Results 2,041-2,060 of 7,582 for speaker:Rónán Mullen

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Report and Final Stages (16 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: The proposed recommendation No. 3 relates to the recommendation I sought to introduce on Committee Stage and is similar to recommendation No. 2, which has been ruled out of order. I note your ruling, a Chathaoirligh, and the explanation which I received from you on the grounds that it could involve a charge upon the people or upon the Revenue, as per Standing Order 41. I note that you stated...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Report and Final Stages (16 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: More honoured in the breach.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Report and Final Stages (16 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: I thank the Minister of State for his extensive response. He covered a lot of ground at great speed. It did him no harm. I will certainly read up and reflect on everything he has said. I am very grateful to him for establishing the number of taxpayers with incomes in excess of €100,000 who availed of this exemption and for providing that figure of €1.7 million, which is a...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Report and Final Stages (16 Dec 2020)

Rónán Mullen: It is at least €1.7 million because the figure does not include those who may be on very significant salaries just under €100,000 who are availing of this tax exemption and who may be public officeholders and so on. I ask the Minister of State and the Government to look at this issue. There is currently a significant drain on the public purse, to say the very least. People...

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

Rónán Mullen: If I may address this point, I had arranged with the Cathaoirleach that I would do so. There is an error in the ruling. This is an issue the Minister of State may also very well be interested in. The purpose of the amendment is to address an abuse, as I see it, in the current availing of the artists' tax exemption. The effect of my recommendation, of course, because it is not an amendment...

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

Rónán Mullen: Here is the point. This was a provision of the tax code designed to prevent artists from starving in the garret. The reason I believe this is wrongly decided is that Standing Order 41, under which the recommendation has been ruled out of order, states: "An amendment to a Bill, which could have the effect of imposing or increasing a charge upon the people or upon the revenue, may not be...

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

Rónán Mullen: Here is the point. What it states is "which could have the effect of imposing or increasing a charge upon the people". It does not state imposing or increasing a charge upon people and it does not state imposing or increasing a charge upon any person.

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

Rónán Mullen: That is not the point. The issue is not what the recommendation is about. The issue is whether this is a recommendation that can be properly excluded under the terms of the Standing Order 41. If the Leas-Chathaoirleach bears with me, I will explain. A charge "upon the revenue" clearly means a lessening of revenue coming in. This recommendation of mine does not propose a tax break.

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

Rónán Mullen: Please, Leas-Chathaoirleach, if you do not mind bearing with me. A charge upon the people means a public expense. An increase of a charge upon the people means an increase in that public expense. The narrowing of an exemption under the tax code is not the imposition or the increase of a public expense. It is not a charge upon the people.

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

Rónán Mullen: I am happy to go with that but I will say in conclusion-----

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

Rónán Mullen: We are dealing with a situation here where there are already considerable restrictions on what the Seanad may do on money Bills and that is understandable because we are not as directly elected as the Dáil. In this context it surely means within this limitation we should, therefore, otherwise have the broadest latitude. Where there is an ambiguity in the meaning of the Standing Order,...

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

Rónán Mullen: I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach. I do realise he has to do what he has to do within the limitations imposed by the fact the Cathaoirleach wrote me the letter, as it were. I thank Senator Higgins for her intervention on this point. In general terms, we are already very constrained in that we are only allowed to propose recommendations.

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

Rónán Mullen: The section should not pass in my view without a recommendation of this type being included. As Senators will be aware, the so-called artists' tax exemption was originally introduced by Charles Haughey, the former Taoiseach, when he was Minister for Finance in 1969. When he spoke later in his life, in an interview in 2003, he spoke about the thinking behind this exemption. He said it was...

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

Rónán Mullen: I promise-----

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

Rónán Mullen: I have no intention to detain the House. I sat through a very interesting and important exchange on the previous section. We have had a problem before with legislation going through the House in very short order where Ministers do not have time to engage with proposals that might be the subject of a Government amendment on Report Stage. I ask the Leas-Chathaoirleach's indulgence briefly....

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

Rónán Mullen: No, please a Leas-Chathaoirligh, I ask you to bear with me. It would result in a small number of the 3,000 or more people who quality for the exemption being excluded in future years. This would not save the State a significant amount of money. However, from the perspective of the integrity of our taxation system, particularly at a time of economic hardship for so many, it would send an...

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

Rónán Mullen: Section 195 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 has been amended regularly - on at least ten occasions in the past 15 years. There is considerable precedent for the scheme being tweaked, based on new developments or on the financial circumstances of the State.

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

Rónán Mullen: Thank you, a Leas-Chathaoirligh. I move on briefly to the successful applicants under the scheme. As I said, my issue with the operation of section 195 is that a number of people with high incomes are availing of the scheme. Revenue has published a list of those granted the exemption from 1998 onwards. You will be amazed by this a Leas-Chathaoirligh. One serving public officeholder with...

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

Rónán Mullen: It gets worse, a Leas-Chathaoirligh.

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

Rónán Mullen: One prominent broadcaster with a salary of €495,000 has been granted the exemption three times.