Results 13,901-13,920 of 32,547 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: It is a crucial difference.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I will preface this by stating that it is from a content point of view. The difference between a surplus of 0.4% and the deficit of up to 1.5% is significant, as the Deputy has acknowledged. That will be a key difference in terms of the policy content. From a policy content perspective, what the potential budgets would have in common is putting enough funding in place to ensure the current...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: It is about the policy composition of that €700 million. I also want to leave it open, however, because if we move into a budget day scenario whereby there is a risk of a disorderly Brexit, further funding will be needed in order to respond to changes that are likely to happen in our economy. The case could then be made to fund that via a larger deficit.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: There are two reasons for that. The first is a time-lag effect. The Deputy quoted the HSE's figures, which are available up to the end of April. However, my two Departments are also looking at expenditure from May and June. The second reason is that the figures I have here include both the HSE and the Department of Health. As matters stand, the figures to the end of June indicate an show...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy makes a fair point. There are different accounting systems in place but there is also a phasing issue in that we are dealing with a further two months. A huge amount of effort is being made to ensure that we manage health expenditure inside the budget day parameters. The latter point the Deputy made is correct. At times, in managing expenditure within the Department of...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy is stealing Deputy Pearse Doherty's thunder by asking me that question. I will come to him in a moment. I acknowledge that a debate has been caused by what I stated in the Dáil. When I indicated that it was in the base, I meant that it was in our outturns last year. The money was spent last year. The point Deputy Pearse Doherty has made subsequently, namely, that it is...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I will deal with some of the points the Deputy has raised in sequence. On where we are from a debt point of view, the Deputy will be aware that the NTMA issued its annual report yesterday. It is the key agency of the State involved in managing our stock of public debt. The overall trajectory of debt as a percentage of national income is positive. In 2019, that figure stands at 61% whereas...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, we take that into account but I think it will be a bigger issue in the coming years if the labour market continues at its current level. When I was speaking at the national economic dialogue last week, I made the point that as the labour market has a rate of unemployment of 4.4%, we will need to be increasingly conscious in the future, as we look to make policy decisions and invest...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: On the decision on whether we factor in the Christmas bonus for 2020, the Deputy will have to suspend his judgment until we announce budget 2020 on 8 October.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: In respect of his point about the Christmas bonus, for this year it will be handled in the way it has been handled for previous years. In respect of the point he made about tax reductions, the commitment that was made on tax reductions was for a number of years. As the summer economic statement indicates, in the context of an orderly Brexit, for the five-year period between 2020 and 2024,...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: We have not made a decision in respect of what is going to happen in December 2020 yet. That is the reason. The ongoing IFAC criticism, of which I am aware and which the Deputy has reiterated on a number of occasions, is that our level of current expenditure and projected growth is not credible or realistic. I have recognised that in the medium-term expenditure outlook by increasing the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Why has Deputy Pearse Doherty reached that conclusion?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: If I am the Minister for Finance, or whomever it may be by then, in October 2020 I expect that there will be a Christmas bonus. The decision on that Christmas bonus has not yet been taken. I am focused now on decisions I will be making in October 2019 and not in October 2020. My track record in recent years has been to pay a Christmas bonus. That has been welcomed by those who receive it...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: No, it is not.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Out of our budget day package, we already have allocated €2.1 billion for expenditure increases.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: No, the Deputy did not.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: From 2021 onwards we have moved from 2.5% to 3.25% of planned expenditure growth. For 2020, I have not announced an expenditure increase beyond that which is pre-committed because I have not made a decision regarding the allocation of the €700 million.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Deputy Pearse Doherty is wrong when he states that there is no increase for next year.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Minister for Finance (3 Jul 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: That has not happened because we have not made a decision regarding the allocation of the €700 million. If I make a decision on budget day that the €700 million is going to be allocated to an expenditure increase and that there will be no change anywhere else, then that represents an expenditure increase on top of that to which we have already committed. The Deputy is trying...