Home > Dail Eireann debate. Priority Question 3. Ministerial meetings [Tobacco industry] [1756/14].

[Oireachtas] Dail Eireann debate. Priority Question 3. Ministerial meetings [Tobacco industry] [1756/14]. (16 Jan 2014)

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 3. Deputy Joe Higgins asked the Minister for Finance if he will report on his meetings in 2013 with representatives and lobbyists from the financial services industry, the tobacco industry, the property industry and any other industry representative groups.  [1756/14] 

Deputy Joe Higgins: Could the Minister report on meetings he had in 2013 with representatives and lobbyists within the financial markets system, the tobacco industry, the property industry and other industry groups? This is all the more relevant in view of the information in recent days about the nauseating gouging of the Irish taxpayer by company consultants to Irish Water to the tune of €50 million.
 
Deputy Michael Noonan: Throughout the course of 2013, I engaged in a large number of meetings with a wide variety of economic and social representative groups. These meetings involving Department officials and I with representative groups are an important input into my work as Minister for Finance. They provide an opportunity to consider the key issues for a wide range of economic stakeholders in as efficient manner as possible. The following meetings are but a small sample of those which I have engaged in over the course of last year as they refer only to what can be categorised as meetings with representatives and lobbyists from the financial services industry, the tobacco industry, the property industry and any other industry representative groups, which was the key theme of the question.
 
On 7 May 2013, I along with the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice and Equality met with the Irish Tobacco Manufacturers' Advisory Committee. The meeting concerned a general discussion on the smuggling of tobacco and its social and fiscal impact. On 12 June 2013, I met with Mr. Kevin Murphy, chair, and Mr. Pat Lardner, CEO, of the Irish Funds Industry Association, IFIA, while attending the IFIA Global Funds Conference at the Four Seasons Hotel. I was there to deliver an address to the conference. The meeting with the representatives of the IFIA was a courtesy meeting and took place on the fringes of the conference. The issues discussed were of a general nature, principally concerning the economy and the financial sector. On 24 July 2013, I met with the Small Firms Association. The discussion related to its pre-budget submission, which is available on its website. Among the topics discussed were employment costs, support for SME investment and job creation, access to funding, making work attractive, balancing the budget and the local property tax........
 
In addition, during the months of September and October as part of the budget 2014 process, I engaged in meetings with a number of representative groups including the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation, Retail Ireland, the Vintners' Federation of Ireland, the Licensed Vintners Association, Property Industry Ireland, the Irish Farmers' Association, the Construction Industry Federation and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association. In addition to these pre-budget meetings with industry groups, I also held meetings with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the Community and Voluntary Pillar, the Irish Heart Foundation and the Irish Cancer Society.

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