Results 17,261-17,280 of 32,610 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Pension Provisions (13 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: As the Deputy will be aware, I deal with staff in the civil service. Other Ministers are responsible for staff in the wider public service. The Government decided in December 2017 that the retirement age of civil servants would be extended to 70 years of age and that between the date of the Government decision and the enactment of the legislation, civil servants with a retirement age of...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Pension Provisions (13 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: Under civil service pension schemes, the pension calculation is, in general, based on pensionable remuneration and total pensionable service of the employee. The focus on service is a fundamental element of defined benefit occupational pension schemes, not just in the civil and public service but in the private sector too, and there are no plans at present to change this. There are...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Staff Data (13 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The tables below provide a gender breakdown of the number of senior positions in my Department and the Office of Government Procurement. Public Expenditure and Reform Headcount & Gender Grade Female Male Secretary General 0 1 Assistant Secretary Level 3 5 Principal Officer 17 18 Assistant Principal 54 66 Chief Medical Officer 0 1 Occupational Health Nurse 2 0 Occupational...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Reform Implementation (13 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: Since the first public service reform plan was published in 2011, a comprehensive programme of reform has been implemented and public sector reform continues to be a key priority for the Government. The latest framework for reform and innovation in the public service, OurPublic Service 2020 (OPS 2020)–which I launched last December, is a whole-of-public-service initiative designed to...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: In fairness, I should acknowledge that this is a matter that Deputy McGrath has raised with me and I note that he has just joined us now. I am sure he will be raising this on Report Stage as well as he has related amendments. I will say a word about the section and my approach to it. On the section itself, a partial repayment of VRT has been available since 1993 on certain vehicles...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputies for their contributions. It is fair to acknowledge that this change was not subject to consultation. However, we have so many examples of reliefs like this across the tax code that we have to recognise the right of the Government of the day to make changes. If we are to be guided by consultation in every difficult change we make, the bias will always be towards not...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: Deputy Burton asked if we had done an economic appraisal of this beyond knowing what would be the potential revenue gain. We have not done such an appraisal because I decided we would be better off doing economic appraisals of the much larger decisions we had to make, for example, on the VAT rate applied to the tourism sector. I do not ask my Department to do detailed economic appraisals of...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: To look at the figures that have been put forward by the sector in regard to the on-cost this could pose to them, my understanding is that it has suggested it could be between €600 and €700 per vehicle. With regard to what that means from a tourism point of view, let us say all of that €600 or €700 was to be passed on to the tourist. Most car rental agreements...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: This amendment concerns the 50% excise relief for qualifying microbreweries, which works out at about 27 cent per pint. The amendment proposes to increase the production ceiling from 40,000 hectolitres to 60,000 hectolitres. The current production ceiling is 40,000 hectolitres and the claim ceiling is 30,000 hectolitres. By way of illustration, 40,000 hectolitres is equivalent to 7 million...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The diesel rebate scheme was introduced by my predecessor in 2013 in recognition of the high price of fuel at that time and its adverse affect on the transport sector. The scheme offers a partial excise refund for qualifying hauliers and bus operators based on the retail price of diesel. The repayment amount is calculated based on the average price at which auto diesel is available for...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I said earlier that I would look at the operation of this scheme in the context of next year's Finance Bill and as part of that we will engage with the sector. I only make that commitment in the context of the normal reviews that we would do of key schemes in advance of the budget. A change through this scheme was put in place in recognition of the challenges faced by the sector. I am...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: If the Deputy is going to put that on the record, I should say there were many different rugs and there will be many different interpretations of who pulled what. I will leave it at that.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: This section amends the Value-Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010 with respect to rates of VAT. First, it provides that from 1 January 2019, as announced in the budget, the second reduced VAT rate of 9% will increase to 13.5% on goods and services predominantly in the tourism sector, with the exception of newspapers, periodicals and the provision of facilities for taking part in sporting...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: My argument could be summed up by, if not now, when? Yes, we do have parts of our country that are not doing as well as others, which I fully acknowledge, but we have an economy overall that is seeing very strong income and employment growth. The reality, as I look beyond this point, is that if we had made the choice to split the two and not to increase the rate for restaurants, then...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy almost said something good about a policy decision there.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: It was the "notwithstanding how it was funded".

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: If I had put in varied treatment by sector, for example, if I had said we will do hotels in one go but restaurants on a phased basis, two things would happen. The first is that those in the hotel sector would ask why they were not getting the same treatment as those in the restaurant sector. The second thing is that we would be back here in a year's time with the case being made to me that...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: As the Deputy stated, this issue was discussed in the debate on last year's Finance Bill and relates to the application of the VAT zero rating that applies to children's clothing and footwear. Under Article 110 of the VAT directive, member states may retain the zero rates on goods and services that were in place on and from 1 January 1991 but cannot extend the zero rate to new goods and...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The first part of the Deputy's statement is correct. We approached the ESRI and then academics in children's health and they advised us that the data to enable us to do this in the manner the Deputy describes were not available. We then reviewed the information on sizing available to us from the largest retailers. The one exception referred to measurements rather than a retailer, so the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: We looked at publicly available information on shoe sizing. The process we undertook in respect of clothing we undertook for shoes as well.