Results 17,381-17,400 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Written Answers — Department of Finance: NAMA Debtors (12 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: I am advised by NAMA that it adopts a two-pronged approach to ensuring appropriate, accurate and timely financial reporting by debtors. Firstly, NAMA is imposing a financial reporting rigour on debtors to ensure that management information relating to each debtor’s business is delivered to NAMA. In particular, debtors are subject to on-going reporting requirements in respect of the...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: NAMA Staff (12 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: NAMA advises that it operates a number of safeguards to ensure that staff are equipped to successfully carry out their function on behalf of taxpayers. These safeguards include a rigorous appointments process, which deals fully with any actual or potential conflicts of interest, induction and on-going compliance training, and regular compliance updates. Other safeguards include the NAMA...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Reliefs (12 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: Section 469 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 provides for tax relief at the taxpayers marginal rate (20 or 41%) for expenses incurred in relation to nursing home fees. However, tax relief can only be claimed when an individual has a tax liability in the same tax year as the expenses were incurred. I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that for the tax year 2011, any tax that was...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (12 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: The position is, as I stated in my Budget day speech of 5 December 2012, that from the 1st of July 2013, Maternity Benefit will be treated as taxable income. It should be noted that it is a general principle of taxation that, as far as possible, income from all sources should be subject to taxation. In line with this principle, the majority of social welfare payments are reckonable as...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Disabled Drivers (12 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that Section 134(3) of the Finance Act 1992 (as amended) and Statutory Instrument No: 353 of 1994 (Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers (Tax Concessions) Regulations, 1994 (as amended) provide for permanent relief from the payment of specified maximum amounts of VAT and VRT for persons registered under the scheme. The person (details supplied)...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: We have told the motor trade that we will keep this matter under constant review. I have no problem giving a commitment to review the whole scheme all over again. I am not sure how the issue of the seven-seater family car, for families of four children or more, can be addressed because the basis of the taxation is CO2 emissions. If the CO2 emissions for a seven-seater is the equivalent of...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: Will the Deputy come up with a worked-out formula?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: Will the Deputy please send it to me and we will see what we can do for the next review.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: Many of the concerns expressed by the Chairman are motor tax issues rather than VRT issues. Motor tax is a matter for the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. The changes made by the Minister to the schedule of motor tax have helped to redress some of the Chairman's concerns. Obviously, there is still a distance to go. The significant changes made to the VRT...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: We have to move on this. Deputy Doherty pointed out the difficulty in respect of less-well-off households, but one could have a less-well-off Government as well. It is a question of getting the seed capital to start the programme and finance it up-front; the savings come subsequently. In the strapped financial position we are in, front-loading the expenditure is one of the issues were are...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: One of the initiatives taken last year at a pan-European level was to increase capital in the EIB by €10 billion. Different countries were levied for their contributions. Of course, that €10 billion leverages up an awful lot of extra activity, because that is just the seed capital. The EIB will not fully fund a project. It works on the basis of partnerships, which can be...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: I move amendment No. 78: In page 122, lines 28 to 32, to delete paragraph (a) and substitute the following:“(a) in paragraph (d)(ii) by substituting “a vehicle that, at all stages of manufacture, is classified as a category N1 vehicle with less than 4 seats and has, at any stage of manufacture,” for “a category N1 vehicle that, at the time of manufacture, has less...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: This is an interesting discussion and I do not disagree with much of what Deputy Boyd Barrett has said, such as his proposal on applying the costs of energy conservation measures to the electricity bill. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has had discussions along these lines with the ESB. I do not know the state of the discussions at present, but it is an idea...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: There are also days we cannot turn it on. I nearly got hypothermia in the Dáil during the debate on the property tax. It was freezing in there.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: I am conscious of many of the arguments being put forward by Deputies, which is the reason this is being phased in over a long period. An effective date of 1 May in practical terms means that the increase will not apply until September or October, when they commence purchasing solid fuels for the winter period. When it is further increased in 2014, there will not be a full year effect until...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: The section provides for the application of the carbon tax to solid fuels. The purpose of introducing carbon tax was to send a price signal that there was a cost associated with the consumption of fossil fuels to the detriment of the environment. It should also be noted that solid fuels have the highest carbon content of all fossil fuels and are considered the dirtiest fuels. Given the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: These all are legitimate concerns. We would be conscious of the cross-Border issue. Of course, we are operating on two axes on the cross-Border issue: the excise, which we control, but also the variations in the relative value of sterling, which is probably a bigger driver. At present, the latter is moving in the wrong direction in terms of cross-Border trade. We have to watch the two....

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: We will keep an eye on all these concerns.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: It is another excise increase. There had been no general excise increase on alcohol products since 1994. In the circumstances in which we find ourselves it is legitimate to increase excise duty on alcohol. First, it involves discretionary expenditure. Rather than increase tax where people had no choice but to pay it, it was decided to tax items where there was real choice, as in the case...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2013)

Michael Noonan: We will examine it.