Results 24,401-24,420 of 27,080 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will also point out that there is a big contrast with the rest of Europe, in terms of how we are treating our PhD researchers in the public system. We are giving all the tax breaks to that few hundred companies, and our PhD researchers live in poverty. In Europe it is the other way round.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Will the whole committee get that?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I agree with this. As the Minister probably knows, I am a long-standing advocate of a wealth tax. We have always included it in our pre-budget submissions. It is long overdue that we introduce a wealth tax. I am sure the Minister is aware that Oxfam proposed something very similar to what People Before Profit proposed. In its calculations, it reckoned that imposing the wealth tax on...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: These three amendments are all focused on the same issue. It is a matter I have raised many times, as the Minister knows. Since the previous Finance Bill, when we debated some of the issues extensively in this committee, the Committee on Budgetary Oversight has produced a report on the section 481 tax relief. That report includes a whole series of recommendations. What the Minister has...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am not mentioning the company or the individual. Without identifying them, I am simply pointing out that this person had worked for the same company in receipt of section 481 relief on multiple successive productions, all funded under the section. His representative group gave evidence to the arts committee here that there was blacklisting and lack of quality employment and training, and...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister can reflect overnight and maybe then he will agree with us.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: There are different aspects to these amendments but all of them revolve around the critical question of quality employment and training, whether it is for actors, writers, directors, performers or crew. I hope the Minister is hearing, because we certainly heard at the budget scrutiny committee where we examined this matter in detail, and it is a matter I have been raising at every Finance...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: When was that? Could the Minister repeat that?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Sorry, can I-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Can we not discuss them as a group? I thought we would discuss them-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Will the Minister have a chance to respond, finally?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is slightly odd that we have done it this way. We are going to go back in after a vote and continue debating the same grouping.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, okay. You are the Chair.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I move amendment No. 23: In page 71, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following: “(4) Within 3 months of the passing of this Act, the Minister will produce a report on how he or she intends to implement the other recommendations in the budgetary oversight committee report in section 481, particularly those regarding ensuring quality employment and training, so as to...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Okay, but I want to finish first.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Do not worry. The rest of the Bill will move along. This is the last chance I will get to say what I want to say. It is systematic and it needs to be addressed. When we are making reference to SPI-ICTU construction agreements we need to recognise that SPI is not registered. This also relates to what is a reasonable suggestion, certainly one that bears consideration, namely, a sectorial...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will be finished in a minute.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will finish in a minute. I have completely lost my train of thought, thanks to that intervention.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: No, I would like to finish the point. I am not against the cap being raised. However, the people who are going to benefit from the raising of this cap are the bigger companies coming in. Very few film productions have even got up to the €70 million. I am not against it but I am pointing out it is not necessarily going to stimulate the Irish film industry, although it may bring...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am finished. By the way, there is no reason to interrupt me because we are allowed to have the time.