Results 4,501-4,520 of 36,118 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Appeals (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the time taken to process appeals upheld by Student Universal Support Ireland; his views on whether this time is efficient in view of the length of time students are already waiting for their grants to be processed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11810/13]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Appeals (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the process involved in finalising an appeal upheld by Student Universal Support Ireland; and if he will provide detail on the timeframes involved for each process. [11811/13]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Appeals (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason for the delay in reassessing an appeal which was upheld on 5 February 2013 in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Donegal; the reason Student Universal Support Ireland are advising that appeals upheld by them are generally taking two weeks to process when clearly this is not so; the reason SUSI have advised the applicant...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: Can we get some guidance from the clerk on the amendments that have been ruled out of order for having the potential to impose a charge on the State? I understand a motion was passed in the Dáil that allowed such amendments to be dealt with in the finance committee. Perhaps that is something we might return to it as we deal with the Bill. It can be clarified later. I make the point...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: We all have different views on the Finance Bill but if we are to have a serious discussion we should not be talking about magic beans and pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. Otherwise it will be dismissed and nobody will take anything on board. Deputies Richard Boyd Barrett and Michael McGrath have tabled amendments I do not support and I am sure they do not support some of mine but it...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: We can all be selective in terms of-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I wish to deal with section 3. I will speak to the section when we come to it and I will challenge the Minister's points at that stage.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: My view is like that of the previous speaker. The ESRI report showed that the Government's budgets were not progressive and it took in the totality of the budget. The last report or analysis done attributed as the driving factor the family home tax in explaining why the Government took twice off the lowest income decile compared to half that amount from the highest income decile....

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I concur with what has been said. One always encounters this problem when a cut-off point applies to taxation at a lower rate. I would like to return to the issue of the surcharge for the self-employed. I ask the Chair to facilitate some to-and-fro on the questions because that is the best way of dealing with this matter. At present, a self-employed person over the age of 70 with an...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: That will remain the case following the enactment of this Finance Bill. That person is not being given the lower rate because he or she is self-employed. The reason for this, as the Minister has explained, is that existing anomalies mean self-employed people would have been better off in the absence of the surcharge. That brings me to section 3 of this Bill. The proposed new subsection...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: Section 3 of the Bill, which proposes a new subsection (b)(2), provides that "where an individual has relevant income that exceeds €100,000, the individual shall, instead of being charged to universal social charge on the amount of the excess at the rate provided for in column (2) of that Table [which provides for a rate of 7%], be charged on the amount of that excess at the rate of 10...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: Can the Minister explain what the new subsection means?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I move amendment No. 5: In page 11, before section 5, to insert the following new section:“5.—The Minister shall within 3 months of the passing of this Act prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann an analysis of the tax increases in this Act, and the total of tax increases and spending cuts of Budget 2013, setting out the continuing impact on people based on their gender,...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I agree with Deputy Michael McGrath. The Minister's focus on a cost-benefit analysis is fine. One does not need to carry out a cost-benefit analysis of every section of the Finance Bill. The issues of magnitude which warrant a cost-benefit analysis should be analysed. I want to be careful in my words. The Department has not carried out a cost-benefit analysis of some schemes, to which we...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: The Department has not carried out a cost-benefit analysis of some schemes. For example, it is extending the special assignee relief programme, SARP, but it does not even know how many applied last year. I do not understand the rationale used within the Department which has no figures for the SARP, but it is extending it. It does not know whether it is working.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: The SARP.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: The Department does not have figures for the special assignee relief programme, but it is extending it. However, I will put that to one side. The issue has to do with equality proofing which is done in other jurisdictions; therefore, there is a template available. I do not want the Department to spend hundreds of thousands of euro on cost-benefit analyses or equality impact assessments,...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: The Minister is missing the point and perhaps he is doing so deliberately. This is not about cost benefit analysis. The cost benefit analysis carried out heretofore relates to whether it would be beneficial to the economy to do X, Y or Z. I refer, for example to whether it would be beneficial to cut off legacy property tax reliefs, reduce the rate of VAT and so forth. What we are seeking...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I will move on, because we have had a full debate on this matter. I did not say the Minister had pulled the property tax out of the sky. I am well aware it was in the Thornhill report, in the troika programme and previously in the four-year plan. What I am saying is that I would love to see the analysis that the Minister claims the Department has done with regard to those people in...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Pearse Doherty: Amendment No. 7 is my amendment-----