Results 15,481-15,500 of 36,326 for speaker:Pearse Doherty
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: Is it not the case that there is a deviation but it only kicks in when there is a significant deviation of 0.6%?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: That is fine.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: If we were to achieve the same structural balance next year, if there was no disimprovement, would that be a breach of the fiscal rules?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: We did not breach them last year when it disimproved significantly. If it stayed the same, however, we would breach them this time?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: The rules are that a significant deviation is 0.6% of the structural balance. Is it not the case that the European Union looks at the expenditure benchmark as the way to achieve a structural balance?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: If we were to use the €900 million that the Government is refusing to invest into the Irish economy, would we breach the expenditure benchmark? Would we breach the fiscal rules?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: I refer to the €900 million on its own.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: There would be an improvement in the structural balance in that case and a deficit of 0.4%, without taking in second round effects.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: In respect of borrowing and the fiscal rules, that is nonsense. It is not true. Borrowing does not come into it. The Minister knows that.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: No, sorry, that is not the point I made.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: The €900 million the Government is refusing to invest would result in an improvement in the structural deficit according to the Government's own figures. It would reduce it by 0.2%. Will the Minister accept, therefore, that we would not be in breach of the fiscal rules in that scenario?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: For what reason?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: That is a policy point of view and not the fiscal rules.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: We are borrowing anyway and the Government is borrowing in this 2019 budget-----
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: I point the Minister to his own advice in respect of his own Department officials, to the Commission's report and to other reports done by external agencies that tell us very clearly that the best way to stave off any type of further shock, from Brexit or anything else, is investment in capital infrastructure. The major domestic risk of shock to the economy is the issue of housing. It is...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: I pointed to international agencies that are telling us the risk to the economy is in those sectors and that is what the Minister needs to do. His own Department, in a private note to the Minister, referred to investment in capital infrastructure as the best way to strengthen the foundations of the economy and prevent any risk in the future. We can have this debate today-----
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: On the projected overrun in the Department of Health, how will that impact on a supplementary budget this year for the Department? How will it impact on the fiscal space or budgetary stance the Minister has outlined with discretionary amounts of €800 million? Has he identified, with his colleague in the Department of Health, if any of that spending was what might be deemed wasteful...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: Were none of them budgeted for?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: That is not true. The HSE makes it clear it is a demand-led service and to blame having more nurses or doctors for overspending is wrong. What was done was that health was underfunded.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Summer Economic Statement: Discussion (11 Jul 2018)
Pearse Doherty: That is why we have a crisis in the health services----