Results 18,481-18,500 of 32,610 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Other Questions: Sale of State Assets (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: As the Deputy will be aware, the intention when Bord Gáis Energy was sold was that €400 million from the proceeds would be made available to establish an off-balance sheet financial vehicle to provide financing to approved housing bodies, AHBs. This funding, together with additional private funding, would then facilitate the provision of additional housing units by the AHB...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Other Questions: Sale of State Assets (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: As to where that money currently sits, an amount of money like that would sit on the State balance sheet. It is managed by the National Treasury Management Agency. On the question of what interest rate it has accrued for the State, given how low interest rates have been in recent years, I expect the interest benefits delivered to the State will have been very low across the period. The...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Other Questions: Sale of State Assets (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: Given the Deputy is directing his questions to me, I should point out that at the time of budget 2015 I was not the Minister for Finance or the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. However, I take responsibility for commitments that are made-----

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Other Questions: Sale of State Assets (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: -----by either of my Departments up to this point. Regarding who manages the money, I have answered that question.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Other Questions: Sale of State Assets (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: As to the benefit the State might gain from it, money that goes onto the State balance sheet in the way this windfall gain would have done reduces the net indebtedness of our State. That, in turn, means we can fund ourselves better than we would be able to do otherwise. In terms of where the other €200 million would reside and how it would be used-----

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Other Questions: Sale of State Assets (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: -----as I said, the commitment is for at least a 20-year period and if an extension of funding is needed beyond that 20-year period to move forward on an affordable housing project, I would be happy to give that commitment and I will work with the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Murphy, on it.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Other Questions: Public Sector Pay (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 8, 10 and 106 together. Under the Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020, which we negotiated last year, it was agreed by all parties that there would be an examination of remaining salary scale issues in respect of post-January 2011 recruits at entry grades. The agreement stated that this would be undertaken within 12 months of the commencement of...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Other Questions: Public Sector Pay (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: Since 2011, our public services have hired more than 60,500 new entrants. The Deputy mentioned two professions. We have hired some 16,000 more teachers and nearly 10,000 more nurses. Earlier I provided information to Deputy Jonathan O'Brien in which I indicated that during the first four months of 2018 the HSE hired the equivalent of 380 more persons per month. It is not the case that we...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: On the one hand the Deputy acknowledges that I have an obligation to make sure that everything adds up and fits into the same framework-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: -----and on the other he is asking me to give a commitment today, irrespective of cost or how we might implement it.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I cannot do that. I have to continue to engage with the union movement on the matter to see if an affordable resolution can be reached. While the Deputy is correct to point to the fact that this was a commitment contained in the supply and confidence agreement that reflected the faith I have in seeing whether we can make progress in the matter. In addition to that, the commitment was there...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: It was enormously complicated legislation and an enormously intricate negotiation and despite the expectations and the prophesies of many that we would not be able to get that agreement, that was achieved.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I will continue to work now on the new entrant part in the way I have identified.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Gender Balance (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The points the Deputy has made on the composition of leadership within my two Departments do not reflect the reality of where we are at assistant principal and principal officer level. In the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform it is 44%. It is lower in the Department of Finance at 39%, which I acknowledge and I have shared the figures with the Deputy. It is not where it needs to...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Gender Balance (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I agree with the Deputy. Within any organisation, the amount of time that might be taken for maternity leave, or to a far lesser extent for paternity leave, is a sliver of an entire working life. Both of my Departments and other Departments from what I have seen are working hard to ensure that the necessary working arrangements are in place to ensure that nobody is penalised in any way for...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The short answer is yes, it remains a priority for me. Further engagement is taking place on the matter. As to whether it will be included in the budgetary package and budget 2019, there are many different competing demands on it but I am entering into discussions with the union leadership on this matter in good faith to see if we can find some way of dealing with it. We have published a...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, we did meet in June. My Department has met the unions on the matter across June and before then. The Deputy asked me if I am committed to dealing with the matter in budget 2019 and he went on to ask if this would be irrespective of how it would be implemented or the costs involved. I cannot give that commitment irrespective of costs or implementation, as the Deputy knows, but as I...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Summer Economic Statement (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: That is a fair point. One of the reasons I announced the capital allocations for many years in advance as early as I did is experience has taught me, particularly when I was Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, that telling a Department in October what capital expenditure it will have available the following year for constructing new projects inevitably means that such funding is not...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Summer Economic Statement (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: In my time in both the previous Dáil and this Dáil, I have never heard anybody argue that we should have completed the deficit correction quicker. If Deputy Cowen is arguing that, it is a new departure.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Summer Economic Statement (3 Jul 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: If Deputy Cowen is arguing it, then it is truly-----