Wednesday, 9 Jul 2014

Written Answers Nos. 54-68

Mortgage Arrears Proposals

Questions (54)

Pearse Doherty

Question:

54. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance his plans to put the code of conduct on mortgage arrears into primary legislation. [30032/14]

Written answers

Minister for Finance

This Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears (CCMA) is issued under Section 117 of the Central Bank Act 1989.  The CCMA, therefore, is a statutory code and the Central Bank of Ireland has the power to administer sanctions for a contravention of this Code. Furthermore, the December 2013 Report of the Expert Group on Repossessions, which was chaired by the Department of Justice and Equality, noted that the Courts have displayed a willingness to acknowledge the CCMA's role and to have regard to its provisions in repossession proceedings. The Courts also stated that, under the law as it currently stands, it appears that "compliance with the CCMA is a necessary condition for lenders seeking to obtain Court orders for repossession of primary residences".  In view of this, while these matters will be kept under review, I currently have no plans to specifically incorporate the provisions of the CCMA directly into primary legislation. 

However, it should also be noted that the recent Directive on credit agreements for consumers relating to residential immovable property (generally known as the Mortgage Credit Directive) provides for enhanced consumer protection provisions.  This EU legislative framework for mortgage credit will address arrears and foreclosure, amongst other issues to be considered further during the transposition of the Directive into Irish law. Included in the provisions is a requirement for the adoption of measures to require creditors to exercise reasonable forbearance before foreclosure proceedings are initiated.   

Property Tax Yield

Questions (55, 56)

Catherine Murphy

Question:

55. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Finance the numbers of properties per valuation band for each of the local authorities that have been declared for payment of the local property tax; the percentage of properties per valuation band for each of the local authorities that are compliant with the local property tax; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30049/14]

Catherine Murphy

Question:

56. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Finance the projected income yield to the Exchequer from the local property tax per valuation band per local authority for 2013 and 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30050/14]

Written answers

Minister for Finance

I propose to take Questions Nos. 55 and 56 together.

I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that compliance data in relation to the Local Property Tax (LPT) is available broken down by city and county councils nationally and the most up to date figures for LPT collected in 2013 and 2014 were published on 16 April 2014 on the Commissioners' website at: Local Property Tax Statistics April 2014 (PDF 192KB). 

The report also provides a breakdown of the percentage distribution of properties across the 20 valuation bands nationally based on Returns filed for 2013 in respect of 1.64m properties. This data excludes local authority (or similar) owned properties which are deemed to be valued, under LPT legislation, in LPT Valuation Band 1. 

While the Commissioners have confirmed that more up-to-date data and analysis will be published shortly, they also advise that significant additional work would be required to provide LPT yield and compliance data by valuation band for each city and county council, as requested by the Deputy in her Questions.  I am advised by the Commissioners that their current priority is to manage the compliance programme for LPT and Household Charge arrears and to ensure that the levels of compliance for 2013 and 2104 LPT and for Household Charge are maximised.  This work is likely to continue for some time.

The Commissioners have confirmed that by the end of December 2013, €318m had been transferred by Revenue to the Exchequer in respect of LPT.  Of this amount, €242m was in respect of LPT for 2013 and €76m relates to 2014 LPT.  By the end of June 2014, a further €310m was transferred by Revenue to the Exchequer.

Tax Reliefs Eligibility

Questions (57)

Niall Collins

Question:

57. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for Finance the status of a scheme he announced in a previous budget whereby persons who invest into certain Georgian type properties in Limerick would receive a tax relief-refund; when the scheme will commence; the details of the scheme; if it will apply to properties in both the city and county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30055/14]

Written answers

Minister for Finance

Officials from my Department have held preliminary discussions with the relevant local authorities to identify the areas of the six cities, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick and Waterford, which might fall within the scope of the scheme. Each of the local authorities has now submitted proposals on the areas which they believe should be included. Further discussions will be held in due course.

An application for EU State Aid approval has been submitted and my officials are in contact with officials from the European Commission.

The Initiative cannot be implemented until EU State Aid approval has been received. Similarly, I will not be announcing the areas to be designated until this approval has been received and the initiative is to be commenced. 

It is important to note that I do not see this as a wide-spread initiative, as it is targeted at those areas which are most in need of attention.

Departmental Expenditure

Questions (58, 59)

Mary Lou McDonald

Question:

58. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide the annual saving to the Exchequer of a 20% reduction in all professional fees for his Department, including but not limited to legal, consultancy, IT-related, advisory, advertising and accountancy; and the company name and amount invoiced in each case between 1 June 2013 and 31 May 2014. [30066/14]

Mary Lou McDonald

Question:

59. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide in tabular form a list of all professional fees for his Department, including but not limited to legal, consultancy, IT-related, advisory, advertising and accountancy; and the company name and the amount invoiced in each case between 1 June 2013 and 31 May 2014. [30081/14]

Written answers

Minister for Finance

I propose to take Questions Nos. 58 and 59 together.

The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the table below. A 20% reduction to these professional fees would provide a saving to the Exchequer of €417,151.25. 

Type of Professional Service	Company/Service Provider Name	Amount  (€)
Consultancy	Red C	€118,572.00
Consultancy	Dr.Anil Shivdasani	€82,853.00
Consultancy	Economic & Social Research Institute (ESRI)	€49,200.00
Consultancy	PCMA Economic Consulting	€49,043.00
Consultancy	Crowe Howarth	€36,850.80
Consultancy	Indecon	€28,290.00
Consultancy	Stratathree	€72,118.90
Consultancy	Brendan Ryan BL	€828.00
Consultancy	MFK Property	€14,360.00
Consultancy	Seamus Coffey	€4,900.00
Legal	William Fry	€20,664.00
Legal	Arthur Cox & Company	€1,384,005.18
Legal	Matheson	€47,132.78
Legal and consultancy	Deloitte & Touche	€132,991.81
IT Consultancy	Carlos Chavez	€759.00
Advice	Donal McNally	€33,176.25
Secretarial Service	A&L Goodbody Secretarial	€2,871.65
Art and Design	Creative A.D.	€5,079.90
Design	Fiona Kearns	€2,060.00
Total	-	€2,085,756.27

Departmental Staff Training

Questions (60)

Mary Lou McDonald

Question:

60. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide in tabular form a breakdown of all third level courses and training programmes provided for employees of his Department, and accompanying cost, for the 2013-2014 academic year, from 1 September 2013 to the end of June 2014. [30096/14]

Written answers

Minister for Finance

The Department of Finance continues to invest in staff development in order to supplement the skills and qualifications of our teams, through a combination of internal and external training and development initiatives.

The Department strives to improve training in order to develop greater professional, technical, management and leadership skills. Using the Performance Management and Development System (PMDS), the Department reviews our staffs' performance and endeavours to identify any skills requiring enhancement to ensure our training resources meet our business objectives.

The following is a list of all third level courses, training programmes and courses with the accompanying cost for the 2013/2014 academic year, provided for employees by the Department of Finance. Please note some of the academic courses are still on-going and will be concluding over the coming months.

All Courses under the Refund of Fees Scheme 2013-2014

Course Name	No. of Staff	Cost (€)
ACCA Accountancy course	1	2,000.00
Advanced Dip in Legislative Drafting	1	4,500.00
AITI Chartered Tax Adviser Programme	4	7,891.50
BA Applied Taxation	1	5,000.00
BA(Hons) Human Resource Management	1	2,980.00
BA(Ord) in Law	1	1,565.00
Degree in Public Management	1	2,820.00
Diploma in Corporate Finance	1	2,925.00
Diploma in Law	2	5,500.00
Diploma in Strategy & Innovation	1	9,950.00
Doctorate in Governance	1	8,000.00
German	1	1,020.00
French	1	350.00
Jurisprudence & Administration Law	1	1,200.00
MA in Public Management	3	14,200.00
Masters of Economic Science in Policy Analysis	1	2,500.00
MSc in Financial Services	1	6,150.00
MSc in Investment Treasury & Banking	1	6,500.00
MSc in Leadership & Management	1	6,850.00
PhD in Economics	1	3,600.00
Postgrad Dip in Arts /Human Resource Mgt	2	14,000.00
Postgrad Dip in Public Management	1	5,000.00
Professional Certificate in Compliance	2	3,020.00
Diploma in Project management	22	47,995.00
Total	53	€165,516.50

 

The Department has also completed 38 training programmes this academic year. The following training courses have been undertaken and are a mixture of internal and external training programmes.

Training Programmes and Courses Undertaken 2013/2014

-	Course Name	Cost (€)
1	Executive Coaching	6,285.00
2	AO/HEO Leadership & Development Programme	2,401.28
3	PMDS Calibration Facilitation	1,975.00
4	Interview Board Training	1,200.00
5	Manual Handling Training	600.00
6	IIF Executive Programme on Country/Sovereign Risk Management and Crisis Resolution	4,900.00
7	Introduction to Business Process Improvement	810.00
8	CO Development Programme	4,583.85
9	Effective Business Writing Skills	1,200.00
10	Leading Under Pressure IPA	200.00
11	Microsoft Word and Excel-intermediate	1,319.00
12	Bereavement Workshop	100.00
13	Corporate Governance	651.90
14	Train the Trainer Programme	3,600.00
15	Employee Engagement Training	5,506.00
16	Mentoring Programme	2,550.00
17	PMDS Training	8,880.00
18	Presentation Skills Training	1,200.00
19	Finance for Non - Financial Managers	8,556.00
20	Leadership and Development Programme	20,300.00
21	Data for Decisions	295.00
22	ITI briefing on recent and forthcoming Direct Taxes	345.00
23	Financial Crime	35.00
24	Masterclass in Section 247 and Recovery of Capital	85.00
25	Irish Financial Regulatory Service update	420.00
26	Global Tax Policy Conference	625.00
27	Introduction to Financial Services Regulation	380.00
28	Conference on developments in Public Procurement	338.25
29	Maintaining the momentum-Reform Priorities after the Troika Programme- IPA	175.00
30	Solvency Training	1,170.00
31	Understanding the EU budget	2,430.00
32	Support for AITI students- lunchtime tutorials	1,800.00
33	Central Bank Inspection and Enforcement	380.00
34	Common Purpose Leadership Programme	2,500.00
35	Training on State Aid Legislation	9,500.00
36	EU decision-making Course	5,218.00
37	Diploma in Tax Policy and Practice	16,856.00
38	Executive Programme	5,000.00
Total		124,370.28

Departmental Staff Training

Questions (61)

Mary Lou McDonald

Question:

61. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide in tabular form the annual saving to the Exchequer from a reduction of 5%, 7%, 10%, 12%, 15%, 17% and 20%, respectively, in the staff training and development provision for his Department. [30111/14]

Written answers

Minister for Finance

The current allocation for training and development for 2014 in the Department of Finance is €295,450. The Department of Finance continues to invest in staff development in order to supplement the skills and qualifications of our teams, through a combination of internal and external learning and development initiatives.

The annual savings to the Exchequer of a 5%, 7%, 10%, 12%, 15%, 17% and 20% reduction to the allocation, is outlined in the table below:

Reduction	Potential Saving
5%	€14,773
7%	€20,682
10%	€29,545
12%	€35,454
15%	€44,318
17%	€50,227
20%	€59,090

Departmental Expenditure

Questions (62)

Mary Lou McDonald

Question:

62. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide in tabular form the annual saving to the Exchequer from a reduction of 5%, 7%, 10%, 12%, 15%, 17% and 20%, respectively, in the travel and expenses costs of his Department. [30126/14]

Written answers

Minister for Finance

The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the following table.

2014 Estimate - Travel and Subsistence	Annual saving to the Exchequer of a reduction by:	5%	7%	10%	12%	15%	17%	20%
€541,000	-	€27,050	€37,870	€54,100	€64,920	€81,150	€91,970	€108,200

Departmental Expenditure

Questions (63, 64, 65)

Mary Lou McDonald

Question:

63. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide in a tabular form the expected carryover of current expenditure savings from 2014 into the next year. [30160/14]

Mary Lou McDonald

Question:

64. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide in tabular form the expected carryover of capital expenditure savings from 2014 into the next year. [30175/14]

Mary Lou McDonald

Question:

65. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide in tabular form the expected unspent current expenditure from 2014 into the next year. [30207/14]

Written answers

Minister for Finance

I propose to take Questions Nos. 63 to 65, inclusive, together.

My Department has an allocation of €150,000 for  capital expenditure of which €75,000 is allocated to premises and €75,000 to purchase IT equipment. We expect to use the full allocation in this area.

With regard to current expenditure, over 70% of my Department's current expenditure budget relates to pay and facilities costs. The remainder is allocated across a range of projects including the National Payments Plan and the stabilisation of the banking sector. The budgets for these projects have been set to enable the Department to address issues and deliverables as they arise. At this point, the end year outturn cannot, therefore, be projected with any certainty.

Tax Yield

Questions (66)

Kevin Humphreys

Question:

66. Deputy Kevin Humphreys asked the Minister for Finance with respect to the June 2014 target and outturn for corporation tax receipts to the Exchequer, the reason for the €297 million shortfall; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30215/14]

Written answers

Minister for Finance

As the Deputy may be aware, the impact of SEPA on direct debits was most noticeable in the opening months of the year, with VAT and Income Tax particularly affected.  While the vast majority of SEPA related delays have unwound, there will still be some residual impacts over the rest of the year and in future years where a shortage of banking days could be an issue.

By way of background, when an initial payment is made via direct debit, it takes up to seven working days from the bank being notified of the direct debit to payment being made (this was previously two days).  For subsequent direct debits, this is reduced to four days.

The end-June 2014 Exchequer returns showed that Corporation Tax (CT) receipts for the month of June were €297 million (27.7%) below profile.  However, this was primarily due to SEPA with €285 million estimated to have been delayed from June into July. 

The SEPA effect occurred as many companies were making the first CT payment via direct debit, and therefore it took seven working days to process these payments rather the previous two days.   However, it should be noted that as expected, over €285 million in CT receipts was received in the first working days of July 2014.    

Excise Duties

Questions (67)

Kevin Humphreys

Question:

67. Deputy Kevin Humphreys asked the Minister for Finance as excise is €149 million ahead of profile for the year so far, and €58 million in June alone, he will outline where this buoyancy arises; and if he will provide a breakdown of where the increased excises are accruing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30216/14]

Written answers

Minister for Finance

The end-June 2014 Exchequer returns confirmed that excise duties recorded a surplus over profile in the month of June of €58 million.   In terms of the cumulative target, excise duties were up €149 million against profile. The excise performance has been reasonably strong across a number of the excise components. In terms of where the overperformance arises, around 30% is from VRT, 60% from fuels and 10% from other. However, it should be noted that these percentages are on a Revenue net receipts basis. While not directly comparable with Exchequer receipts, these figures are illustrative.   

Tax Yield

Questions (68)

Kevin Humphreys

Question:

68. Deputy Kevin Humphreys asked the Minister for Finance as stamp duty is €51 million ahead of profile for the year so far, and €17 million in June alone, if he will outline where this buoyancy arises; and if he will provide a breakdown of where the increased stamp duty is accruing to the Exchequer; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30217/14]

Written answers

Minister for Finance

The end-June 2014 Exchequer returns confirmed that stamp duties recorded a surplus over profile in the month of June of €17 million. In terms of the cumulative target, stamp duties were up €51 million. The performance of stamp duties has been reasonably strong across a number of subheads. In terms of cumulative receipts, property receipts are up about €35 million, shares are up €18 million and others are up €3 million in broad terms. 

It should be noted that figures provided above are on a Revenue net receipts basis. While not directly comparable with Exchequer Receipts, these figures are illustrative.