Results 4,721-4,740 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Order of Business (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: Has the Government now decided not to contribute to the National Pensions Reserve Fund?

Order of Business (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: That may require amending legislation and, if so, when will the legislation be tabled?

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: I raised this issue yesterday. I pointed out to the Minister that where a woman is undergoing a course of IVF treatment, that treatment is only available privately and it is very expensive. First, there are detailed medical investigations to find out whether a woman is suitable and, second, people undergoing treatment are advised that they will often need three or more courses of treatment....

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: I am happy to support amendment No. 18. In the course of Committee Stage the Minister spoke on several occasions about how he seemed to see this package as being particularly attractive to people in the financial services sector, such as the IFSC. Given that our economic situation is facing meltdown, does the Minister consider that this is the time to attract more international bankers to...

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: I move amendment No. 19: In page 50, between lines 12 and 13, to insert the following: "16.—Retirees partaking in a private pension scheme may postpone the purchase of an annuity for up to two years.". It is one of those delicious ironies of the parliamentary draftsman that the previous amendments concerned the Minister's decision to reintroduce a remittance scheme for highly paid people...

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: Vanished.

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: It is crazy.

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: Will the Minister make arrangements to have that broadcast fairly widely? People are in fear and trepidation that what they have saved for is literally gone down the Swanee in terms of the money they put into their investment funds. I hope the Minister will be open-minded enough so that if the current falls in the markets continue for more than two years, as it would seem they may do, he...

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: I am unsure if the Minister understands that the financial world as we knew it has changed. Tax-based capital schemes led his predecessor in office, the Taoiseach, Deputy Brian Cowen, to ruin in respect of the economy. It produced activity which, as it turns out, is unsustainable. The contribution of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, and her party, the Progressive...

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: It is a postponement, not a restriction.

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: It is not an abolition.

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: It is a postponement. The Minister's note is wrong.

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: The Minister's note is wrong.

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: The Minister's note is wrong. He is misleading the Dáil.

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: The Minister is misleading the Dáil.

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: On a point of information——

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: —— people are restricted for a year. They carry it forward as the officials ought to have written in the note. The Minister does not know his own provisions.

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: It is wrong.

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: They would be reorganised by now, not ruined.

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (17 Dec 2008)

Joan Burton: This is another example of lobbies that have the ear of the Minister for Finance, which gives rise to legislation that results in significant tax advantages to a select few. When the Minister's predecessor, Deputy Brian Cowen, was finally persuaded that the structure of capital-based tax breaks he had introduced was dangerously damaging the property market and creating a property bubble,...