Results 2,661-2,680 of 5,216 for speaker:Mick Barry

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: Last Wednesday afternoon at three minutes to two, baby Grace O'Leary, 6 lb 6 oz, was delivered at Cork University Maternity Hospital. Baby Grace is known in Cork as the picket line baby. Her mother, Claire, has been picketing for seven and a half months now at Debenhams. Many people, myself included, feel that it is a real sign of foot dragging on the part of the Government that the...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fur Farming (17 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: 895. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if plans will be accelerated to end fur farming given the outbreak of Covid-19 on mink farms in Europe and the move by other European states to accelerate their plans to prohibit the practice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36799/20]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fur Farming (17 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: 896. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of the drafting of legislation to prohibit the practice of fur farming; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36800/20]

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: We are discussing parts of the Bill which provide for tax exemptions for NATO forces and European security and defence forces and other arrangements. One section allows for excise duty to be waived while another allows for VAT to be waived. This applies to canteen facilities, which would include food and drink. This may apply in a variety of circumstance, including when troops are here on...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: I have two points. The Minister has said that Irish neutrality is safe in his hands. He did not say those words but that is the gist of it. The problem here is that I do not believe that. There are other parties and other Deputies in the House, and plenty of people in society, who do not believe that. We could point to many examples, but none that illustrates the point more clearly than...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: The context and the timing are missing from the debate. We are having this debate at precisely when in the past 24 hours there have been key statements from the French President and the German defence minister basically calling for the EU to step up its spending and its emphasis on so-called defence. In reality, this is a push for the militarisation of Europe. That is the background and...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: On the issue of the taxation of pandemic unemployment payments, I would like to add my voice to the points that have been raised by Deputy Doherty. The payments were introduced under section 202 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act, which makes it clear that payments made under that section are to be exempt from taxation yet the Minister is asking us to agree to retrospectively tax those...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: I will comment on the line of argument that we are not talking about big sums of money here. I accept that for many people, €340 paid back over a period of four years is not going to break the bank. However, for a very significant number of people, €340, even if it is spread out over four years, is something they will feel and something that will hurt them. There are people...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: I will be brief. I have two things to say. First, the Minister says that the Government had a duty and a need to protect the most vulnerable and that was why the pandemic unemployment payment was introduced. The Minister cannot argue that he is protecting the most vulnerable in a dutiful way by trying to tax working people who have lost their jobs in a pandemic. In the vast majority of...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: Who benefits from the help-to-buy scheme? We will deal with the issue of first-time buyers in a moment. It is quite clear that developers gain significantly from this Government policy. It is not even necessary to have studied leaving certificate economics to know that if supply is not matching demand by a long shot, and the Government increases demand with a policy like this, it will...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: I am speaking in support of CRSS. Whether the scheme this is an advance tax credit or a grant, it represents a transfer of wealth from taxpayers to business. If that is to be agreed, there is a strong case for attaching conditions to it. It seems to me that the Minister is not opposed, in principle, to the idea of attaching conditions because the State is attaching a condition for a...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: I move amendment No. 43: In page 19, between lines 23 and 24, to insert the following: “(a) the person can demonstrate that they pay a ‘living wage’ to their employees, (b) the person can demonstrate that they facilitate their employees to join a trade union that has been or will be recognised by them as a body to deal in collective bargaining with employees...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: I move amendment No. 103: In page 26, between lines 30 and 31, to insert the following 12. The Minister shall, within three months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on a levy on large profitable companies to meet the costs of the Covid Restriction Support Scheme and other supports to business.” The amendment seeks a report on a...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: I will be brief in my response because we have a break coming up.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: The item under discussion is the idea of a levy on wealth in order to pay for the various support schemes, although I also indicated that I supported it to help finance other schemes such as the large increase in investment in the public health service. The Minister indicated to me that he was opposed to it on the grounds of international competition. Essentially, the argument was that if...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: The Sunday Timesrich list speaks for itself. The figures I quoted regarding levies on the profits of pharmaceutical companies and private hospitals on the one hand and a tax on wealth of over €1 million on the other hand were both contained in the People Before Profit pre-budget submission this year, which I think the Minister has a copy of, and all the sources are indicated on that....

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: Yes.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: My proposal seeks an increase in the corporation profit tax from 12.5% to 20%. A chorus of people will say, "Oh no, you can't do that", because it effectively doubles the corporation profit tax rate. People never look at this from the other point of view. I mean if the law at the moment says that a company can keep 87.5% of its profits but one changes that to say that a company can keep...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Driver Test (12 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: To be clear, the Minister of State indicated that some driving instructors are opposed to this. There are 2,000 driving instructors in the State. I am not in a position to say that every single one of them is opposed to this, but I am aware that the broad mass of those 2,000 driving instructors oppose what is going on here. It is not just some driving instructors - the Minister of State...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Driver Test (12 Nov 2020)

Mick Barry: We are not asking that parents be allowed in to test centres to use the facilities. We are asking that instructors be allowed in. That is the issue here. The Minister of State indicated this is an operational matter for the RSA. The drivers have chosen to join a union. Whatever about wanting to talk to the RSA, the union wants to talk to the Minister of State. It has written to her on...