Results 16,381-16,400 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: Yes. It is included in the balance sheet and we will see how things will work out at the end of the year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: There is a very small Exchequer spend envisaged for house building. However, I introduced a number of initiatives in two Finance Bills to try to restore the fortunes of the construction industry. It has become a kind of scapegoat sector of the economy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: This document will not be sent to the Commission until this debate is completed. We will send it then either tonight or tomorrow morning. We deliberately held it back from the Commission so we could have this debate. The committee is getting the first cut of this. I could not bring it to the committee until I cleared it with the Government. As the Deputy knows, the troika is in town and,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: It depends on how the committee puts its time to use. If it does what the Deputy does, and has done in the Dáil on several occasions which is to have a wrangle about process rather than dealing with the document, then it is a waste of time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: At the risk of offending the Deputy again, Deputies Michael McGrath and Pearse Doherty made substantial inputs but Deputy Donnelley began his with a series of accusations. If we have limited time, I would have thought the best approach was to use that limited time to the best effect possible. I do not know what the timetabling arrangements will be for next year. However, this is an initial...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: The rise in current expenditure is due to interest rate increases. The capital expenditure is in line with the trajectory over the multi-annual budgets. We always showed there was going to be an adjustment in the capital spend downward because we thought we could pick it up with off balance sheet expenditure through other sources such as the European Investment Bank.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: As I said, one of the principal reasons is interest rates. There was an interest rate holiday, cleverly negotiated by our predecessors, which kicked back in when it expired.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: To return to Deputy Pearse Doherty's previous point, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council recommends the full implementation of a correction of €5.1 billion, so there is no change of position in what it advises us to do. On the employment figure, it goes back to Deputy Michael McGrath's point. We are making a distinction between targets and forecasts, and what we have in here is a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: The international situation has changed. To base arguments on the value of exports is to base it on something that can move around depending on demand in our international trading partners, the exchange rate with the US or the UK as the dollar or sterling goes up or down, and price adjustments. I said in my introductory remarks that exports have decreased this year and I have given reasons...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: Because when the economy picks up there will be a return of Irish people who went abroad in the very bad times and they will seek jobs here. If the Deputy looks at employment rates rather than unemployment rates he will get a better projection.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: Emigrants will also come in from other parts of Europe under the free movement of labour.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: The sale of State assets on the expenditure side is within the responsibility of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, so I am not the expert on it. His position is that in the course of this year, probably towards the back end of this year, the sale of that portion of Bord Gáis which he announced will be under way and completed, and two power stations abroad...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: Any year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: When the sales I have indicated Deputy Howlin expects to make come through, the figures will be adjusted to allow for that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: If we had followed the policies Deputy Boyd Barrett often proposed we would be like Greece before the change of government and our unemployment levels would probably be around 35% to 40%. If we adopted his policies now, we could reverse what is a good trajectory and fall back into that position. What is my basis for projecting modest growth? The IMF has done an evaluation and says emerging...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: Forecasting in an inexact science. We are projecting out to 2015 and in this case, for the first time, we are having a punt at what the thing will be like from 2016 to 2019 on the best figures available. It is an inexact science and it moves. That being said, we are in a good position at the moment. It looks as though there may be some flexibility and as though we will beat our targets if...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: Yes; the Government's position is that we will achieve our targets under the programme. The target when the programme was designed was to have a deficit of less than 3% by 2014. In May 2011 we renegotiated and got an extra year, so we must get under 3% by 2015. The Government position is that we must get to that target, but that is not the point I am making. I am suggesting that forecasts...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: Let us consider what we are doing here. Apart from fiscal reasons and conditions in Europe, the reason I am happy to project a set of figures for 2016 and to trace it out to 2019 is that I am keen to see if an extra adjustment is required, below the 3%, to get to a sustainable position. According to the figures we ran, it looks as though as long as we keep our expenditure below the growth...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: I do not agree with the assumption Deputy Doherty is making at all.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Stability Programme Update: Discussion with Minister for Finance (30 Apr 2013)

Michael Noonan: That may not be right at all. It might be the opposite. If we do not keep to the fiscal targets we may blow the economy. We may have an extra 50,000 people out of work and an economy going down the hill. Deputy Doherty's argument is that it will benefit the people if we ease up. That is not proven; it is simply a Sinn Féin theory. There is not a shred of evidence to suggest that it...