Results 37,281-37,300 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: Sorry, I was looking at the screen and had not realised the committee had restarted. Will the Chairman return to it?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: I can reintroduce it at Report Stage.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: I would like to ask the Minister about the standards adopted regarding accounting for pensions in the accounts of businesses. The Minister will be aware that the accounting standard dealing with pensions is extremely controversial in requiring a full liability provision. It has meant that many private sector pension funds have gone out of existence. I want to know if in the context of...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: The explanatory memorandum refers to the anticipation of continuing development of International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS, and generally accepted accounting principles, Irish GAAP. This is probably the most difficult and certainly one of the most contentious issues in the field of accounting nationally and internationally because what has happened is that the accounting treatments...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: I am speaking to the general amendments to the section - there are numerous references-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: There are numerous references to accounting standards and to the development of accounting standards and there are references to them as well in the material produced by the Department.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: Amendments Nos. 28 to 36, inclusive, include multiple references to accounting, accounting standards, international financial reporting standards, IFRS and to generally accepted accounting principles, GAAP.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: Chairman, may I say that this is one of the most significant sections in terms of modern accounting and business. In the Bill we are changing what is happening and moving from one set of standards to another, the fact is that because of the devastation that these changes have wrought to lots of people's jobs and pensions in this and other countries, I am simply asking if it possible to get a...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: May I ask a question on amendment No. 36, which deals with a really important point that has large taxation implications? It is a question of fundamental errors, changes and retrospection in accounting. This is one of the major areas in which treasuries lose taxes. Will the Minister outline the policy the Department has taken?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: Chairman, May I ask a question on this important and significant amendment? In this country we have had and have in process a great deal of correction of accounts because we have moved from a situation ten years ago of wholesale collapses which resulted in very significant losses to a lot of companies, including financial companies, in particular. In some cases, we know subsequently - but...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: I thank the Minister for his response but it is foolish to have as a fundamental part of a banking strategy the significant carrying forward of losses without any reduction or mitigations. I was involved in the discussions that resulted in increases in bank levies, which in my view are a relatively poor substitute for taxes. These rules were devised when the banks were mired in massive...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: Based on the position the Minister is taking I assume that if, as Minister for Finance, he is restricting the banking organisations and companies, which were bailed out by the taxpayer and subsidised by the State to an enormous extent, from paying taxation, he will also restrict them paying out dividends.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: I think it is.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: With due respect, I am asking the Minister about his policy approach to the treatment of losses in respect of companies. Very few other European countries allow-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: We are speaking about generally accepted accounted practices. The Minister referenced European models.

Topical Issue Debate: Tax Avoidance (9 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: The recently released Paradise Papers and, before them, the Panama Papers tell a shocking story of the world's wealthiest companies and individuals using secretive offshore tax havens to shelter their wealth from the legitimate tax demands of tax authorities across the world. Ireland's name features in all this, which, like Robin Hood in reverse, seeks to rob the poor, the working class and...

Topical Issue Debate: Tax Avoidance (9 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: I do not know that there is anything new in what the Minister of State has said. I would like to know what new demands, if any, the Minister for Finance has made in respect of the banks since the publication of this information. I refer in particular to those banks which were bailed out at a significant and continuing cost to Irish taxpayers. Was any new initiative undertaken as a...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Staff Remuneration (9 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: 21. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of public and civil servants earning the minimum wage and the living wage; his plans to ensure that all public and civil servants earn the living wage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47235/17]

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Contracts Data (9 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: 30. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of subcontractors that are engaged by State and semi-State agencies in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47234/17]

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Joan Burton: I do not believe there is too much distance between the various arguments being made around the table. Perhaps it might be helpful to look at some principles. One of the first principles relates to someone who is earning a good deal or has a business where that business is making a large profit. If that business is a key domestic business, such as banking, and it is profitable on a current...