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The Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe has said he will be pushing for changes to the EU Covid-19 recovery fund so countries like Ireland might receive more funding.

Speaking on Morning Ireland, Minister Donohoe said he does not think the EU funding allocated to a country like Ireland reflects the challenges faced here as a result of the pandemic.

Mr Donohoe said change needs to be made and that work will happen at the end of next week.  

“I will be playing my role from an Irish point of view in doing that,” he said.

The newly elected leader of the Eurogroup said it is a time in which very big decisions are being made at EU level and there are always going to be differences of opinion.

He said as great as the challenges are, he is confident they will be able to find common ground.

Mr Donohoe said they have to look at how to get jobs back and national and European economies growing again.

“There is a shared desire to look at how we can get jobs back in the face of huge economic difficulty and getting economies growing again,” he said.

He said he sees the initial focus on trying to find a way to get agreement on the EU recovery fund and then taking care to ensure the right budgetary policies are in place to get people back to work.

He said there is discussion on how to deliver it and said it will be his job in turning that into a reality quickly.

On the issue of a digital tax, he said his overall view is that we do need to change how we tax digital companies.

“They will need to pay more tax now and in the future and Ireland will play its role in doing that,” he said.

Mr Donohoe said it is about finding a way in doing that which does not cause further difficulties to global trade.

“I believe we can get agreement on this matter. I will simply be making the case, let’s find a way of doing it with all the big countries in the world playing their role and reducing their risk for Ireland and Europe,” he added.

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