Results 381-400 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: I thank Deputy Barrett for the compliments he paid to the officials in the Department of Finance and, indeed, everyone who has been involved in the recovery. Colleagues know the Government has prioritised recovering the house building market in order that there is a supply of houses and apartments right through the country but also in the Dublin area, which again might be sufficient. We...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: I thank the Deputy for raising a number of interesting issues. On the headroom available, there is nothing in my speech that is optimistic about headroom at the end of the year. What everybody needs to remember is that the amount of money available will be the excess of the tax flow over expenditure when the deficit of 0.9% of GDP is taken into account. We are behind the curve in that...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: Perhaps the Deputy would allow me to continue. On the question regarding the varying forecasts made last year about fiscal space up to the Friday night prior to the budget, what I am saying is that we are not adjusting the fiscal space arising from the new information because we have not got an awful lot to contribute yet with certainty. The first readjustment of the forecast on fiscal...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, is doing well. For the first time in my memory, after three months the Department of Health is on line in terms of budget. That has not happened over the previous six budgets. In terms of the Exchequer figures published last week, spend across Departments is running at 0.9% below on the current side and is slightly up on the capital side because of the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: No, I am saying that the provision for Irish Water as an institution is already in place but it has to be matched. If water charges are abolished, there will be no funding stream for Irish Water. The intake in terms of water charges was estimated to be €240 million and expenditure in terms of the conservation grant amounted to approximately €100 million. These figures were...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: The big advantage of PPP is that, while one cannot ignore costs, one can get the funding off the balance sheet. Bearing in mind what the NTMA was raising money for yesterday, we could get money now for investment purposes. We would certainly get it at 1% over a long period, certainly over ten years. We would not have to go up too far to get it for 15 or 20 years. In comparing the public...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: There is no doubt at all that, in times of recession, people who are looking for their first jobs and homes and trying to establish themselves in life and society have it more difficult than those who are established and have homes, families, jobs, pension provisions, etc. That is a given and is borne out by all of the evidence. The best thing a government can do for a younger generation is...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: An injection of €10 million into the housing market since Christmas could not possibly have driven up prices. The price rises are due to other factors, principally the lack of supply in the market, the availability of money now that mortgage houses are writing mortgages and the changes in the Central Bank's prudential rules allowing people to borrow more. The committee will recall...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: I am simply saying that it is not due to the help-to-buy scheme.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: There is merit in the Deputy's point but in any supply and demand situation, price is the link. If there is no supply and high demand, there is something wrong with the pricing structure. Everyone in politics meets and talks to builders. We meet them in the normal course of events. I spent five years with builders telling me that they could not afford to build because the cost of building...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: We did not have money.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: Due to the events of the past, which I do not want to recite.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: I do not believe that the Deputy opposed-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: I am talking about the collapse. When the economy was driven over a cliff in 2008, the country went bankrupt. Anyone who is not suffering a loss of memory knows that there was very little money. We were cutting back rather than spending. It has only been in the past two years that a large chunk of money has been provided for social housing. The Minister for Housing, Planning, Community...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: On the question of defence, I know the Deputy has had a career in the Defence Forces.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: I hear the Deputy had an association with distinction.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: It is a question for the Minister, Deputy Paschal Donohoe. I could not tell the Deputy what the allocation for defence is. All I know is that, when I go to Europe, on the sides of the meeting that I attend, but never at an official meeting, I hear people talking about defence spending. The rule for NATO is that at least 2% of GDP must be spent on defence.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: The Deputy is right. Non-NATO countries have less than that. The Deputy can take it up with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: Is that on the corporation side?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Michael Noonan: We are getting €7.5 billion, whereas three years ago we were getting approximately €3.9 billion. It has nearly doubled.