Results 2,541-2,560 of 5,216 for speaker:Mick Barry

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: I will be brief. I have two things to say. First, the Minister says that the Government had a duty and a need to protect the most vulnerable and that was why the pandemic unemployment payment was introduced. The Minister cannot argue that he is protecting the most vulnerable in a dutiful way by trying to tax working people who have lost their jobs in a pandemic. In the vast majority of...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: Who benefits from the help-to-buy scheme? We will deal with the issue of first-time buyers in a moment. It is quite clear that developers gain significantly from this Government policy. It is not even necessary to have studied leaving certificate economics to know that if supply is not matching demand by a long shot, and the Government increases demand with a policy like this, it will...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: I am speaking in support of CRSS. Whether the scheme this is an advance tax credit or a grant, it represents a transfer of wealth from taxpayers to business. If that is to be agreed, there is a strong case for attaching conditions to it. It seems to me that the Minister is not opposed, in principle, to the idea of attaching conditions because the State is attaching a condition for a...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: I move amendment No. 43: In page 19, between lines 23 and 24, to insert the following: “(a) the person can demonstrate that they pay a ‘living wage’ to their employees, (b) the person can demonstrate that they facilitate their employees to join a trade union that has been or will be recognised by them as a body to deal in collective bargaining with employees...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: I move amendment No. 103: In page 26, between lines 30 and 31, to insert the following 12. The Minister shall, within three months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on a levy on large profitable companies to meet the costs of the Covid Restriction Support Scheme and other supports to business.” The amendment seeks a report on a...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: I will be brief in my response because we have a break coming up.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: The item under discussion is the idea of a levy on wealth in order to pay for the various support schemes, although I also indicated that I supported it to help finance other schemes such as the large increase in investment in the public health service. The Minister indicated to me that he was opposed to it on the grounds of international competition. Essentially, the argument was that if...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: The Sunday Timesrich list speaks for itself. The figures I quoted regarding levies on the profits of pharmaceutical companies and private hospitals on the one hand and a tax on wealth of over €1 million on the other hand were both contained in the People Before Profit pre-budget submission this year, which I think the Minister has a copy of, and all the sources are indicated on that....

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: Yes.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: My proposal seeks an increase in the corporation profit tax from 12.5% to 20%. A chorus of people will say, "Oh no, you can't do that", because it effectively doubles the corporation profit tax rate. People never look at this from the other point of view. I mean if the law at the moment says that a company can keep 87.5% of its profits but one changes that to say that a company can keep...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: Last Wednesday afternoon at three minutes to two, baby Grace O'Leary, 6 lb 6 oz, was delivered at Cork University Maternity Hospital. Baby Grace is known in Cork as the picket line baby. Her mother, Claire, has been picketing for seven and a half months now at Debenhams. Many people, myself included, feel that it is a real sign of foot dragging on the part of the Government that the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: The demand is not for the statutory redundancy but for two plus two as the Taoiseach knows. Once again, he has told the House that it is difficult. No one ever said it would be otherwise, but it is a damn sight easier than standing 222 days on a picket line with winter kicking in and the threat of the law hanging over their heads. Previous taoisigh sat in that seat and grappled with far...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (17 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: The Government is trying to dodge artfully a number of key debates. First, an ex-Fianna Fáil Senator is meant to be appointed to SIPO despite being a former lobbyist for the National Association of General Practitioners, NAGP, and despite the fact that SIPO has been asked to adjudicate on the Tánaiste's leaking of confidential documents to the NAGP. That is bizarre, incredible and...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fur Farming (17 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: 895. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if plans will be accelerated to end fur farming given the outbreak of Covid-19 on mink farms in Europe and the move by other European states to accelerate their plans to prohibit the practice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36799/20]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fur Farming (17 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: 896. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of the drafting of legislation to prohibit the practice of fur farming; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36800/20]

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: We are discussing parts of the Bill which provide for tax exemptions for NATO forces and European security and defence forces and other arrangements. One section allows for excise duty to be waived while another allows for VAT to be waived. This applies to canteen facilities, which would include food and drink. This may apply in a variety of circumstance, including when troops are here on...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: I have two points. The Minister has said that Irish neutrality is safe in his hands. He did not say those words but that is the gist of it. The problem here is that I do not believe that. There are other parties and other Deputies in the House, and plenty of people in society, who do not believe that. We could point to many examples, but none that illustrates the point more clearly than...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: The context and the timing are missing from the debate. We are having this debate at precisely when in the past 24 hours there have been key statements from the French President and the German defence minister basically calling for the EU to step up its spending and its emphasis on so-called defence. In reality, this is a push for the militarisation of Europe. That is the background and...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (18 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: Yesterday was a day of mass repression in an EU country, namely, Greece. Up to 6,000 police were mobilised against workers' protests. They used tear gas, water cannons and stun grenades. More than 100 people were arrested, elderly people were beaten on the streets, a communist MP was injured and a journalist arrested. The marches have been called by organisations of the Greek left,...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (18 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: 1. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee that deals with transport will next meet. [35074/20]