Results 17,061-17,080 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Mortgage Arrears Proposals (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: The banks do not have a veto and will engage with persons who have impaired mortgages in a number of different circumstances, which of course, they do already. There will be face-to-face informal contact between banks and persons with impaired mortgages, which can take the form of speaking to the bank manager or the person who arranged the mortgage in the first instance. Although this is...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Mortgage Arrears Proposals (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: With regard to the role of the Central Bank, as well as establishing the blueprint, which it announced last Wednesday, and laying out the timescale over which impaired mortgages will be dealt with until the position is resolved, it will also supervise and monitor the arrangements being made by individual banks with mortgage holders. It will take a representative sample of the arrangements...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2013 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: The section does not mention any airport so it applies to any airport.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2013 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: This section introduces a scheme of accelerated capital allowances for the construction and refurbishment of certain buildings and structures for use in the maintenance, repair, overhaul or dismantling of commercial aircraft. The tax relief, which will apply under this scheme, will commence by ministerial order and will operate for five years from the date of the order. The relief will...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2013 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: I thank everybody who has contributed to this interesting debate. I am not sure anybody has the complete answer. We have to try. We can see what is happening. There is a real problem with cities and towns throughout the country. The centres of our cities and towns, with exceptions like Dublin, Galway and Cork, are dying. I am not sure what the answer is. I am not sure what degree of...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2013 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: It applies to all airports.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2013 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: If I were to accept this recommendation that business plans be not just submitted but approved, it would require Teagasc to establish an approval process for those claimants of stock relief who had not previously submitted a business plan. In some instances, it may also render ineligible for purposes of claiming stock relief, business plans already submitted to Teagasc or the Minister for...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2013 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: This scheme will not be available to hotels in difficulty. Hotels will only be eligible where they have a three-year marketing and development plan approved by Fáilte Ireland. The operating or management of hotels, guesthouses, self-catering accommodation or comparable establishments will now qualify under the existing scheme, the employment and investment incentive and seed capital...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2013 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: Referring to the recommendation ruled out of order will give us context. The recommendation sought to amend section 381(a)(2) inserted into the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 by section 18 of the Bill. The new section 381(a) concerned one of two measures contained in section 18, both of which relate to those engaged in the trade of dealing in, or developing, land. The other measure concerns...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2013 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: One of my concerns when I introduced the provision to access AVCs was that once access to AVCs was made legal creditors, particularly banks, would force people to access them to pay off debt. This is exactly what the Senators have said. The same considerations apply to any more general access to pension savings. The considerations would be on the one hand to protect the contributor so that...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2013 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: As recommendations Nos. 8 to 13, inclusive, relate to subsections (2) and (6) of section 17 of the Bill as passed by Dáil Éireann, I propose to deal with them together. These subsections deal in one way or another with the temporary rescinding of certain of the provisions included in the Finance Act 2011 relating to the ARF access conditions which were introduced in the context of the...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2013 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: The Central Bank of Ireland is the regulator for prudential and solvency purposes. Typically, insurers, including private health insurers, must satisfy various appropriate prudential requirements. These requirements apply generally to all insurance and financial services companies and relate to matters such as financial operation and investment policies. The Health Insurance Authority, or...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2013 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: The recommendation was put before the Dáil in the form of a proposed amendment. It proposes the preparation of a report on pre-retirement access to all forms of pensions savings in certain unspecified circumstances. The proposal is prompted by the inclusion in section 17 of provisions for limited pre-retirement access to additional voluntary contributions, or AVCs. I made clear in my...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2013 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: It is a follow-up by the Department of Finance on a decision being made by the Department of Education and Skills. The decision by the Minister for Education and Skills was that the student contribution will be increased by ¤250 this year, next year and the year after. That was to ease the financial constraints on the third level sector in that students would make a bigger contribution to...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2013 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: Our difficulty is the open-ended nature of the facility being provided. If people can go privately to a physiotherapist, as they do, and make an unlimited number of appointments, they can claim back that cost for tax purposes. It is open-ended. I would find it very difficult to even cost it. In terms of the control on it, it is allowable provided the GP says, by way of prescription, that...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2013 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: I have figures on the relief for health expenses from 2004 to 2009. In 2004, the cost was ¤110 million; in 2005 it was ¤134 million; in 2006 it was ¤167 million; in 2007 it was ¤226 million; in 2008 it was ¤267 million; and in 2009, tax relief for health expenses other than nursing home expenses is relieved at the standard rate; it dropped to ¤146 million. I will not make a commitment...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2013 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: Like many activities in public administration, we are always measuring the inputs during debates in the Dáil and Seanad but we must start measuring outputs and outcomes. We are moving into that space. The Department was pretty good at that but it has been pre-occupied with crisis management in more recent times. Now it has returned to measuring outputs and outcomes which is important for...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2013 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: We have a different view and we evaluated the provision carefully. Our priority in social protection measures is to maintain the level of the base rates of payment. A lot of things were given when times were better. When there was a lot of money around Finance Ministers had a certain amount of largesse to distribute, sometimes for worthy causes and other times to simply buy votes in the...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2013 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: I thank Senator Barrett. I will read a portion of my speaking note which covers the issues he has raised. Regulatory impact assessment is a tool used to assess the impact of increased regulation arising from legislative change. The key employee provision in this section does not apply automatically to companies. It is available where companies elect to avail of it. As such, it cannot be...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2013 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: I thank Senator Reilly for tabling this recommendation. Her colleague, Deputy Doherty, and I had a long discussion on the benefits of impact assessments, including equality analysis and formulating and evaluating tax policy. I gave him an assurance that I would ask one of my political advisers to look at ways in which equality analysis could be done, especially to examine the Scottish model...