Results 16,501-16,520 of 32,602 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: No. This is why I have asked that a review of our economic forecasts take place earlier than would normally be the case. As stated, particularly in light of the scale of the vote last night, it is important - from the point of view of the Oireachtas let alone that of myself - to review our forecasts far earlier than normal. When that information becomes available, and I am looking to get...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: That is exactly what we are doing. Our report will contain many caveats because we will be looking at figures that were issued by economic bodies in the UK a few weeks ago. What they are trying to do is form a view of an event that has never happened before. Never in history has an economy as large and as integrated with the rest of the global economy as Britain's left a single trading...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy made a very good point about the link between the money we spend and the effect it can have on people's lives. It is encouraging to see the scale of increase in the number of homes being built. As I am well reminded from my engagement across the country and in my constituency, we still have a long journey to travel in this regard. In terms of how much my Department engages...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Is the Deputy scared to answer it?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I have answered the question.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I will deal with each of the Deputy's points. I agree with her opening sentiment that the result last night in the House of Commons is exceptionally disappointing and concerning. As the Deputy stated, the responsibility sits with the British Government in terms of how it will move the issue forward and deal with the issues that developed in the debate. In so doing, the Taoiseach outlined...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: With regard to whether I believe Brexit will impact on my current expenditure plans, I was referring to this year. The Deputy referred to next year.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I was referring to 2019 in the answer I gave the Deputy. The figures in the expenditure plans I have for 2019 are set. I am confident, as we move through 2019, that they will be maintained. On the question about engagement with other Government Ministers regarding the different Brexit scenarios, all of the engagement we have had to date has dealt with different Brexit scenarios. Most of...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I was referring to the negative effects we could have in Brexit in terms of the possibility of expenditure being reduced. What happens in any given year and has been the case for the past number of years is we can change our spending profiles within Departments in response to events that occur. There would be a need to engage in that in the event of a disorderly Brexit and there are a couple...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Of course, I have very carefully studied the assessment report of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council. In each of the other two budgets in which I was involved as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, the council did not raise issues of the kind it raised in the most recent report. That is one of the reasons I take what it has stated so seriously. I do not dismiss the views of the IFAC...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for his questions. The only commitment I have given is that if information on the likely effects of a disorderly Brexit on our economy becomes available to me, I will make this information available in advance of when I normally would, that is, in the stability programme update. At no point in this meeting have I said that there would be a need for a new budget this year....

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy made a number of points. I am not sure where the questions were in his comments but I will respond to his points. He also made an assertion earlier that I had not responded to a number of questions that were put to me. That is not the case. However, any Deputy who is unhappy with an answer I have given has the option of putting another question to me or to ask the question...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: In responding to the Deputy, I said that he was repeating the assertions of others. I acknowledged that.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: In particular, there was the point he made about a surplus-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: What I am saying is the case. I said two things: first, that the Deputy was repeating the assertions of others, which he is and as I have acknowledged, and, second, that in the budget I have delivered in any given year I have either met or exceeded any target I have set in that year from a surplus or deficit point of view. That has been the case in my two budgets as Minister for Finance. To...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Within the next week.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: If I may respond, I am currently working on the draft because I work on all these things myself. It will be in line with what I have told the committee. What will be different from what I have had the opportunity to say in the committee so far is that I believe the decisions that we made in relation to the VAT rate could have got more prominence in the discussion since the budget. I am due...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I believe that the budget which we put in place is a sensible budget and the one that was best available for me to deliver to this Oireachtas. I do not accept that it was a reckless budget. There are specific points in the IFAC report that I accept. The ones I particularly accept, which the Deputy has outlined, relate to where we are with unplanned expenditure, particularly in health, and...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: This is one of the areas on which I take a different view because decisions are made each year, budget to budget, that are the result of policy decisions which must be made by the Government of the day. Different Ministers for Finance and different Governments in the future - obviously, I hope the current Government continues for as long as possible - must make decisions each year in...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (16 Jan 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: What I expect will happen is that as we move through these budgets, decisions will be made in respect of maintaining services in some areas, on new services in others and with regard to capital expenditure, which will change that.