Results 9,401-9,420 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: The Deputy does not know how rapidly things move in those last days coming up to the budget.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: I know it is going to be hard to convince Deputy Doherty, but at the end things changed very rapidly. People keep going through the figures, and I am at the receiving end of a set of figures. Every time growth rates are marked up, it changes the tax base for next year significantly. When I was talking to the Deputy whenever we had questions after the Dáil came back at the end of...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: He was cautious too, just in a different direction. He anticipated the thing moving rapidly and moved to allow for it in his submission. It will be more settled next year, I hope, unless we again have growth rates well ahead of what I expect and what is predicted.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: I can get the exact figures, but it actually works the other way around. USC is on a broader base than income tax so a 1% increase in USC brings in more money than a 1% reduction in income tax. That is because the tax breaks that are availed of by some high-income earners are not subject to income tax, but USC applies to them.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: I do not have the figure, but I will get it to the Deputy. There is a bigger take than the relief. We cannot apply a ready reckoner to it because it is only a bigger take if individuals are availing of particular tax breaks. It would be in the individual tax break and the individual comparisons of that.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: The proposal is for a third rate of tax at 48% and that is eight percentage points above the 40% rate which is going to be the top rate from 1 January next after the Finance Bill is passed. The economic effect is on the marginal rate of tax. Before the budget, the marginal rate was 52%, which includes universal social charge, USC, and PRSI, pay related social insurance. This would take the...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: I move amendment No. 2: In page 10, line 7, to delete "and".These are technical amendments to section 2 and deal with the universal social charge. The amendments act to correct references in section 531AS of the Taxes Consolidation Act as a consequence of the changes to the rates of USC that will come into effect from 1 January 2015.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: I move amendment No. 3: In page 11, between lines 10 and 11, to insert the following:"and (d) in section 531AS(1A)--(i) in paragraph (b) by substituting "column (2) of Part 1 or column (2) of Part 2" for "column (2) or (3)", and (ii) in paragraph (c) by substituting "column (2) of Part 1 or column (2) of Part 2" for "column (2) or (3)".".
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: The numbers keep changing. This year was a different type of year. Tax flows began to exceed profile by modest amounts in the first half of the year, but in August there was a big jump in tax receipts. They exceeded profile by approximately €400 million. I signalled that to the Deputy several times. When he was assuming that we were going to have a big correction, I gave him...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: -----it would be less. As we came closer and the figures became clearer, I said that the adjustment would not be much more than €500 million or €600 million. I put that on the record across the floor from the Deputy. In our very last intervention, either in committee or in the House, I went on to say that we would do better than a neutral budget, being €50 million or...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: The Deputy should have known that, with a deficit of 2.4% and every decimal point representing approximately €200 million, we were down €1 billion more than we expected. He is asking me why I did not announce that in advance. First, I did not have an accurate estimate of what growth might be. We were nervous to insert high growth figures. They were checked, checked and...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: When we received the September Exchequer returns on the night of the last day of that month, we saw that, while there had not been a jump similar to August's figures, the levels were being sustained. More than €900 million extra had been collected in tax in 2014 by that point. That trend is continuing, thankfully. There was significant non-tax revenue notified to me at the very end...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: If the suggestion is that the Deputy was deliberately misled or was provided ambiguous answers, I gave him the information I had. Any Opposition spokesperson would have combed the White Paper on the Friday night before the budget.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: I did not arrange the timing of the Deputy's pre-budget submission. It is a recent arrangement that Opposition parties bring out alternative budgets. It was not done for most of the years in the Dáil simply because the Opposition parties did not have the up-to-date information, but neither did the Minister. People waited to design their budgetary approaches, which were delivered in...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: Just in case the Deputy thought I was-----
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: From whom?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: I do not see those. When the Deputy asks for things to be costed, they never cross my desk. I do not know his questions or his answers.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: The ESRI switch model was used to come up with the figure of 15,000. This information can be accessed by the Deputy. I am sure he has accessed it already. I did not suggest in any way that low-paid workers worked less hard than middle income people. As a matter of fact I said that I wanted to use the approach to reductions-----
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: I know the Sinn Féin tactic. Do not try to put-----
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)
Michael Noonan: Do not try to put words in my mouth.