Results 181-200 of 33,498 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Banking Sector (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: The long-standing policy of this Government is to return the remaining banks to private ownership while achieving value for the taxpayer. It continues to be the Government's belief that banking in the main is an activity that should be provided by the private sector and that taxpayer funds which were used to rescue the banks should be recovered and used for more productive purposes. The...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Banking Sector (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: Well, look, the Deputy referred to simple maths. I would refer to a simple understanding of stock markets. I know Deputy Doherty is a little hazy and unclear on the issue of how companies are owned. In regard to AIB, if we were in a position where the financial markets were expecting that the State was not going to reduce its shareholding in AIB over time, of course that would materially...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Middle East (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: The approval of a prospectus document is a matter for the Central Bank of Ireland as the designated competent authority under the EU prospectus regulation. It is an operational matter for the Central Bank as the State’s financial regulator to ensure that a disclosure document for any offer of securities for sale to the public contains all the necessary information required by the EU...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Collection (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. The answer I have to hand goes through the structure of the local property tax, which Deputy Timmins already knows. I will not take him through that. The issue to which he referred is about the interplay between the amount of revenue a local authority raises in its own jurisdiction and the equalisation fund. I have tried in the various revaluations in which I have been...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Collection (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: I understand the Deputy's point. In between the two complex formulae and the spreadsheet I see, which has them on it - I am sure the Deputy is familiar with it - there are a number of local authorities like his own that believe they do not get to keep all of which they raise. The issue, which the Deputy acknowledges in his question, is that if we were to move to a system where all of what a...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Collection (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: On the second matter, I am happy to raise it with the Minister for local government, Deputy Browne, and his colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, who is also involved in this issue with me. On the first matter, I examined that issue and inquired into it. I was definitively told I could not make that change. The reason is the budget cycle is annual and the budget cycle here is...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tax Collection (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: The Exchequer returns for the first half of the year were published at the beginning of the month and the Deputy has just touched on them. VAT receipts amounted to €11.6 billion, which is an increase of €600 million and is just under 6% higher than in the first half of last year. The growth in VAT is consistent with the increase in consumer spending. On an annual basis,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tax Collection (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: On overall tax receipts for the year, particularly when it comes to VAT, the advice I have received is that we expect to collect the VAT we indicated we would collect for the year. Currently, we are in line to deliver that target. I am aware of the role VAT can play in helping with the cost pressures businesses are facing. The programme for Government contains a clear commitment in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tax Collection (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: I cannot comment on decisions that will be announced on budget day. Deputy Brennan raised the particular issue of the 5% rate for the apartment sector. I have been advised by my officials in this area that if any attempt were to be made to move apartments down to 5%, other goods that are sold at the middle VAT rate would need to be moved down to 5% as well. That would have a particular...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Military Aircraft (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: It does not matter how many times the Deputy repeats the question; the answer is still the same. We are fully in compliance with our customs code. I have outlined the circumstances in which-----

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Military Aircraft (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: We are talking about the Revenue Commissioners here, an authority that has implemented the customs code in this country for many decades, and about an airport that has been very active and very busy throughout its existence. I have explained to the Deputy really clearly the circumstances in which customs inspection is due. The subsections to which he refers do not take the place of the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Military Aircraft (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: It is, of course, a subject for very legitimate debate regarding other policy domains, but not for customs.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Mortgage Interest Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: First, the Deputy referred to me being "a cheerleader". What I said at the time was that the sale of those loan books from those various banks was an important step in the banks regaining financial health, which, in turn, would help them to lend more in the future and contribute to our economy growing. I understood at that point the sensitivity with regard to it. That is why the consumer...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Mortgage Interest Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: Is that to encourage us to speak quicker?

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Mortgage Interest Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: The Cathaoirleach Gníomhach is giving me a forewarning. In the next opportunity, I will do my best to go back to the particular question put to me by Deputy Doherty.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Mortgage Interest Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: Again, the Deputy uses the language of obstructionism. I exercised my right in the Dáil. The Deputy has the same right. That is not obstructionism; that is me having to weigh up what I believe the right decision for our economy is overall and the fact that we need banks to be in a position to lend more in the future and invest more within our economy. That is not because I am making...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Mortgage Interest Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: What I am doing is looking at what is right for our economy overall and for all of the households, all-----

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Mortgage Interest Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: ----- of the families-----

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Mortgage Interest Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: ----- and all of the businesses within it,

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Mortgage Interest Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: I had to consider that in the round.