Results 421-440 of 483 for speaker:Edward Timmins
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed) (23 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: And high incomes as well. That brings me to the ratio of the price of a house versus the average income. I did a quick search, and that ratio has increased by 18% in Ireland over the last ten years. I do not know if the statistics are right. That is if you take 2015 as your base year. Looking at the profile across Europe, it seems to be a Europe-wide problem. Portugal is 58%. The...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed) (23 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: Maybe Portugal is a bit freakish and an outlier, but has NERI looked at other European countries? What is the underlying cause of this? Is it our booming economy? Is it the massive number of highly qualified people coming into the country and competing for houses? What are the underlying causes? Have they looked at unique issues in relation to Ireland versus countries? It is purely a...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed) (23 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: On that indicator I looked at there we are not an outlier-----
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed) (23 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: What is the answer to it then?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed) (23 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: Housing supply.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed) (23 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: I am sorry to interrupt. Germany had a housing target of 400,000 last year. It built 220,000 houses. They grossly undershot their targets like we did. Is supply the main solution as Mr. Nugent sees it?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed) (23 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: One of the questions I was going to ask has been asked by Deputy Fleming. Will Mr. Brady elaborate on multiannual funding? I know what it means, and that private companies want certainty for five- or ten-year projects. This is so they will be sure the funding will be coming on stream and can plan ahead with training, staff or permanent offices, knowing that a project will continue long...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed) (23 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: Does Mr. Brady see any way to increase labour participation in the existing workforce? I know we are at full employment. We have a very low take-up of people with disabilities. We have the lowest rate in western Europe, with one in three versus well over 50% in many other countries. Does Mr. Brady see this or other ways of improving labour participation? Does he have thoughts on it?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed) (23 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: Are there other areas where we could talk about retraining people and improving things in that way?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed) (23 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: Our international competitiveness is still quite high but we have fallen a little bit, to perhaps seventh place now. Is there any particular reason for this? What should we be doing to arrest it?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed) (23 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: Does Mr. Brady have any suggestions or gems of wisdom about how we could deliver infrastructure more quickly? We have thrashed this out here with many people over the last few months. Does Mr. Brady have any particular bugbears?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed) (23 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: What role will IBEC have in implementing the action plan on competitiveness and productivity, which was published in July? What role will it have in making sure that is implemented?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2026 Engagement (Resumed) (24 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: I thank Deputy Fleming for covering two of my questions. I also thank the Ministers. I understand what a difficult job they have to do. I have some quick-fire questions for the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, first. I encourage him to maximise what can be put away in the rainy day fund. How much is it planned to put away in 2026?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2026 Engagement (Resumed) (24 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: I also encourage the Minister to index the income tax bands and the tax credits. I appreciate that he cannot give me an answer on this today. It is simply to protect pay increases and would result in no loss to the Exchequer because inflation eats away at pay increases. If someone gets a 5% pay increase with 5% inflation, without an increase in the tax bands, they will actually be worse...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2026 Engagement (Resumed) (24 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: I understand that.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2026 Engagement (Resumed) (24 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: I understand that. My point is that it is not a cost to the Exchequer because it is just indexing. In regard to inheritance tax, I hope that one option is that the principal private residence would be exempt. That is just something to consider. Can we look at doing more detailed long-term budgeting? I acknowledge we have five-year programmes but can we do more detailed long-term...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2026 Engagement (Resumed) (24 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: I have two more quick-fire questions, although the clock is against me.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget 2026 Engagement (Resumed) (24 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: I understand that. The Central Bank said yesterday that an underlying deficit of €13.7 billion is projected for 2027. We should look at mitigating that now. Second, in regard to capital expenditure, does the Minister, Deputy Chambers, believe more outputs-----
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pension Provisions (25 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: 89. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to review the contributory pension entitlement of someone with fewer than 520 contributions; and to grant those recipients a pro rata pension. [50762/25]
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pension Provisions (25 Sep 2025)
Edward Timmins: I ask the Minister to review the contributory pension entitlement for someone with fewer than 520 contributions and look to give them a pro rata pension. This policy imposes a cliff-edge cut-off. It is very unfair. Someone with 519 contributions gets nothing but 520 would entitle them to get between €99 and €120 per week, and sometimes much more.