Results 2,841-2,860 of 7,412 for speaker:Neasa Hourigan

Written Answers — Department of Health: Departmental Investigations (5 Jul 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: 796. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 539 of 16 June 2022, the way that the review team for the Kerry CAMHS look back review was selected; if he will provide clear details of the exact process of appointment undertaken for the entire review team; when each appointment to the team took place; the person in the CHO 4 management team who was responsible for...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Members and all in attendance are asked to exercise personal responsibility in protecting themselves and others from the risk of contracting Covid-19. As numbers are quite high at the moment, we strongly advise members and others in attendance to practise good hand hygiene and to leave some distance between themselves and others attending. They should always maintain an appropriate level of...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: I thank Ms Donaghy. I ask Mr. Alan Carey to give his opening statement.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: I am not sticking very carefully to the time.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Do I have any takers as to who would like to-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: We do not have a long list of speakers so the Deputy can keep going. I would not have expected the witnesses to have read the submissions. We have not made those available to them.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: A little bit.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: I have some questions. If members wish, there will be a second round of questions. First, I would like to do some housekeeping on behalf of the committee relating to the consideration that was given to this matter during the Thirty-second Dáil and the report thereon that was written. The tax strategy group in the Department of Finance subsequently made a report that, from my reading,...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Is that an intractable issue?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Will Ms Donaghy elaborate a little on that? I am aware that sometimes we call things tax reliefs. Why is there a difference in the definitions? Is it because some expenditure does not qualify as requiring the types of reviews a tax expenditure would?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Are they operating in a way that does not align with how tax expenditures operate?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Will Mr. McGann give an example of a benchmark expenditure as opposed to a tax expenditure?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Are they expenditures the Department would not ever expect to have a sunset clause?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: We have been briefed by the PBO on this and we have done our own work but there is a level of ambiguity there between the respective definitions used by the Department of Finance and Revenue. Is that ambiguity serving both organisations well?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Yes, they are policy initiatives.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: I want to hear from the witnesses from Revenue on this issue but, first, I want to clarify something further with Ms Donaghy or Mr. McGann. The eking out, or the creating, of a list that is just policy initiatives would imply that those initiatives change. The information we got from the Department, however, suggests that at least some of these policies have been in place since 1999. They...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: Okay. That differentiation seems rather arbitrary.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: The differentiation between what is a permanent or intrinsic part of the tax system and what is not. I certainly would not suggest that we take away the blind person's tax credit, but an argument could be made that there is a better way of achieving that support. I will bring in Revenue at this point..

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: The key phrase there is that the Revenue would define tax expenditures as anything where taxes are forgone.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Tax Expenditures Review: Discussion (22 Jun 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: I am not asking Ms O’Callaghan to say that. For a layperson, though, this seems to be the situation. The Revenue is taking a broader view in this regard.