Results 11,801-11,820 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: It was both, with respect.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: The State does not have the resources to build, and in any event it is the most inefficient way of doing it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: It is sponsored by the Taoiseach's Department. It was published today. We were ahead of it but we will incorporate it now that it has been published. We had the data but we did not want to pre-empt the decision in Government on the publication by the Taoiseach.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: I see it on the website. Does the Senator see it? It will come in the next day or two anyway.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: There is always a fear and one of my ambitions, if I last another little while, is to stop the boom and bust cycle in the Irish economy so that we would have measures in place that would provide realistic, sustained growth. Somewhere between 3% and 4% for the next ten years would be admirable and would solve all our problems but it would have to be sustained, and we have to get away from the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: That is what is calculated there. It is the economic recovery. It is not more people paying more tax.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: It is the cycle. There will be many extra people working. There will be a good deal of extra activity in the economy. There will be a lot of extra VAT, excise and corporation tax. These are the best estimates but they are estimates; they are forecasts.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: I have asked NAMA to do a review, and I have set it certain objectives. I am quite neutral. I am looking for data on which I can make decisions subsequently. For example, I have asked it what would be the consequences of taking the entire residual NAMA book and doing what IBRC did with its book, namely, sell it off in a six-month period at the end of 2015. I want to see how that would pan...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: No. It is difficult to know what income bracket jobs will fall into. In some traditional sectors such as tourism, which we stimulated strongly, jobs are seasonal and the pay may be quite good but not for the full year. That is one aspect. In construction, wage rates held pretty well during the recession, and big sites are opening up in Dublin again. People are working in the sites...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: We are working on the figures. The Deputy probably heard the Taoiseach in the Dáil saying that there would be an announcement shortly.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: When I have fully assessed it with my officials, the memorandum for Government will come from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government in due course.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: The Deputy has heard the Taoiseach's reply.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: I was referring to the exemption from capital gains tax for seven years for people who buy commercial property in Ireland. That brought an awful lot of investment money into Dublin. There was a major overhang of property in Dublin, which was under-used and not put to productive purposes. There was not a cohort of people in Ireland with the resources to invest in it, even though the same...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: It is only a thought yet, and there are other considerations. There are negotiations on the extra quota in the IMF. It would change the calculation of the benefit if the Americans got their IMF additional quota legislation through Congress between now and Christmas.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: With my shareholder hat on, we own slightly less than 14% of Bank of Ireland, so how we exercise our votes is not going to matter in terms of the remuneration package for directors, which is the resolution. From a shareholder's perspective, we did a very successful and beneficial deal for the State with Bank of Ireland on the transaction we had before Christmas. Bank of Ireland's activity...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: The bank may have taken notice of the criticisms levelled at it by the Deputy and other Deputies, because I read in one of the newspapers today that it had written off a significant amount of unsecured debt for a couple, but not mortgage debt.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: No. That will be our decision. I will sell it when I think we will make the maximum money from it. We do not have to cash it in yet. The economy is growing. An economy with only two big banks would be very badly run altogether if they were not profitable in the next couple of years. There is potential for their share values to be enhanced, so we will hold on for the moment.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: The recovery in jobs is broad-based and across various sectors. While there has been some recategorisation by the CSO, it does not affect the headline figures. The CSO stands over the headline figures but there is some recategorisation within it. The CSO has published the figures so the Deputy can check for himself. The recovery is broad-based and across a lot of sectors. With regard to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Irish Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (15 Apr 2014)

Michael Noonan: Every member state agreed to them under law. There is a mechanism for changing the law if one can get a majority of people who wish to change it, but there would not be much support for that.