Results 26,781-26,800 of 35,894 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: It is clear that any commercial refurbishment that was done required one also to refurbish the living quarters and to live in them. The Minister of State mentioned that such applied to Georgian houses. It also applied to relevant houses, which was classified as pre-1915 houses which were two storey also. My point is anybody who was to avail of this relief up until now had to refurbish a...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: That is fine but let us stick to the facts here.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: The scheme in two different Finance Bills required anybody who was availing of this tax relief for commercial purposes to refurbish the upper part of the house, and one had to live in it. That is why it is called the living city initiative. What is being proposed today in the Finance Bill is that one no longer must have any part of the house refurbished for living because the Minister is...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: On a commercial element required, there was a condition-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: Can the Minister of State point out where in the original Act, which is what we are amending, this applies? Subsection (3), which is what we are deleting here, is the commercial end of the two-storey houses on which one need not now carry out work on the upper floor.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: It is farcical that an amendment that seeks deletion of a line from the legislation has been ruled out of order. It is an absolute disgrace and really frustrating for me as an elected representative tasked to represent my constituency and deal with the finance portfolio. There is a need for change in this area. As I said to the Minister for Finance yesterday there is a need for reform of...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: The Minister of State mentioned 30,000 housing units and stated there is enough land with planning permission for these.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: Any land we are dealing with here is already zoned for housing anyway. I am not sure if I completely subscribe to the Minister of State's belief there is no need for additional land to come onto the market. While there may be land with planning permission, the problem is it is not going onto the market. We need some of this land to flow to people willing to develop it for housing purposes....

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: The windfall tax was introduced for two reasons. The first was that individuals made huge gains as a result of the rezoning of land and it was deemed appropriate that some of those gains would be recouped by the State, while the second reason was to serve as an anti-corruption measure. I mentioned at this committee previously that one would hope that local authority members, elected by the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: The Minister of State has said that the effect of what I have suggested in terms of the windfall tax being removed for a specified period would be to shoe horn transactions into a particular period of time but that is exactly what we want. That should be the stated objective of Government. We want this land to be released for development purposes. If the period in question is two years,...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: I would appreciate the Minister of State's clarification on the meaning of "consideration paid". There are amendments before the committee that clarify that it should be apportioned. There is no clarification in the legislation stipulating consideration paid would be apportioned. It is a small matter. The 20% appeared as a result of the Central Bank's consultation on loan-to-value...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: It does not require somebody to actually apply for a mortgage and it does facilitate cash buyers.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: It was supposed to be targeted at people who wish to avail of mortgages, but the new rules on mortgages do not suggest it will be tied to the idea of availing of a mortgage. A cash buyer who does not need a mortgage to purchase a home does not really need this DIRT exemption.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: This applies to first-time buyers who are to use the property being purchased or transferred to them as a place of residence. What provisions are contained in the legislation regarding the timeframe and anti-avoidance? When people are applying for planning permission for a place of residence at local authority level, section 37 agreements ensure one must live in the property for seven...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: If a person had a large portion of savings, what would be the position? I agree with the Minister of State that the circumstances are unlikely to arise but with such measures people look for loopholes. If a well-off individual has considerable savings worth €1 million and decides to buy a property with a value equivalent to those savings, the DIRT benefit he or she could accrue over...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: Has the Minister responded to all amendments or is he coming in on several amendments?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: Yes.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: It is a modest initiative. A person with savings of €40,000 and earning 1% interest will pay DIRT amounting to about €170. Therefore, over four years he or will get less than €650 back. That will not have a huge impact in terms of the overall mortgage cost. There are a couple of issues I want clarified. I welcome the fact that self-builds are included. It is an...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: It is disappointing that the Minister will not accept this amendment. It should be standard practice when we deal with corporation tax, and, indeed, other taxation measures, that there would be a report to outline the effect of the budget or the Finance Bill in relation to those measures. There are quite significant issues coming down the track in terms of the patent box and there are major...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (19 Nov 2014)

Pearse Doherty: The point is that people who invested funds in AMRFs would have got tax relief of 41% on them, so it is a case of tax forgone. The idea behind the imputed distribution rate is to ensure Revenue gets some tax back. The 5% rate does not require an individual to draw down his or her pension; it just means that Revenue will assume he or she has drawn down the 5% and apply tax at that level. It...