Results 141-160 of 3,447 for speaker:Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I am happy to go back over it, however. Section 18, which is the substantive piece in that regard, provides for our entry into the MFA+ contribution agreement. It is required to facilitate the MFA+ package for 2023. As we have discussed, Ireland may contribute to the support to an aggregate amount of more than €63.625 million to comply with the obligations under the MFA+ agreement,...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: Forgive me, let me get-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: Yes.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: On the MFA+ contribution agreement, the Commission has agreed the signature process with 25 member states for the MFA 2 guarantee agreements guaranteeing €5.72 billion out of €6 billion of loans. Ireland and Denmark have to finalise the agreement. As of last month, 21 member states were on schedule to have contribution agreements finished, with France, Denmark, Italy, Ireland,...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: Once the final costs are fixed, the Commission will communicate that. However, yes, that is our key.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: On current planning, the first payment call will be sent in early February. I do not have a date for when the final costs are likely to be fixed. It is the same agreement text for all member states, of course.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I am not exactly sure when that is. Let me come back to the Deputy on that. The costs will be stable over the three-year period and so we will know that, but I just do not know when the final costs will be fixed.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: The efforts by the European Union to try to place as much oversight, reporting and transparency as can be placed on any state that is on a war footing are very important. They are the sorts of efforts that this national Parliament would want to see and that the European Union would want to see not just in terms of good governance now, but also as a pathway for Ukraine to move to this state....

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I do not have enough information about that to be able to answer that now. Ukraine is under attack from Russia and we have a period of extreme global instability. The EU, as a stable group of countries committed to the values of human rights and democracy, needs to provide appropriate support for a democratic state that is under attack. We need to help it develop its systems within that...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: It is not that I am not capable of reading up on it. It is not that I am not aware. It is just that I am aware that I am here commenting as Minister of State and I am trying to be as careful, factual and reasonable as I possibly can be. It is not that I am uneducated on the point.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: The Deputy suggested I read up.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: Deputy Doherty has been finance spokesperson for many years, much longer than I have been involved in the Department of Finance or in this portfolio. He will therefore know a great deal better than I do the institutions such as the EIB, the EBRD and others, and that they have oversight personnel not just working throughout those institutions but on the ground where funds are going to make...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: We talked about the memorandum of understanding between the Commission and the Ukraine Government, making very clear the purpose of the funds and how they were to be used. Article 5 of the memorandum of understanding, which I set out earlier, clearly sets out that the authorities provide monthly reports on revenues and expenditures of the state budget at the level of the major expenditure...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I am not in a position to answer that question.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: Perhaps.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: Yes. It is already the case. When the EU budget was agreed last month the Commissioners set out proposals both to provide increased support for humanitarian need – the Deputy must forgive me as I do not have the figure to hand – and also funding to combat antisemitism in civil society. I thought that was a very important reflection on the budget negotiations between the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: It will be as soon as possible. I am subject to the Whip and the House on timing but I am agitating for it to happen as soon as possible.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I hope so.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I thank the committee for its engagement and support. This is an important Bill. It is important to focus on the repayment and the exposure of the State, but I remember it is not long ago that the EU was concerned about Ireland's capacity to repay funding that was provided to us in our time of need. We worked hard to make sure it was done, have come out of it well and are now net...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: It is about the extent to which we commit. We have committed €7 million to the EIB and we are providing extra headroom and extra exposure. We are trying to provide a structure under the 2022 and 2023 MFA programmes and make provision for the future. We have committed €7 million and are leaving ourselves some capacity in case we need to go further.