €3 billion and €4 billion per year. It is now €9 billion...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: It does not include funding from the Brexit contingency reserve. Ireland will be making an application for that funding but the amount of money that will be available to us from the fund has not been decided by the European Union.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: There is always an awareness of older people in budget day announcements because of the contribution they have made to our country. I have no doubt that will be recognised again in the announcements that will be made by the Minister, Deputy McGrath. As to what those measures will be, the Government has not yet decided on the specific nature of those decisions.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: I am not in a position to be able to tell the Deputy what are the timings of any announcement or plans from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, but there will be provision for continuing to deal with the great challenges in housing in our budget day announcement.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: The budget is a week and a half away. I know it is not too far away, but there is a long way to go before any decisions are made from a social support point of view for any part of our country and society. Like the Deputy, I wish to appreciate the significant contribution carers make to our country and echo the fact that this has been a particularly difficult year for them. I am sure that...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-budget Engagement: Minister for Finance (1 Oct 2020)

Paschal Donohoe: It will not. The plan for the national economic plan is that it will follow from the budget. I expect it to be published in the first half of November.