Results 18,141-18,160 of 34,663 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: Exactly. Like the other semi-States that I mentioned. I have one or two more questions. Looking at page 11 of the finance accounts, will the witnesses tell me about what is not here in the Central Fund? In 2015, Ireland paid €1.952 billion to the EU. Under that there are receipts from the EU of €66 million, a fraction of that. We had it here with the Department of...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: And also the projections for the next few years. Why in the Central Fund do we have the payments out but not the income in? The Central Fund should capture the total income into the State. Why is that receipt from Europe, which is about €1.2 billion or €1.3 billion, not there? Perhaps the Comptroller and Auditor General might tell us. I know it is a separate fund but why is...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: I ask that a note be sent to us because Europe sends about €1.2 billion to Ireland each year. We pay it around €1.9 billion, which is much more, but the receipt of that €1.9 billion does not go through the agriculture Vote.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: Yes, I am talking about the CAP. None of that comes through the Oireachtas. We never see it coming through the agriculture Vote, the Estimates or the Committee of Public Accounts. The Central Fund is meant to capture everything that is not in the Vote of expenditure and it does not come through there either. Please send us a note. We do not have the total picture. The obvious next...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: And the local government fund, which is motor tax receipts and that goes out to Irish Water.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: Send us a note on all the funds that are not -----

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: The local government fund goes through this committee, as does the Social Insurance Fund. This European Fund for agriculture and CAP does not tend to come through national parliaments. I ask that someone put together a full picture because we do not have a consolidated figure.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: No. It goes through the European auditor. It does not come through the Oireachtas at all.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: That changes. It goes around the House.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: Okay. Mr. McCarthy knows the full picture. There are a few aspects that are not in these figures, so I ask that the national Parliament be given the overall picture. I am not saying that there is an issue but we want the total picture. I will move on to page 47 of the same set of accounts. On the money that we borrowed from the troika, at the end of 2015 we still owe €50...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: What is stopping us from clearing that? What interest rate are we paying? The witnesses spoke about refinancing some of our debts. Would it not be better to borrow now over a longer period at a cheaper rate? I recall that the Kingdom of Demark and Swedish money was a little higher than the average. Why are we continuing that?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: There is an average of five years left on the IMF, whereas on the European money, there is an average of 18 years left. The UK, Sweden and Denmark loans are also about five years. There are mixed views on this. Some would say that having the troika keeping an eye over our shoulder is a good thing for the Department of Finance, given what happened. Perhaps it is no harm that it is still...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: I have two other questions on which Mr. Moran might give us some information. Looking at the AIB sale again, given that money was borrowed to buy out AIB, now that the State has got some of that money back, it has to go back against the borrowings as a financial transaction. I understand that. Has the Department calculated the interest that Irish taxpayers paid through current revenue on...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: That is an angle. The Department might look at that. I would have thought the capital which we borrowed is different from the interest that we paid on that capital borrowing. It cost taxpayers money to pay for that during that period.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: Will the Department of Finance have that for its September figure?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: Good, so we will see that in September. Is there something in that? Mr. McCarthy is going to tell Mr. Moran that there is something in the book there.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: Is Mr. McCarthy emailing that document to us?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: Mr. McCarthy will be pleased to hear that I am on my last question. The briefing note we got from the Department of Finance was document No. 653A(ii). It is interesting how this was brought into it. On page 34, it states that the Department of Finance received €12 million in 2015 under the fair deal scheme into the Central Fund. That note says that the collection of funds commenced...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 18 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Finance Accounts 2015 (6 Jul 2017)

Seán Fleming: Is there a corresponding amount going back? The HSE is covering the cost of paying for the fair deal scheme in nursing homes on an annual basis.