Results 3,281-3,300 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Leaders' Questions (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: It is just sad that the Taoiseach makes the distinction. These people are on the point of dying.

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: I move amendment No. 1: In page 11, between lines 11 and 12, to insert the following: "PART 1 TAXPAYERS' ADVOCATE OFFICE 1.—The Ombudsman shall include in her annual report a special report on the overpayment of tax by PAYE taxpayers, and on the take up of credits by such taxpayers, and the branch of her office dedicated to ensuring that the take up of credits is readily available to all...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: I am disappointed that the Minister's reply is so dull and unimaginative. The Minister seems very active with regard to facilitating well-off people who can afford accountants and tax lawyers to engage in tax planning and making it lucrative for them. The Minister will argue that this has its appropriate place in the system. It is sad that the Minister lacks the imagination to see what...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: Deputy Mansergh adores all Fianna Fáil Taoisigh, past and to be. He is only continuing his tradition of incredible adoration of the late Charles J. Haughey——

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: ——his current adoration of the Taoiseach and his loyal adulation of the person whom we presume, according to the current Taoiseach, will be the next Taoiseach. That is all good fun and Fianna Fáil politics. We do not mind that, but we would like a fair deal for the ordinary taxpayer.

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: That is what the amendment is about. I urge the Minister to reconsider.

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: I draw the issue of management companies to the attention of the Minister and his officials. Most of the many thousands of apartments and new housing developments in the greater Dublin region and most towns and cities around the country are subject to management companies which, typically, have charges of €350 to approximately €3,000 per year. If it is an apartment, the normal fee is...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: I move amendment No. 2: In page 11, between lines 11 and 12, to insert the following: "PART 1 COMMISSION ON TAXATION 1.—The Minister shall in establishing the commission on taxation include in its terms of reference the following matters: (a) to examine anomalies arising from the tax treatment of married persons where one spouse remains out of paid employment in order to attend to child...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: We need to consider the matter in some detail. The Minister also made several disastrous decisions off his own bat in previous Finance Bills. The first was the 1% stamp duty on contracts for difference. When representatives of the investment houses and brokers contacted the Minister to say they would not have it, the Dublin exchange became a bubble for contract for difference transactions....

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: The Minister's reply is very disappointing. One of the issues the commission — I noted its imbalanced composition and counted 11 or more persons connected with taxation advisory services of one kind or another — should address is that, unfortunately, we have grown a rather unequal society in recent years where there are millionaires who pay no tax. We have the phenomenon of persons who...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: I knew there were royal connections but I was not quite sure what they were. Does it make it better though?

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: What Deputy Mansergh has said is the clearest evidence of the reason individualisation and its social consequences should be examined in detail. Nobody suggested tax policy was easy. It is always about balancing competing interests. Unfortunately, the commission established by the Tánaiste is very similar to the Cheney commission on the environment in America which was loaded down with...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: Today is 5 March and International Women's Day is celebrated on 8 March. I can understand that perhaps men in Government and in the Government parties are of the view that women are rather contrarian. I have to admit we want it all. We want to be able to be part of the paid workforce and when we have children or responsibilities to elderly relatives we also want to be able to spend time...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: It is right that the State should, as far as possible, promote people's ownership of their own houses. I remind Deputy Mansergh, who is something of a historian, that in 1973 the then Labour Party Minister for the Environment, Jimmy Tully, gave people the right to buy council houses. There has been cross-party agreement that the right to access home ownership is a social good. I suppose we...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: The time has come for the Minister to examine this provision thoroughly. I had a long discussion with the Minister when he introduced it and I hoped that it would help some people providing child care. Many value this service, particularly those who can come home early from work and have a half day's child care every day. It has not worked, however, for various reasons. Some of the...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: There is no reason the Revenue Commissioners could not provide tax relief at source in respect of environmental and waste collection charges. After all, service charges for waste collection, be it by public or private operators, are normally set once or, at most, twice a year. There is some certainty associated with them, which makes it very easy to calculate how much is to be paid and the...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: The Deputy missed the topic of the debate. He was not here earlier.

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: Deputy Finneran has the wrong end.

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: Has the Tánaiste received any advice from his officials in addressing the issue of management company fees? Young people, in particular, pay these fees which include service charges, the accounts or receipts for which they cannot access. Therefore, they cannot obtain this tax relief. I do not know whether the Tánaiste has taken an interest in the phenomenon of management companies and...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Joan Burton: Absolutely.