Results 31,601-31,620 of 34,827 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Financial Resolution No. 14: Capital Acquisitions Tax (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: Yes, and the Minister can reply. I am satisfied with that and note the proposals are significant but quite straightforward. I will speak to them in sequence. Resolution No. 10, on which the Minister spoke in detail, in layman's English is about increasing the rate of deposit interest retention tax, DIRT, which currently is at 30%, by 3% to 33%. Based on the Minister's statement today and...

Financial Resolution No. 9: Income Tax (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: We brought in the universal social charge. That is why we are over here.

Financial Resolution No. 9: Income Tax (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: The Government is not doing enough.

Financial Resolution No. 9: Income Tax (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: Three Financial Resolutions are being discussed together. Fianna Fáil supports two of them but opposes one, which means we must vote against all three because the resolutions will be grouped in the vote. Fianna Fáil opposes Financial Resolution No. 7 on changing the universal social charge for people over the age of 70 years on the basis that it is too timid and does not go far...

Financial Resolution No. 9: Income Tax (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: Financial Resolution No. 8 changes the rules on interest rates on benefit-in-kind loans from employers to employees. I hope this is a reflection of the fact that the Minister for Finance expects a reduction in interest rates for other mortgage holders during the coming year. The specified interest rate will be increased from 12.5% to 13.5% for benefit-in-kind loans other than home loans....

Financial Resolution No. 6: Income Tax (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: This is the one resolution I expect every Member of the House to support. I cannot see why anybody would oppose it. It deals with people getting what we would all call massive redundancy payments on a voluntary basis excluding the statutory payment. So where somebody, having been in an organisation for 20 or 30 years, gets €30,000 or €40,000 statutory redundancy, if he or she...

Financial Resolution No. 5: Excise (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: I will make a brief point on the first vote in the House. To clarify, the Fianna Fáil Party opposed the changes to the alcohol products tax, but we were supportive of the changes to the tobacco products tax. Since there was a combined vote, we voted against the resolution.

Financial Resolution No. 5: Excise (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: We are used to the practice whereby, similar to Committee Stage,-----

Financial Resolution No. 5: Excise (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: -----there is a group discussion, yet it is unusual to have group voting. We might agree with some measures during the course of the night, yet be forced to oppose them because we are opposed to other resolutions in their groupings. I want people to understand. I will be brief to allow other Deputies an opportunity. My colleague, Deputy Ó Cuív, will wish to discuss Financial...

Financial Resolution No. 5: Excise (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: It was not announced in the budget. A new tax accruing €31 million will be introduced whenever the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, returns from wherever he is.

Financial Resolution No. 5: Excise (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: We will have supplementary budgets to raise revenue during the course of the year, yet I believed that the purpose of tonight was to budget for the full year. When the Taoiseach next gets a chance to speak - he has not been given an opportunity to respond to this debate - he might explain how many supplementary budgets there will be to raise tax during the course of the coming year.

Financial Resolution No. 5: Excise (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: We are generally supportive of the changes to the categories of VRT and motor tax. Fianna Fáil could oppose everything, but we agreed to the €3.5 billion. We must be responsible, put our money where our mouths are and support some measures that we might not particularly like. When the push comes, Deputies cannot support everything in principle and oppose it in detail.

Financial Resolution No. 5: Excise (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: However, we will oppose the resolution in respect of VRT. It is unfortunate that due to the grouping, all three matters are being taken together, including that relating to farmers. We will vote "No" collectively, but we are generally supportive of Financial Resolution No. 5. There will not be an opportunity to vote to demonstrate our support separately.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: As the Minister knows, this came into being this summer.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: Yes. The Minister, Deputy Quinn, apologised for the delays but I think he was also apologising for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform because this is a reform issue. Some 66,000 people applied for third-level grants but, as of today, half of them have not yet been approved. Most TDs are now coming across a new phenomenon in their constituencies. I have had numerous examples of...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: In respect of the Department of Social Protection benefits, the Minister has cut the period in which people can avail of jobseeker's benefit, from 12 to nine months for people who were working for three, four or five years and who, through no fault of their own, have lost their jobs, and from nine months to six for those who have worked ten, 20 or 30 years and who never missed a day's work or...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: In preparing for the Supplementary Estimates debate last week, the Library and Research Service gave me details of all the Supplementary Estimates. I asked how much there was in Supplementary Estimates in previous years and the staff gave me the figures for each year back to 2007. There have never been in recent memory Supplementary Estimates of the scale of those that have gone through the...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: They amount to €1.118 billion. I will spell it out to the Minister in further detail. When the Taoiseach set up the new Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, I thought it was a good idea and I supported it. In the Government's first full year in office, we have seen this Department fail utterly. The Taoiseach should take out the scorecards he stated he had for the Ministers....

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: What use did that Department serve? I will explain it to the people. Since the Minister stood in this House exactly one year ago, all of the Departments that are under his direct control as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform-----

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: -----overspent by €3 million every day, €20 million a week or €100 million every month for the past 12 months, and there have been Supplementary Estimates recently in the order of €1.2 billion. The list is available and the Minister knows it well. I have never seen such a poor outcome for a new Department and I did not expect I would be going down this road. I did...