Results 6,521-6,540 of 36,188 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Yes. I am deeply frustrated at the slow pace of that. There are three things we need to do. The first is that there should be a minimum amount to recognise that in some cases the property's valuation will incur a low local property tax. Three times a low value can result in €270 and over the period between 2024 and 2027 the owner will pay less than €900. Imagine that...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Will the Minister clarify that he does not believe there needs to be a minimum amount of tax applied to a vacant property, as I put forward? I do not believe the Minister has addressed that issue. Does he believe that the minimum amount, which is €270, is sufficient?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Okay. When we are dealing with Estimates we always ask that not just the measures are looked at but also the outcomes of the measures. What measure of success will the Minister use? What proportion of vacant properties does the Minister wish to see reduced in year two year three, and year four to actually measure this is a successful taxation measure?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: For a fella who has taken the guts of half a decade to bring forward a tax that will not apply for another year and a bit, the Minister has not even got a sense in his own head of what the objectives of this are with regard to any measurement. The argument was put forward that the Minister has done nothing about this for years - until the last year really - because he wants to get it right...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I know the methodologies. Everybody knows that. What are the Minister's targets?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: If the level of vacancy does not decrease by at least 10% two years after the tax is liable, does the Minister think that would mean it is a failure or a success?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: If that does not happen, has the scheme failed in its objective?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Will the Minister set targets?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Will he publish the targets?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: There is no reason for the Minister not to have done so before. He has been dealing with this matter for years and we have been calling for him to introduce this measure for years. He has introduced a taxation measure and neither he nor his Department has set targets for want they want to achieve with this measure. This is not a tax-raising measure but one that seeks change. What excuse...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I would say it is absolutely not acceptable. In the teeth of a housing crisis that reply just shows that the Minister has got it all wrong. The reference period has already started but before the legislation has passed, the Minister has come up with a figure for how must tax the measure will raise but he has no idea what outcomes he wants, which is why we in Sinn Féin and others on the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: It will not be done before the Minister leaves his position, as he told us earlier on, so it will not be done before 17 December.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Let me make this point because I do not think the penny has dropped with the Minister during his period as Minister for Finance. We have been in an emergency for years and, as a result, we expect emergency measures. Today, on 16 November, the Minister has said he will be the Minister for Finance for another month and a day but he might not get around to setting targets or having the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I do not know how the Minister can say this measure will work because the only measurement he has set is the amount of tax it will bring in. He and his Cabinet colleagues have no measurement or any other way to measure whether it will work or none that he is willing to offer or write down on a piece of paper during his time as Minister for Finance. I understand why that is the case, and it...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: It will raise €3 million to €4 million.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: What is the average charge?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: There are 166,000 vacant premises. The Minister estimates that approximately 6,000, if not fewer, will be registered?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: We have different numbers regarding all of this. The Central Statistics Office, CSO, has talked about 166,000 vacant properties as per the preliminary results of its census. The Minister expects to get 6,000 of the 166,000 properties the CSO identified. Is that right?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Is there any concern that when the Minister for Finance asked people to tell him how many vacant properties they had so that he could charge them tax, they might have under-represented their properties in their self-assessed forms?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Select Committee (16 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: The Minister is targeting 6,200 properties. Is that what he said? He believes-----