Results 18,741-18,760 of 33,392 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2019: Minister for Finance (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: It does not always happen, to put it mildly. The reasons vary from Department to Department. The most frequent issue relates to capital expenditure in December, which can sometimes be reliant on where we are in the planning or procurement process. With procurement in particular, sometimes things can happen in December that are genuinely outside the grasp of a Department. By that point it...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2019: Minister for Finance (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: On the Deputy's first question, the key factor to where we have ended up in customs and excise duties has been the pre-loading that took place in cigarettes in advance of plain packaging being introduced. As I look into the remainder of this year, the trend that has been established across the first three quarters of this year is likely to continue into the final quarter. This is certainly...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2019: Minister for Finance (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I think we will be fine in VAT. It is my expectation that we will be fine overall. While that is a lot of money for any of us, it is a very small percentage of where we are in the total tax take for VAT.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2019: Minister for Finance (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: Mr. O'Brien did not seek any additional funding from me-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2019: Minister for Finance (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: From his line Minister? It works the other way around. The funding is agreed between the Department of Health and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. From the funding that is available, the service plan is then worked out.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2019: Minister for Finance (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: It is fair to say and it is publicly known that Mr. O'Brien wrote a letter on this. With respect to the Deputy, when we are doing the budget each year, we have many stakeholders in the budgetary process who make their views known around how much additional funding is needed. It only falls to my two Departments and then to the Government to knit it all together.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2019: Minister for Finance (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: That is correct.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2019: Minister for Finance (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I accept the thrust of Deputy Cowen's argument. I am not looking, nor will I present to the Deputy a narrative, to normalise this. Last year, where we ended up in terms of the scale of the Supplementary Estimate the Department received, combined with the budget allocation I made available to the Department, showed a significant improvement in comparison with where we had been the previous...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2019: Minister for Finance (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The short answer is that I will but to be clear about the Brexit effect, I referred to a hard or disorderly exit with many conditions around that. Later on in the process, it may be appropriate to spell out in greater detail what that would be but, as I said, there are many unknowns in terms of what a disorderly Brexit would look like. At a minimum, we can expect that the kind of changes we...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2019: Minister for Finance (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: Many great things are happening in our health service. While I acknowledged earlier the great pressure being caused by the current state of the housing market in respect of tenants, people who are homeless and people who want to buy a home, more homes are being built and more planning permissions are being granted. To deal with the issue the Deputy has raised, that matter is now back in...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2019: Minister for Finance (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: It will be appropriate to answer that question after the WRC process has concluded and not before. The Deputy has made a fair point that organisations involved in this process might not be directly represented at the WRC, and I am sure that is the case. Many other organisations, however, are paid for by the State but their employees do not work for the State. If the principle is...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2019: Minister for Finance (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I say all of this with great appreciation for the work that these organisations do.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2019: Minister for Finance (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Chairman and the committee for their time.

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Mortgage Protection Policies (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: As Minister for Finance, I am responsible for the development of the legal framework governing financial regulation.  Neither I nor the Central Bank of Ireland can interfere in the provision or pricing of insurance products, as these matters are of a commercial nature, and are determined by insurance companies based on an assessment of the risks they are willing to accept.  This...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Rebates (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I am advised by Revenue that Statutory Instrument No. 353 of 1994, Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers (Tax Concessions) Regulations, 1994 (as amended by Statutory Instrument No. 55 of 2018) sets out the requirements for an organisation to qualify for a repayment of Vehicle Registration Tax and VAT under the Disabled Drivers scheme. Regulation 2 provides that a qualifying organisation...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Insurance Coverage (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: As Minister for Finance, I am responsible for the development of the legal framework governing financial regulation.  Neither I nor the Central Bank of Ireland can interfere in the provision or pricing of insurance products, as these matters are of a commercial nature, and are determined by insurance companies based on an assessment of the risks they are willing to accept.  This...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Management (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 117 and 118 together. On 3 May, 2018, the Office of Public Works (OPW) published 29 Flood Risk Management Plans covering the whole country, which proposed 118 new outline flood relief projects on top of the 42 major projects already completed and the 33 major schemes within the existing capital works programme of the OPW. In that regard funding of...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Relief Schemes (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions. Nos. 119, 120, 122 and 123 together. The Office of Public Works (OPW) has developed the proposed flood relief scheme for Cork City following 11 years of detailed scientific and engineering study and design which has been carried out with the benefit of ongoing and regular public consultation with the general public and other key stakeholders. The tender...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Relief Schemes Expenditure (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: Expenditure to date on the Bandon Flood Relief Scheme is €18.5 million including design, development and construction costs to date.

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Road Improvement Schemes (26 Sep 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The Office of Public Works has no responsibility in this instance as the road in question is not in its care.