Results 5,521-5,540 of 7,643 for speaker:Rónán Mullen

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: The Leas-Chathaoirleach should also bear in mind that the Minister of State chose to comment on the recommendation and that that invites a response from me. We are not on Second Stage or Report Stage and I am not trying to hold up the House. However, a stupid convention has come into this House where, if we decide to rush legislation, we will make it difficult for legislators to make their...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: It is a disgrace.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: It is a disgrace.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: I am not someone who jumps up and down or engages in theatrics or tries to get myself thrown out of the Chamber as other people in these Houses have done over the years. I have endured nothing but obstruction from the Chair, even when I have tried to-----

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: -----make points without repeating myself.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: No.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: I was coming to a second substantial point.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: It can hardly be the case on Committee Stage of this legislation that the Minister of State can attack the rationale behind or the implications of my proposed recommendation and that I would not given an opportunity to address it. I would have addressed this point in much shorter order, if I did not have to constantly apologise for still being on my feet. The second substantial objection...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: -----and people might have had views as to its artistic or cultural merit. However, the fact is that the artist exemption was designed to protect those who were at risk of poverty. In reverse order, the two legs of the proposed recommendation were as follows: a person who, in any of the three years preceding the assessment, was in receipt of income in excess €100,000. Such a person...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: No, it was not. It was not.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: No. The difference between the defined benefit and the defined contribution scheme-----

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: I did not give an extensive rationale for the reason the first part of the proposed recommendation deals with public officeholders. There is a very obvious difference between being Member of the Dáil or the Seanad, a judge or the Attorney General, or someone like that, and being in the private sector. It is generally speaking that we are cushioned in a way that people in the private...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: -----and that is the reason. I do not know if the Minister of State is suggesting, for example, that there is some kind of constitutional obstacle to placing this kind of particular burden on public officeholders. There certainly was not a constitutional obstacle to the pension related deduction that was introduced after the financial crash. Therefore, there is a clear rationale and I ask...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: Given that we are borrowing and spending shed loads of money, now is the time to change the improper application of a tax exemption which has been availed of by high earners or people on secure pensions.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: Now is the time to engage intellectually and politically with that proposal. I would ask the Minister of State to consider the recommendation and that the Government might resubmit it on Report Stage.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: I do not agree to it.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: I do not intend to support it because section 5 should be my section 5. I intend to oppose it.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: Votáil.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (16 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: Writing in The Irish Timestoday about the Canada-Europe trade agreement, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, Senator McDowell is rightly critical of what he regards as the cavalier approach of the Government to Oireachtas scrutiny. As we know, CETA would involve giving foreign corporations the power to sue sovereign states outside our legal system through the investor court...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (16 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: Will the Leader take a point?