Results 29,181-29,200 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Budget Statement 2008 (5 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: It is welcome but it is coming too late, after stamp duty revenue and sales have halved in the past nine months and confidence is at a low ebb. It does not represent a proper housing policy and we must examine the detail of a dysfunctional housing policy over which the Minister and his colleagues preside. I welcome the increase in mortgage relief, a concession of €800 in cash terms. It...

Budget Statement 2008 (5 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: Government Ministers are able to impose price increases of 45% but in the real world, people are being obliged to make major cuts, economise, make cost savings and still deliver products on time in order to survive. That sort of culture needs to be introduced in the public sector. However, thinking along these lines is miles away from that which occurs around the Cabinet table. With his...

Budget Statement 2008 (5 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: It will, however, generate revenue. The truth is that the average motorist already pays €2,500 each year in tax. It has been estimated that the environmental damage done by most cars with petrol engines stands at 9 cent per litre. However, the Minister is collecting €2,500 per annum from motorists. They are a soft touch and that is what is behind the change in motor taxation.

Budget Statement 2008 (5 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: The change to which I refer has nothing to do with reforming the position in order to meet environmental needs. I welcome the changes relating to VRT. These changes are timely and I agree with the Ministers for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputies Ryan and Gormley, on the need to take climate change seriously. However,...

Budget Statement 2008 (5 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: It is well past the time for a wake up call. The alarm bells have long been ringing about the way our public finances are being managed. People want to see change. It is not enough for the Minister to repeat the mantra that the Government is committed to the NDP. The latter is important, particularly if it is delivered effectively, on time and on budget and if the projects relating to it...

Budget Statement 2008 (5 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: The Government engages in too much easy thinking and takes too many soft options regarding the way it approaches its responsibilities. We cannot afford the cosy practice the Minister, Deputy Cowen, has again adopted this year of allocating money and leaving all existing services intact. That was the purpose of the big book with which we were presented in October. Everything that is already...

Budget Statement 2008 (5 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: ——and the days of unwarranted pay increases, big bureaucracy, soft-option politics and loose spending are also at an end. Things must change. The Government has forgotten what it is to survive in a small open economy. One must be alert, nimble and quick to change. There is a new generation in Ireland, the members of which are ambitious, energetic and creative. These people give their...

Budget Statement 2008 (5 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: The level of applause would indicate many backbenchers wish there was a regime change. The truth is this budget represented a very stern test of the leadership of the Minister. It was a test to see if he had the courage to break down the patterns of incompetence and indifference which has surrounded this complacent Government and the vision to embrace real reform and see real change in the...

Budget Statement 2008 (5 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: They have got used to lying in in the morning, bingeing on junk food and not exercising. The result is what we see today. At the slightest hint of deterioration in the economy, we see the public finances plunge from a €4 billion surplus to a €2 billion deficit. That is some achievement for a Minister — to have squandered all that money and to have so little to show for it. It is...

Budget Statement 2008 (5 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: That is because the soft options are being taken. The money is being spent but it is not delivering and the soft option of borrowing is being taken. Looking ahead, the prospects of those who cheered the Minister a moment ago, seeing their great programme for Government being delivered are nil. If one looks at the figures the Minister projects for taxation for 2010, one will see it is €6.3...

Budget Statement 2008 (5 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: The tragedy, of course, is that it is not just these manifesto promises that will be broken once again. We have seen it time and again from this Government. The tragic truth is that if the economy continues to be managed the same way the Minister is managing it today in this budget, we will quickly be unable to afford the investment in infrastructure that we need. We will see serious...

Budget Statement 2008 (5 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: Their four new parliamentary committees, their three new Ministers of State with their entourages and their own huge pay increases, which include €38,000 for the Taoiseach, have all been paid and it is others, such as pensioners, who we ask to make do with so much less. Ordinary workers on the average industrial wage are asked to pay tax at 41%, the same rate as that paid by a millionaire....

Budget Statement 2008 (5 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: The tragic truth is that we would have a resilient economy today that would be capable of dealing with the challenges if the programme of reform had been started. We have only to look across the water to see what Gordon Brown and the Labour Party in the UK did when they demanded annual efficiency changes and over the period in question were able to release what would be the equivalent in...

Budget Statement 2008 (5 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: Again we see that many people who need a leg up are frozen out of tax relief.

Budget Statement 2008 (5 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: For example, over 600,000 people in the private sector do not have any pension whatsoever. We were promised that we would see a one for one scheme. Indeed I believe the Green Party was the first to advocate having such a scheme to help the lowest paid people invest in pensions for their retirement so that they would not be solely dependent on social welfare pensions and would not be plunged...

Budget Statement 2008 (5 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: A slightly better increase of €2 per week in the child care supplement is being offered. One might say this is extraordinarily generous but the reality is that out of their pre-tax income, people must find an incredible €18,000 per child to support children in child care. That is the reality in the tiger economy of today. Families where both parents are forced to work face that...

Budget Statement 2008 (5 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: Instead of trying to address this, the Government is, once again, penalising people who opt to drop out of the workforce to provide care at home for a period. The penalty they face has been ratcheted up once again today. An extra €1,400 penalty is being imposed on people who opt to stay at home. The combination of the bands and the PAYE allowance they will give up by dropping out of the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (4 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: Question 72: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will carry out a review of the way in which the criteria for the means test for the carer's allowance is applied; his views on same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32255/07]

Written Answers — Tax Code: Tax Code (4 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: Question 180: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if tax relief is claimable by a person in respect of the cost of any out of pocket costs of a home care package approved by a public health nurse or a discharging hospital. [32117/07]

Written Answers — Tax Code: Tax Code (4 Dec 2007)

Richard Bruton: Question 184: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if the rent payment made to local authorities under the shared ownership scheme qualifies for tax relief; and if not, his views on extending this relief to ease the burden for many low income families trying to access affordable housing. [32147/07]