Results 841-860 of 1,070,457 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:George Lee OR speaker:Roderic O'Gorman OR speaker:Martin Kenny OR speaker:Brendan Griffin OR speaker:Colm Burke OR speaker:Peadar Tóibín OR speaker:Mary Lou McDonald OR speaker:Jim O'Callaghan OR speaker:Paul Donnelly OR speaker:Patricia Ryan OR speaker:Michael Healy-Rae OR speaker:Michael Ring OR speaker:Paul Murphy OR speaker:Matt Carthy OR speaker:David Stanton)

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024: Second Stage (9 Oct 2024)

Gerald Nash: I am pleased to speak on this Bill for the Labour Party. The State will have spent, I think, close to or in excess of €2 billion in energy credit payments since the onset of the energy crisis. We know only too well that this is by definition an untargeted measure. It is universal in nature and has been explained away as a once-off emergency measure to help people through a temporary...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Peadar Tóibín: Cuirim fáilte roimh na finnéithe agus gabhaim buíochas leo as na cuir i láthair. There are a couple of issues. First of all, Mr. Makhlouf mentioned the potential inflationary impact of the budget and of spending yet the European Central Bank, ECB, reduced interest rates. On one level, obviously, there is too much money going into the economy according to the constraints...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Peadar Tóibín: Therefore, it is fair to say that the Irish economy's cycle is not in sync with the other European economies, so while the reduction of interest rates is favourable for the other European economies, it is not actually favourable for the Irish economy at the moment.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Peadar Tóibín: Does the Central Bank push back against the decisions of the ECB in terms of the experience of the Irish economy around interest rates?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Peadar Tóibín: It just strikes me that one of the key components of the big housing crash we had a number of years ago was the fact that interest rates were made low for the German economy's sake and our economy was obviously overheating at a significant rate. The lever the Central Bank would have pulled, in monetary policy, had it had interest rates at the time would have been to cool down the Irish...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Peadar Tóibín: I appreciate that there were lots of reasons the housing crisis happened. It would be my view that the ECB would have a closer eye to Germany's needs economically in setting the interest rate than it would in respect of Ireland. That is a another day's discussion but that is strongly my view. There are constraints within the Irish economy. If investment goes in that is too large in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Peadar Tóibín: Given that housing is probably one of the biggest constraints within the economy, would it not be logical for the Government to really focus on increasing the labour supply in terms of housing? Hundreds of thousands of Irish construction workers left for Australia and Canada just after the last crash. If a concerted effort was made to bring home a significant number of those workers, that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Peadar Tóibín: Is waste inflationary? One of the big issues in this country is the level of waste that is happening. I refer to the overexpenditure on capital projects and budgets running wild, etc. That has an inflationary impact on society. Has the Central Bank quantified whether inefficiencies in capital provision are causing overheating of the economy?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Peadar Tóibín: Okay. I would like to ask about the exposures of the Irish economy at the moment. I understand that if we stripped out corporation taxes, there would be a budget deficit this year to the tune of €5 billion, which is a significant exposure. One of the people involved in the election that will take place in the United States in a couple of weeks has stated that he wants to introduce a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Peadar Tóibín: In general. Right now, corporation tax is playing a bigger role in day-to-day spending. That has its own exposure profile-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Peadar Tóibín: -----never mind the other elements.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Peadar Tóibín: I have two final questions. I understand that there are still some 60,000 mortgage holders paying inflated rates on their mortgages because they are with vulture funds. What can be done to help those people? We mentioned the bubble and the banking crisis that happened some 15 or 20 years ago. One of the ways credit has increased in the Irish housing sector has been through international...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Peadar Tóibín: I ask Mr. Madouros to provide an outline in writing to the committee of what those measures are.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Jim O'Callaghan: I welcome the Governor and the two deputy governors. I have a number of questions for Mr. Makhlouf. I will start by looking at the Central Bank's function, which is in respect of providing analysis on national economic policy. Does Mr. Makhlouf agree that the Irish economy is in good health at present?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Jim O'Callaghan: Would Mr. Makhlouf say that the factors that made him conclude it is in good health are full employment, a large surplus, which a lot of countries do not have, and lowering inflation? Is there anything else he would add to that as a symptom of the healthy Irish economy?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Jim O'Callaghan: Mr. Makhlouf mentioned in his statement that we have stronger growth rates than expected. Why is that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Jim O'Callaghan: Of course. Is the large surplus we have unusual in a eurozone context?