Results 13,401-13,420 of 33,392 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Legal Costs (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Ireland has never accepted the Commission’s analysis in the Apple State aid Decision and is challenging the Commission's decision before the European Courts. An application to annul the Commission Decision was lodged with the General Court of the European Union. The case was granted priority status and the confidential written proceedings have taken place in private over the last...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Consumer Protection (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: My officials were aware of the publication of this report. This report presents the case that consumers should have a right to access and use cash alongside electronic and innovative means of payment, and analyses the possible consequences for consumers of the total disappearance of cash. The report makes a number of recommendations concerning the acceptance of cash by physical traders,...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: NAMA Operations (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: NAMA held remaining debtor loans with a fair value of €1.73 billion at the end of Q2 2019. Much of NAMA’s remaining portfolio is secured by low-value, granular assets and realisation of these assets continues to require patient and extensive work on the part of NAMA. In July 2019, I published the second Section 227 Review under the NAMA Act 2009 where NAMA estimated that it...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Brexit Documents (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Budget 2020, including the macroeconomic outlook which underpins it, was based on the prudent assumption that the UK would leave the EU on 31 October without an agreement. The macroeconomic outlook is set out in the Economic and Fiscal Outlookpublished with Budget 2020. This included, at Box 4, an assessment of the macroeconomic outlook that would apply in the event of an agreed exit by the...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Credit Unions (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Since 2004, the amount of the levy payable by a credit union has been capped at a rate of 0.01 per cent of its total assets as at 30 September of the previous year. The balance of regulatory costs has been funded by the Central Bank in accordance with the provisions of the Central Bank Act, 1942 (as amended). The cost of regulating the credit union sector has increased over recent years with...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Cybersecurity Data (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: My officials were aware of the publication of this report. To first address the point about moving towards a cashless society, earlier this year I launched a study commissioned by my Department benchmarking Ireland’s payment industry. That study found that cash remains a vital part of the Irish payment system and concluded that a fully cashless society would not be an appropriate...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Insurance Coverage (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I acknowledge the general problems faced by businesses in the wider leisure sector, particularly because of the withdrawal of a key insurer that was operating in that market. As the Deputy is aware, the pricing of insurance products is a commercial matter for insurers and neither I, nor the Central Bank of Ireland, have any function in this matter. This position is reinforced by the EU...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: EU Budget Contribution (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Given that the UK represents one of the largest net contributors to the EU Budget, Brexit is likely to have a significant impact on the contributions of all Member States, including Ireland’s. The exact impact will be dependent on the nature of the final agreement between the EU and the UK regarding its involvement with the EU Budget post-Brexit. Under the Withdrawal Agreement...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Credit Register Administration (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Central Bank has established the Central Credit Register (CCR) under the Credit Reporting Act 2013 (the Act). The Act obliges lenders to: - submit personal and credit information to the CCR every month on loans of €500 or more; - access the CCR for an applicant’s credit report, when considering loan applications of €2,000 or more. Lenders may also, if they wish,...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Help-To-Buy Scheme (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: In 2017 I commissioned and published an independent review of the Help to Buy (HTB) incentive and last year, I commissioned an independent Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) of HTB. Both reports are available on my Department’s website. In brief, the CBA, confirmed the findings of the independent review as follows: - Prices: While there may have been a very small increase in prices...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Reliefs Availability (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I assume from the details accompanying his question that the deputy is primarily referring to natural persons acting as landlords and income tax based measures. The Report of the Working Group on the Tax and Fiscal Treatment of Landlords examined the general issue raised in the Deputy's question. It was submitted to me for consideration in September 2017, in advance of its publication...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: NAMA Operations (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: As part of its Annual Report for 2018, NAMA revised its projected surplus to be returned to the State upwards to €4 billion. This was reaffirmed in the Section 53 Annual Statement 2020 which was recently laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. The realisation of this surplus depends on the success of NAMA’s ongoing deleveraging and completion of its Dublin Docklands SDZ and...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Reliefs Availability (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 68 and 70 together. The Deputy will be aware that a number of amendments were made to the Film tax credit in Section 481 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 as part of Finance Act 2018. I legislated to split the certification process between Revenue and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (DCHG). Production companies are now required...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Credits (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Personal Tax Credit and the Employee (or PAYE) Tax Credit were both reduced from €1,830 to €1,650 in Budget 2011 in the context of the financial crisis. This took effect from 1 January 2011. Cumulative inflation in the period from 2011 to 2018 has been of the order of 3.5 per cent. General increases to tax credits result in an increase in a level of income that is...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Economic Growth (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: On the back of another strong year for the economy in 2018, momentum continued in the first half of this year with GDP up 6 ½ percent in year-on-year terms. Modified domestic demand, which adjusts for distortions in the Irish economy, was up 2.3 per cent over the first half of the year, a solid performance, though a moderation on 2018. The best barometer of our current economic...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: VAT Rate Application (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I am advised by Revenue that VAT is governed by the EU VAT Directive (Council Directive 2006/112/EC), with which Irish VAT law must comply. There is no anomaly to be reviewed. Article 284 of the Directive permits Ireland to maintain two thresholds - €75,000 for goods and €37,500 for services - and only permits an increase in these thresholds to maintain their value in real...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: In a Multi Financial Framework (MFF) context, while the idea of a Carbon Border Adjustment has been raised informally, my Department has not seen any formal proposal from the European Commission or from France and I cannot provide views on a proposal which I have not seen. Although Ireland is open to considering any new proposal on a possible new Own Resource for the EU Budget, from a...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Mortgage Arrears Rate (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I have been advised by the Central Bank of Ireland (the Central Bank) that they have recently concluded an investigation into the practice of charging costs associated with the legal process, including third party costs (the costs) to borrowers in mortgage arrears and charging of interest on those costs. In summary, their investigation concluded that: 1. Applying the costs prior to the...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Insurance Costs (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Introducing greater transparency into the insurance sector is a priority of the Cost of Insurance Working Group (CIWG) and much work has been done on this front to date. For example, on 1st November the Central Bank introduced new rules in relation to transparency in motor insurance costs. The new rules require insurers to provide policyholders with details of the prior year’s...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Mortgage Lending (13 Nov 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Central Bank carries out an annual review of the mortgage measures, including the key parameters of the LTV and LTI limits and the allowances allowed above these limits. The 2019 review is currently underway and the results will be announced in early December. The annual review considers whether the measures continue to meet the objectives of strengthening bank and borrower resilience and...