Results 6,281-6,300 of 35,575 for speaker:Pearse Doherty
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: We can deal with this in a minute, but the public are hearing about soft costs and hard costs. It is sometimes difficult to understand if you are not involved in the industry. Can we just talk about what people understand? What will be the impact of this levy on the all-in cost of a house now? I would argue the message being portrayed is that it is between €400 and €800,...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: Okay, so it is not-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: Thus, the upper end is €1,100, which, in fairness, is not far off the €1,200 figure the SCSI has presented. The Department calculated those costs using tender returns. The officials may correct me if I am wrong, but this seems a bit bizarre but they have excluded the impact on costs caused by the hyperinflation we are seeing.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: They have excluded temporary works. They have excluded the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. They have excluded abnormal ground conditions.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: The officials have looked at the tender costs and said if all these things did not happen, this is what the tender cost would be and then applied the 5% levy.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: Just explain the methodology.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: Okay.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: Mr. Armstrong is saying he and his colleagues have ignored even the projected inflation we all know is happening next year. Is that correct?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: The levy does not apply now; it will not apply until next September. Have the officials just ignored the fact prices are going up?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: Okay. Was it factored in?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: So the impact of the levy will increase.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: So is it the case the impact of the levy is likely to increase the costs of a dwelling potentially beyond the upper limit of €1,100, given we are going to see construction inflation increase between September, when the Department took the snapshot, and the levy taking effect a year later?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: Yes.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: Does Mr. Armstrong acknowledge inflation is happening in the construction sector? Does he acknowledge what the CIF has told us about further increases-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: -----with concrete and therefore the impact on house prices of this levy will be greater by the time it is introduced than what is in this report? I appreciate this is a snapshot in time but the real politics of this is that it is going to cost more.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: Then rising energy costs are also-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: Okay. The Department has excluded rising energy costs as well. Is that also excluded from September on?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: Okay. It is the same idea, is it? The Department is just taking a snapshot in time.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: Okay. We have concluded the all-in costs are in the region of the Department's upper limit of €1,100. However, those are based on September prices and given construction inflation they are likely to increase by the time this takes effect. Is that fair?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Concrete Block Levy: Discussion (26 Oct 2022)
Pearse Doherty: I appreciate the clarity on that. This is based on a Cabinet decision made over a year ago and outside the officials' bailiwick. As officials in Departments, however, they must give advice to the Ministers on how to give effect to the decision to have an industry contribution. What type of options did they provide to the Ministers on an industry contribution? One of them is the levy...