Results 15,121-15,140 of 32,726 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: This is something on which we will have to engage with the European Commission. There is a requirement to have our budgets in at a particular point in the semester. I am not saying that I have made a decision on it but the value of Irish budgets in recent years has been that we have been able to indicate certainty regarding where we stand. The Deputies have raised issues regarding...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: For my what, sorry?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Thank you.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: This Dáil and Government have acted with more urgency than we sometimes get credit for, particularly when it comes to tax policy. It is to the credit of Deputy Boyd Barrett and Deputy Lahart and his party that they have been willing to support measures like that. In the period that led up to the crash decisions that narrowed the tax base were never reversed when times were good. We...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: They are both happening.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: They are both funded and anybody who thinks O'Devaney Gardens is small scale should come out and see what is happening there. They are all examples of things that are happening. Of course we could be more radical and do more but the question is whether we can build a majority of votes to do that.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, it did.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: That point is fair. Other parts of the economy need to play their part and this is why the all-economy plan that the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment is putting together will be important because all parts of our economy have to play a role. I agree with the Deputy on that. No Government on its own will be able to respond to the significant challenge of climate...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: There have been two formal meetings, with officials on both sides. We have had only two because there is little point in meeting in January or February because there is a time lag before we can see exactly where expenditure has been and from the end of February up to this point we have had two formal meetings on the subject and the Minister and I will meet again towards the end of April....

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: It is too early in the year for us to form a view on it. January, February and March were on profile. January and February health expenditure was below what we have seen previously. March expenditure was a bit higher than before. One of the many lessons I have learnt from what happened in the past 12 months is the need for us to continue to engage on this issue and have an aligned...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: It was across all parts of the Vote. In January and February, the health expenditure was lower than those months in the previous year and it was a bit higher in March. To break that down, we then look at where we are by hospital group and by different parts of the HSE. There is a further time lag before that becomes available to us, normally a couple of weeks. As we move into April and...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I aim to ensure that their neighbour is paying property tax in the same way that they are. I aim to have that in place for the revaluation that will take place towards the end of next year. I am well aware of the issue that the Deputy raises. I am also aware of what has happened and of revaluation points for taxes such as this all over the world. The Deputy should look at the report I...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: While it is far too early to say, I expect that the majority of the additional yield will come from new homes that are brought into the tax base. An essential thing that we should be able to do is to demonstrate that all properties are taxed the same regardless of when they were built. For example, if we said that we wanted to bring new homes into the local property tax-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: That is the point. If we brought them in at present value, that would automatically mean that all homes built before that point have to be taxed in the same way, which would mean an immediate increase in yield from existing homes. We looked at an alternative way of doing it, to see if there would be a way to ascribe a nominal value to homes that have been built since 2013 and to use the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I will address the second point first. Even though it does not feel like it, we are at a very early stage in all of the discussions on the MFF. It is likely that this work will accelerate towards the end of this year. It will have to. There are scenarios in which our contribution to the MFF will go up. In a speech to the European Parliament a number of months ago, the Taoiseach said that...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy is correct. Table 13 refers to some of the figures he has touched on and shows that while our national debt will dip in 2020 to under €200 billion, it will then increase again. There are two reasons for that, however. The first is whether the Government of the day will make a decision to run larger surpluses than are currently set out in this document. I mentioned...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Approximately 90% to 95% is at fixed rates. If the Deputy looks at page 34 of our document, the average interest rate across the period is set out at the bottom of table 13 and it is approximately 2%, which is a staggering turnaround from where we have been over recent years. If one goes back to the point I made earlier, one sees that as a percentage of gross national income, our debt...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I do. The Deputy asked if I want to change the balance between current and capital expenditure on housing and the short answer is, "Yes, I do". On his first question as to whether I accept this is a macroeconomic or overall risk for the economy, the answer is also "Yes". The Deputy and I differ on many things, as he well knows, but I accept the genuineness with which he approaches this...

National Children's Hospital Costs: Statements (17 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I will respond. PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC, has published what it has available. It has published its own conclusion. The Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, and I independently reached the same conclusion where, in advance of this matter becoming as difficult and public as it has, we evaluated the different options available to us. We differ from Deputy Wallace because our view is that...

National Children's Hospital Costs: Statements (17 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I welcome the report which provides a thorough overview of the escalation of costs in the national children's hospital project. I want, in particular, to focus on recommendations Nos. 10 and 11 which apply to capital projects in general. Recommendation No. 10 states that the rules that govern public sector spending on major capital projects should be strengthened. The standards to which...