Results 7,501-7,520 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: This year's Finance Bill is a product of a Government which has run out of ideas about how to restore the economy, get people back to work, get business moving or get credit flowing from the banks. This Finance Bill, which should mark a turning point in our economic fortunes, is devoid of any real economic plan. The Government remains locked in denial about the failure of its banking...

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: The tax relief on private hospitals was not abolished. It is like the tax relief which is proposed to be abolished regarding child care facilities. They all have end dates which, under qualifying conditions, can be extended. They carry a very long tail life in the tax system of a further 15 years. The Minister should not try to lecture me about what I know is in the tax code. The...

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: -----in such a partisan way and playing politics with the crisis in the banking system, the Government has left small and medium-sized enterprises out on a limb, hanging on by their fingernails for the flow of credit NAMA simply has not generated-----

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: -----and for which there probably is no hope of generation before the end of this year.

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: I go around the country, as does the Minister. I have met people from all kinds of businesses and walks of life and they cannot all be lying. Most of them are frank about mistakes they made and expectations that rose too high. They are very realistic but they cannot get money from the banks.

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: I suggest the Minister delivers on his promise that when he got NAMA through the Dáil, the flow of credit would resume. He was told differently by the IMF-----

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: The Minister's officials obviously knew differently and the Minister decided to keep this House and the taxpayers of Ireland in the dark because, as usual, Fianna Fáil thinks the rest of us are mushrooms that benefit from being kept in the dark. That is what the Minister wants to do - to treat the taxpayers of Ireland like mushrooms. If they are kept in the dark, they will be happy and...

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: There was the freedom of information material. I ask the Minister to consider that. Sometimes he is too much the senior counsel who can sell something clever without actually understanding what it is about. Irish businesses are dying on the street because of what he has done, what Fianna Fáil did with regard to the property bubble and to NAMA and-----

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: -----and what the Minister did at the time of the bank guarantee. Irish households and small businesses are in the grip of a credit famine. Businesses are struggling to get their hands on the money needed to keep paying wages and suppliers. Families looking for a mortgage to set up a home now that houses are more affordable are finding the banks will simply not lend. The banks' reluctance...

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: With the stroke of a pen the taxpayer would have been in for a bounty of tens if not hundreds of millions from the period after the tax loophole was closed down. This is not stupid. If the Minister knew anything about tax, this is one of the most famous cases of tax avoidance during the height of the Celtic tiger. The Minister's predecessor, the Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, commissioned a...

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: No. The Minister has sought to ensure that some banks will pay a minimum amount of tax, but they will be entitled to set off their full losses, whatever way they value them, as will developers. Therefore, for many people in that situation, it may be 30 or 40 years before they every pay tax again, other than nominal amounts they choose to pay under the arrangement the Minister set out...

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: Saving the taxpayer €260 million is a pretty positive contribution-----

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: -----but the Deputy's side did not have the intelligence to pick it up.

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: Fianna Fáil is too stuck into its developer friends. The developers of Ireland own Fianna Fáil, lock, stock and barrel.

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: We did on the night.

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: Yes, we did.

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: Temporarily.

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: Let us look at Anglo Irish Bank, the Government's bank. Let us look at Fianna Fáil's bank, Anglo Irish Bank.

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: The Deputy will have to be sent back-----

Finance Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Feb 2010)

Joan Burton: What happened in Sweden? It recovered.