Results 1,621-1,640 of 34,585 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: That was a large Supplementary Estimate that was nearly as big as the entire Estimate for the Department. That supplementary allocation was required to cover the payment of €24 million in legal settlements in relation to the air travel tax litigation. It is the final settlement amount and is in accordance with the legal advice given by senior counsel and approved by the Office of the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: His question was more on policy than on the operation of the office. Policy is a matter that this committee will deal with and it is not an Estimates issue. I suggest that this committee can consider the role, brief and remit of the financial services ombudsman but all we are doing today is seeking to grant a request from the ombudsman for a certain amount of money for this year. There is...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: I ask the Deputy to give me a moment while I go through my notes on that matter.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: No.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: They were allocated €18 million. Some €11 million of that was to cover the 330 staff, which was the full complement of staff required. Those staff have already been assigned, mainly to work in the ports and at a small number to information technology facilities. The other €7 million was for non-pay items, including refurbishments at Dublin Port and Rosslare Europort....

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: It was spent on Dublin Airport, Dublin Port and Rosslare Europort, and a major new scanner which cost over €1 million and which is half funded by the European Anti-Fraud Office.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: The scanner was €550,000, which is half of its overall cost, and the other costs were at the ports. I do not have a breakdown but if the Deputy wants-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: Some of the work that was carried out on the ports by the OPW was funded on an agency basis through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the HSE. It has not all come through this Vote. Some funding was provided through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the HSE as well as the funding through this Department.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: Also the part that came through this Department - the Department of Finance - and how much came through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and through the HSE.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: In relation to the staffing, I do not have the exact figure here but I looked at the notes this morning. Essentially, those who were recruited to Revenue over recent months were all immediately put to work on the contact tracing. They would number approximately 30. Rather than taking up work immediately in Revenue, because of the priority that was there, they went straight into the contact...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: No. The 30 staff are for the contact tracing. Essentially, this time last year when the Estimate was published there was a significant provision in it to work on a new dividend withholding tax scheme because many dividends, especially in light of the financial services sector here, are paid to persons outside the State and we wanted to have a more modern method of accounting for the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: It was a cross-Department project.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: As the Deputy will be aware, debt enforcement has been suspended. Staff who would have been working on debt enforcement have moved to work on projects I mentioned, such as the temporary wage subsidy scheme and the employment wage subsidy scheme. The biggest single issue was that the dividend withholding tax project did not proceed. That was the big event to happen this year and it did not...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: I do not have the figure to hand. I will send that on. It is a published figure. It is quite substantial between now and the end of March.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: As I said, there is the big court case involving the air travel tax which was settled last year and there was a massive Supplementary Estimate through this committee at the end of last year of €24 million, which covered the legal and consultancy fees in respect of that. Essentially, that was a once-off item in 2019 which went through by way of a late Supplementary Estimate. That is...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: I thank the Deputy for raising that point, which I accept would be 100% valid in a normal year. Because of Covid, when it came to the time of the summer economic statement, all resources in the Department went instead working on the July stimulus package. Essentially, we had to make a choice as to whether to do the usual or to work on the July stimulus package. Those working in the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: Most people understand the scale of work being undertaken by the public service during that period in getting the July stimulus together, which happened towards the very end of July. It was being implemented and staff were continuing to work on developing the “stay and spend” scheme, which was announced in the July stimulus but not implemented at the time, and dealing with...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: Without getting into the budget immediately, one fact which may help people in understanding the budget scheduled to be announced on Tuesday, 13 October, is that we normally get the September figures the Friday before the budget is announced. We get these at very short notice and the budget figures sometimes have to be changed over the weekend. We are fortunate that, because of the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: That is correct.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (6 Oct 2020)

Seán Fleming: The only point I will make with regard to the Deputy's remark is that, while the Government has always outlined its proposals, these have always been subject to the envelope available on budget day. This is always impacted by the results at the end of September, the last figures before the budget, because it is a very significant period of the year in terms of corporation tax. In every...