Results 2,421-2,440 of 26,783 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I do not have a problem with small and medium enterprises getting money from the €753 million but I have a big problem with companies that are posting staggering profits getting it. Can the Minister tell us, not the number of companies that benefit, but what proportion goes to certain companies? We know that much of our corporate tax revenue comes from a small number of companies....

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Will the Minister repeat the point? Is it €553 million of €753 million?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Of which there are 200.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: So 200 companies get €559 million.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am sure they get a tax break on that as well.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It did not surprise me.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The issue has been well aired and I am glad I asked the questions, but I do not agree with this measure. I did not know the exact figures, but I speculated that it was overwhelmingly going to the most profitable companies. That has turned out to be the case. The vast majority of the credit is going-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will come to that point. It is a fair point.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We do.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank Deputy English for his-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Absolutely.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, but these points are being made, so for the record, I want to see more money being put into research and development. I do not want to see more money being put into the pockets of those 200 companies because they have enough. I will make the point, when we consider all of this in the round, that there should be a general acceptance that our economy, and economic and industrial model is...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will also point out that there is a big contrast with the rest of Europe, in terms of how we are treating our PhD researchers in the public system. We are giving all the tax breaks to that few hundred companies, and our PhD researchers live in poverty. In Europe it is the other way round.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Will the whole committee get that?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I agree with this. As the Minister probably knows, I am a long-standing advocate of a wealth tax. We have always included it in our pre-budget submissions. It is long overdue that we introduce a wealth tax. I am sure the Minister is aware that Oxfam proposed something very similar to what People Before Profit proposed. In its calculations, it reckoned that imposing the wealth tax on...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: These three amendments are all focused on the same issue. It is a matter I have raised many times, as the Minister knows. Since the previous Finance Bill, when we debated some of the issues extensively in this committee, the Committee on Budgetary Oversight has produced a report on the section 481 tax relief. That report includes a whole series of recommendations. What the Minister has...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am not mentioning the company or the individual. Without identifying them, I am simply pointing out that this person had worked for the same company in receipt of section 481 relief on multiple successive productions, all funded under the section. His representative group gave evidence to the arts committee here that there was blacklisting and lack of quality employment and training, and...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister can reflect overnight and maybe then he will agree with us.

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Budget 2024 (26 Oct 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 12. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he is considering a revision to budget 2024, given the context of the wide range of inflation projections for 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46960/23]

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Budget 2024 (26 Oct 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 32. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he expects to revise funding for any public services in 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46958/23]