Results 11,021-11,040 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Departmental Staff Remuneration (19 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: The cumulative total of unapproved salary top-ups currently being paid under the remit of my Department is nil.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: There is a schedule of sales of Irish paper held by the Central Bank and the agreement was that this would be subject to review against the background of market sustainability. According to the current schedule, a sale is due at the back end of this year. That is a commitment of the Central Bank. However, there are swings and roundabouts because a coupon is paid by the Exchequer on the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: A total of 80% of it comes back the following year as excess profits from the Central Bank. When the paper is sold, it is sold to a private sector investor. One therefore pays the full coupon but there would not be a return on it. On the other hand, because of the falling interest rates, which have gone down so much since we made the arrangement last year, the nominal value of the Irish...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: Not against the nominal values. The policy position is that we are happy with the schedule that has been agreed and we would like the schedule to be maintained.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: The condition for accelerating the schedule of sale is the sustainability of the Irish position in the markets. If one were to dump a lot of Irish paper on the markets, the effect would be that interest rates would go up and, therefore, nobody would ask to do that. That is not the position. Currently, we are not under pressure to accelerate but it is in a provision and it would involve a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: The Deputy should ask the Governor about this the next time he appears before the committee because this will not be a political decision.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: The Central Bank is independent, as is the Governor. It is up to the committee to request him to brief members.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: I thank the Senator.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: With regard to the subsidiaries and companies, there is a directive to avoid double taxation and technical amendments are being made now. Ireland supports the amending directive, which flows from our successful Council Presidency during which we prioritised work in the area of tackling aggressive international tax planning. It is not expected that the proposed changes to PSD in respect of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: No, this is has nothing to do with Finance Acts. If this is passed in Europe, it will become the law of the land here.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: These are residues from the troika programme. The legal services Bill is intended to introduce competition in legal services and use that to drive down costs. It was published and debated on Second Stage. As I understand it, Committee Stage is awaited because the previous Minister for Justice and Equality had indicated that he had significant amendments to propose. The new Minister is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: Nothing specific but there was always the general position that we should control health expenditure. It is the second highest spending Department after the Department of Social Protection.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: Currently, there is no active discussion with Frankfurt but it comes up periodically because it is in the agreement that the schedule could be accelerated under certain circumstances. When interest rates come down and ten-year Irish bonds are trading at 2.4% or so, an argument could be made that this is an indication of stability in the market. The primary consideration for accelerating the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: While we do not object in principle to the concept of an FTT, our opposition is for practical reasons, because we have a financial services industry in Dublin that employs many people in well-paid jobs. If we were to apply a tax which made Dublin less attractive than London, there could be a transfer of companies from Dublin to London. While I do not want to speak for Mr. Honohan, he may...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: For the first five months of the year, the tax take is above profile by €446 million and the swings and roundabouts on the expenditure side at least cancel each other out. Anecdotal evidence suggests economic growth is accelerating. Job creation is moving faster than we calculated at budget time. Because interest rates on our debt are lower than we estimated at budget time, the NTMA...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: No, we are working on profile and we will see how matters develop. The positive thing is that-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: I could not put a figure on it. We have previously had years in which we had a good first half and it fell away in the second half. I could give a figure, but I might give a false steer. We are travelling hopefully and the indicators are positive. The other positive aspect to the excess tax take in the first five months of the year is that the increase was across all the sectors, which is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: The other factor is that last year, the second half of the year was stronger than the first half. When one does year-on-year comparisons, the margin between 2014 and 2013 will be smaller because of the strength of the tax take in the second half of last year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: I presume their opening position was our stability programme published in April. Given that we always publish the monthly revenue flows and returns, that data would also have been available to them. I am not quite sure what they took into account when they were doing their assessment and they would go into the process of doing a report. Some of what I am telling the committee is fact such...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance (18 Jun 2014)

Michael Noonan: Yes.