Written Answers Nos. 53-57
53. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection if she will indicate the eligibility for rent allowance of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36803/15]
View answerThe Department is unable to determine eligibility to Rent Supplement prior to receipt of a completed application to the Mid-Leinster Rent Unit, PO Box 11758, Dublin 24.
54. Deputy Patrick O'Donovan asked the Minister for Finance the change a number of years ago that facilitated a change in the value added tax on greyhound feed; the reason for the change; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36680/15]
View answerUnder EU VAT law, with which Irish VAT law must comply, economic activity in general is subject to VAT. In this context, the greyhound industry involves a variety of supplies of goods and services that come within the scope of VAT. With regard to greyhound food, the supply of dog food is liable to VAT at the standard VAT rate of 23%. However, a concession was introduced in Finance Act 1995, to provide for a reduced VAT rate to apply to the supply of greyhound feeding stuff "which is packaged, advertised or held out for sale solely as greyhound feeding and which is supplied in units of not less than 10 kilograms". The VAT rate applying in this case is 13.5%. This reduction was introduced to specifically aid the Irish greyhound breeding industry as food for dogs and other domestic pets applies at the 23% standard rated.
55. Deputy Eoghan Murphy asked the Minister for Finance his plans to abolish the stamp duty liability incurred by tenants paying more than €30,000 per year; or if he will increase the threshold to reflect rising rental prices. [36690/15]
View answerI take it that the Deputy is referring to stamp duty in leases.
I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that a lease is chargeable to stamp duty on the rent payable under the lease as follows:
|
Residential and Non-residential Property |
Rate |
|
Lease for a term not exceeding 35 years or for any indefinite term |
1% of the average annual rent |
|
Lease for a term exceeding 35 years but not exceeding 100 years |
6% of the average annual rent |
|
Lease for a term exceeding 100 years |
12% of the average annual rent |
I am further advised that a lease of a house or apartment for a term not exceeding 35 years, or for any indefinite term, where the rent does not exceed €30,000 per annum, is exempt from stamp duty, and that Section 1 of the Stamp Duties Consolidation Act 1999 states that the lessee is the accountable person in relation to a lease.
I have no plans to change the basis of liability to stamp duty on leases.
56. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Finance the negotiations that have taken place or are taking place around restructuring Ireland's debt repayments, especially the large portion resulting from the blanket bank guarantee as identified by the Comptroller and Auditor General; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36710/15]
View answerThe Comptroller and Auditor General's (C&AG) Report on the Account of the Public Services 2014 (2014 Report) includes as chapter 3 a report on the Cost of Banking Stabilisation Measures as at end-2014.
The C&AG found that, by the end of 2014, the estimated net cost to the State of measures taken to stabilise the banking system was just under €60 billion. Net investments (after disposals) of just over €61 billion and estimated debt servicing costs associated with the investments of almost €9 billion were offset by net income totalling just over €10 billion from the investments, liability guarantee schemes and associated dividends from the Central Bank. Included in this cost are capital injections that were made under Ministerial direction by the NPRF Commission amounting to €20.7 billion which were funded from the NPRF's own resources and did not require borrowing, lowering the overall impact on general government debt. The overall level of General Government Debt at the end of 2014 is stated to be some €203 billion in chapter 2 of the 2014 Report.
In chapter 3, the C&AG notes that interest on the national debt, together with interest payments on promissory notes, for the period 2009 to 2014 was around €31.7 billion. The €8.7 billion estimated cost of servicing the debt associated with investments to end-2014 (including the imputed debt service costs of the NPRF investments) represents almost 28% of this.
As the Deputy will be aware, in late 2010, Ireland entered an EU - IMF programme of financial support which provided €67.5 billion of loans over the years 2011 to 2013, subject to conditionality being met. Of this amount, €22.5 billion was provided by the IMF, €22.5 billion was provided by the EFSM, €17.7 billion was provided by the EFSF with the remaining €4.8 billion coming from three bilateral lenders - the UK, Sweden and Denmark. The initial terms for these loans were a 7½ year average maturity (7.3 years for the IMF loan) at an average interest rate estimated in 2010 to be 5.8%.
The Government has achieved significant improvements in the terms of our EU-IMF programme loans since they were initially agreed in 2010.
In 2011, we reached agreement to reduce the cost of our loans from the EFSF, the EFSM and the bilateral lenders. It is estimated that these interest rate reductions are worth around 9 billion euro over the initially envisaged 7 ½ year term.
These interest rate reductions, and more recently the early repayment of a large portion - of some 18.3 billion euro - of our IMF loans, mean that we have negotiated real cash savings of over 10 billion euro.
Also in 2011, the average maturity of our EFSM and the EFSF loans was extended to 12.5 and 15 years respectively, and a further extension of up to 7 years was agreed in 2013. This has smoothed our redemption profile, improving long-term debt sustainability, and has had a positive effect on the cost of Exchequer borrowing.
The extension of maturities and the subsequent replacement of the Promissory Notes issued to the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) with a series of longer term Government bonds reduce the State's borrowing requirement by over 40 billion euro over the next decade, thus significantly improving the viability of the State's finances.
On 8 December 2014, the ESM Board of Governors approved the creation of the Direct Recapitalisation Instrument (DRI) in accordance with Article 19 of the ESM Treaty. The operational framework for the DRI, approved on the same date, includes a specific provision in relation to the retroactive application of the instrument. The guideline states that the potential application of the instrument for this purpose should be decided on a case-by-case basis and by mutual agreement. This provided an option of alleviating the burden of some of our bank related debt.
However, unlike back in 2012, the ESM is no longer the only option open to us to recover the money provided to recapitalise our banks. Investors are now willing to support Irish banks again and the market value of our investments has improved accordingly. My overall objective in relation to the State's investment in the banks is to maximise the return to the Irish taxpayer.
57. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Finance the number of freedom of information requests, in tabular form, received by his Department in 2015 to date; the number of these where the period of consideration was completed within four weeks of the receipt of the request; was extended by up to four weeks because the necessary resources to complete the request within the original time frame were not available. [36748/15]
View answerAs of 16th October, 2015 the number of freedom of information requests received by my Department was 354. My Department's electronic system which records receipt and completion of freedom of information requests does not record whether the FOI request was completed within the original 20 working days or whether a further 20 day extension was required. However I can say that 82 per cent of freedom of information requests had response times within the requisite time limits.
I will be satisfied when the response time reaches 100% and in light of this situation, I have asked my Secretary General to prioritise clearance of the current backlog of requests. I am informed by my Secretary General that in addition to the team of people working almost full-time on these FoI requests, banking inquiry and Commission of Investigation requests, further full-time resources have been retained to work exclusively on the outstanding FoI requests including 8 additional Decision Makers being directed to focus on the current backlog, which will be cleared as soon as practicable.
