Results 5,341-5,360 of 27,247 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I have loads of questions but we are going to get a second round, are we not?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Okay. I have a couple of general questions but mostly I want to ask about the film tax credit. In the case of the research and development credit, what market failure is being addressed? It is supposed to address a market failure and it seems to me there is not a market failure, especially for those that are the biggest beneficiaries of it. They are companies that have enormous wealth and...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Okay, but it is primarily going to those big multinational companies. The bulk of the value of this thing is going to big, very wealthy, very profitable multinational corporations and the threat is if we do not give them this tax break they will do that research and development elsewhere. The contrast I always draw is if we put €700 million into our public universities for research...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Okay. One of the things the PBO, in looking at all this, is saying, and I am in agreement, is we are not having a proper evaluation on a regular enough basis of these things and hearing from stakeholders as to the arguments and pros and cons of this. I do not think we are. Ms Donaghy can put that case and I am sure people will put that case but then I think of the fact that educational...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I have read it. I am probably out of time.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Fair enough.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I am pre-empting a bit.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Apologies.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I will do so because the submissions raise some pretty serious questions. They have been put in the public domain. The royalties and residuals are shocking and outrageous. They have publicly made the case strongly that the contracts and conditions of employment for people working on film productions here are significantly worse than in Britain, for example. That is very serious. We will...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, the Screen Guilds of Ireland, the contractors. That is who will draw up the list. That is a problem because the allegation made is that the contractors hire and fire who they want.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Sure. I have read it but the questions are how you get on that database and also concern the tracking of trainees. They have been designating people as trainees on films for yonks. That does not tell me anything has changed. They can put a document in stating they have a certain number of trainees. The big question is whether any of those trainees are working on the next production. Do...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: That would first require a qualification standard and a pathway, which I am pretty sure do not exist. At which point does someone become a props master or a set painter?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I understand.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Can I make an obvious point? There is a problem with that. The big film producers might be a year or 18 months between big productions. When people are laid off at the end of a film production and the same production company makes a new film with a new DAC, the old DAC has expired. If someone does not get employed 18 months later, it is too late to take a case. The DAC under which that...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: These are precisely the issues that need to be discussed. People acquire through the operation of law a contract of indefinite duration when they work a certain amount of time over a certain period for a particular employer. The difficulty in this situation occurs when those cases are taken and the employees go in. Every time, without exception, as we can see from the transcripts of...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Nobody is suggesting that.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I am running out of time. The Government needs to make a decision on this issue and stop batting it back to the WRC. The latter does not know what to do with it. Somebody needs to clarify the situation. The relief is given out with a purpose, which is to support the industry, create a permanent pool of skilled employees and create employment. The Government, using public money, is trying...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Inter-group transactions.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: Mr. Carey might refresh my memory. Is that the list where some of the recipients have, beside the name of the producer company, figures between €10 million and €30 million? It is slightly alarming that we are giving this company somewhere between €10 million and €30 million.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)
Richard Boyd Barrett: I am glad to hear that.