Results 6,201-6,220 of 7,082 for speaker:John Paul Phelan

Local Government (Rates) Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: I move amendment No. 23: In page 20, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following: “ 4 53 & 54 Vict. c. 30 Poor Law Acts (Ireland) Amendment Act 1890 Section 2 5 61 & 62 Vict. c. 37 Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 Section 62”.

Local Government (Rates) Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: I move amendment No. 24: In page 20, to delete lines 16 to 21 and substitute the following: “ 4 No. 27 of 1930 Local Government (Dublin) Act 1930 Section 63 (other than subsection (4)), 71 5 No. 5 of 1941 Cork City Management (Amendment) Act 1941 Section 16 (other than subsection (4)), 20”.

Local Government (Rates) Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: I move amendment No. 25: In page 20, to delete lines 24 and 25 and substitute the following: “ 7 No. 24 of 1946 Local Government Act 1946 Section 14, Section 18 (other than subsection (3))”.

Local Government (Rates) Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: I move amendment No. 26: In page 20, to delete lines 31 to 35 and substitute the following: “ 10 No. 37 of 2001 Local Government Act 2001 Clause I of subparagraph (i) of paragraph (b) of subsection (7) of section 103, Part 19A”.

Local Government (Rates) Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages (3 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: I move amendment No. 27:In page 21, to delete lines 1 to 8.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Property Tax (4 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: The Government remains committed to ensuring that the local government sector retains a sustainable and stable source of funding from LPT to enable the delivery of essential services, particularly in a time of increasing demands on local authorities. Taxation policy, including local property tax policy, is in the first instance, a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Finance and Public...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Members' Remuneration (9 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: As a result of feedback from local authority elected members and their representative bodies regarding their current remuneration regime, my colleague, the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, and I agreed to the appointment in June 2018 of Ms Sara Moorhead SC to carry out a review of the role and remuneration of local authority elected members. Ms...

Seanad: Local Government Rates and Other Matters Bill 2018: Second Stage (9 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: I am very pleased to bring this important Bill before the Seanad. The purpose of the Bill is to modernise the commercial rates system. Commercial rates make up approximately one third of local government current income every year and are the single largest income source for local authorities, providing income of almost €1.5 billion per annum, between 15% and 53% of total funding for...

Seanad: Local Government Rates and Other Matters Bill 2018: Second Stage (9 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: I will try to respond to the issues that have been raised. Some of my answers might be specific, and I might attribute other issues to the incorrect Senator, so I ask people to bear with me. Almost every Senator spoke in support of the basic provisions of section 15, which provides for the introduction of alleviation or waiver schemes. Senator Murnane O'Connor was the first to speak on...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Referendum Campaigns (10 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: At its meeting on 5 February 2019, the Government agreed that the preferred option to be put to the people in a referendum to extend the franchise at Presidential elections is for an extension of the franchise to all citizens resident outside the State, including citizens resident in Northern Ireland. More recently, at a meeting of the Government on 11 June 2019, the general scheme of a...

Seanad: Local Government Rates and Other Matters Bill 2018: Committee and Remaining Stages (10 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: It was Monaghan.

Seanad: Local Government Rates and Other Matters Bill 2018: Committee and Remaining Stages (10 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: I am not in a position to accept the amendment, not so much due to time pressure but for the reasons given by Senators Coffey and Humphreys. Phased decreases would certainly be illegal and would be challenged in the courts by any business.

Seanad: Local Government Rates and Other Matters Bill 2018: Committee and Remaining Stages (10 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: Yes, phased decreases would be illegal. Senator Norris may have been slightly wrong. Decreases in rates are accepted and the revaluation process will produce decreases. One section in the Bill proposes that decreases would become instantly applicable and the rate book would change immediately. Senator Norris's concerns are already addressed in the Bill in that sense. If, for example, a...

Seanad: Local Government Rates and Other Matters Bill 2018: Committee and Remaining Stages (10 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: -----any proposal to phase in that decrease would certainly be challenged in the courts. The shopkeeper would ask why he or she is paying €7,000 one and half years after the new valuation had been set.

Seanad: Local Government Rates and Other Matters Bill 2018: Committee and Remaining Stages (10 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: That is the point I am trying to make. I have no problem with what the amendment is trying to achieve, but the reality on the ground is that this is implemented wholesale across the country. I was in Donegal County Council with some of my officials last week or the previous week. The first thing I always raise when I visit a local authority is the rate of rates collection. The Donegal...

Seanad: Local Government Rates and Other Matters Bill 2018: Committee and Remaining Stages (10 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: I agree with Senator Murnane O'Connor, but Carlow County Council already has the freedom to do that. The situation varies from county to county on whether such a power is exercised by the members, through the management. All local authorities will work with ratepayers who are in distressed situations if the ratepayers engage with them to devise an appropriate payment plan. One of the...

Seanad: Local Government Rates and Other Matters Bill 2018: Committee and Remaining Stages (10 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: Yes. First, I am not sure in what context Senator Gavan is speaking but Irish Water do not pay rates yet. It is envisaged in the immediate term as part of the provisions of this Bill, particularly in respect of the changes to the existing section 56 of the rates legislation, that Irish Water will start to pay rates. That is one of the time sensitivities to this. Some local authorities...

Seanad: Local Government Rates and Other Matters Bill 2018: Committee and Remaining Stages (10 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: -----we would have seen over the years. I do not disagree with her at all but there is a twofold answer. First, and I accept it is not uniformly exercised across the country, the provision for councils to take account of difficulty to pay is exercised by many local authorities. I gave a particular example of work done in Donegal where, in the teeth of the recession, a conscious effort was...

Seanad: Local Government Rates and Other Matters Bill 2018: Committee and Remaining Stages (10 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: I did not say that.

Seanad: Local Government Rates and Other Matters Bill 2018: Committee and Remaining Stages (10 Jul 2019)

John Paul Phelan: No. The ultimate power is being given to the Minister. A similar provision was in existence until the 1980s, when it was last used. I am not sure when it was removed from legislation. The provision allowed the Minister a power of limitation on the setting of the ARV, which is the annual event that takes place at the budget meeting, as the Senator outlined. Essentially, however, the...