Irish Finance Minister Pascal Donoho said the teams negotiating Brexit should redouble their “creativity and commitment” to reach an agreement before the end of the year, as officials and governments are currently plagued by the coronavirus epidemic.
Donoho told CNBC on Friday that the importance of the EU-UK negotiations has grown over the past few months as the global economy has been gripped by Covid-19 growth.
“It’s important that we all redouble our efforts and redouble our creativity and commitment to find a way to reach an agreement because of the impact of Brexit on all participants in global trade,” he said. It will be more if we are working with the results of 19, ”he said.
The talks received another shock last week after the resignation of Phil Hogg, Ireland’s European commissioner responsible for trade amid the “golfgate” scandal. This means that the EU negotiating team will shift in the next few weeks.
Donoho said that despite the recent upheaval, negotiations will continue under the leadership of key Brexit negotiator Michelle Barnier, like the December 31 deadline looms.
“There will still be a very strong team within the European Commission, and between Mr Barnier, the Commission and the new Commissioner, whatever it is, I am confident that the Commission’s work will continue to the very high standard that it did under Commissioner Hogan.”
‘Golfgate’
It has been two June days a week for the Irish government with “Golfgate,” a controversy over a dinner hosted by the Parliamentary Golf Society at a hotel in early August that sparked public outrage. More than 80 people from the government and industry gathered for dinner, and in the same week some Covid-19 restrictions were re-imposed.
Hogan, as well as Ireland’s agriculture minister, Dara Clare, resigned after breaking the news.
Following Hogan’s exit, Ireland is now under pressure to field two candidates for the EU commissioner’s job, with possible elections looming around. But doubts remain about whether that person will maintain the business portfolio.
Irish Finance Minister Pascal Donoho at the annual conference of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 26, 2018.
Simon Dawson | Bloomberg | Getty Images
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who heads the EU’s executive arm, said he wanted to be presented with a man and a woman as candidates for the job as part of efforts for a gender-balanced commission.
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coweni, who has been a familiar face in the Brexit talks, and Meredith McGuinness, a member of the European Parliament and vice president, are the names for the role.
Domestic challenges
Closer to home, Donoho faces huge challenges in reviving the economy, as the average number of daily infections has increased, leading to the reintroduction of some restrictions.
The employment wage subsidy scheme is being implemented from this week. It is a renewed version of the provisional wage subsidy scheme, which covered the wage bills of some employers to prevent job losses and was introduced in March as soon as the epidemic broke out. According to the country’s tax agency, the scheme has cost the state more than 2.7 billion euros.
Many sectors of the Irish economy have reopened during the summer, but others are still scattered. Five down buses – those that do not serve – were to reopen on August 31 after a long delay in the lockdown ease schedule, but announcers’ hopes were dashed once again.
The pubs’ industry group marked issues with the new wage subsidy scheme, saying it would exclude some part-time workers and make it mandatory to reopen some pubs if it was unable to retain staff.
On Friday, the government announced an additional મિ 16 million support package for the pub, but this was rejected by industry groups as a “pellet gesture”.
These are all challenges that Donoho will have to answer as he examines the books ahead of the budget statement in October, which will take part in the steps announced in the July stimulus package and plot the way forward.
International pressure on taxes too. At the OECD level, the possible negotiations on a digital tax agreement could be re-elected in 2020, Donoho said.
“I hope that process is reactivated years later, and while I think some kind of agreement is possible in 2020, my own opinion is that you will see some conclusions from this work in the early part.” He said.
Any change in how big tech companies are taxed will affect Ireland, the regional base of big tech companies.
He added, “I think it’s already imperative for all of us to try to find a way to make progress on tax issues without exacerbating trade difficulties.”
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