Results 3,261-3,280 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: I support this amendment. It is important that we receive a detailed report on this matter. I opposed the scheme when the Minister's predecessor, Deputy Noonan, introduced it because it did what I forecast it would do. There is no doubt that it generated interest in the housing market, particularly among younger people who wanted to buy houses before prices started to escalate and who had,...
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: The Minister has to face the facts. The housing market is beginning to expand and a significant number of houses are being built, particularly in my constituency, but it is not enough. They are nowhere near the numbers required. That applies to councils which are building, organisations which are building houses for rent and the private sector. Notwithstanding all of the money being pumped...
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: That is fine.
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: I actually had indicated before the previous speaker.
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: I think I had indicated beforehand.
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: I will finish with two sentences. The Minister knows these sites as well as I do. They include O'Devaney Gardens and Dominick Street. What is to happen in the provision of affordable housing in O'Devaney Gardens? The council may finally move to provide some social housing. The site has now been idle for 12 years or more. The position is the same in the case of the site on Dominick...
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: I apologise for my absence. I was attending another meeting. It might be helpful if the Minister of State could give us a detailed note on this issue. To be honest, this information is extremely complex. I heard him say that this is an amalgam of different types of funds. The fact is that we do not have the analysis we need. I would say we need a very detailed note on this matter. Some...
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: I would like to make a supplementary remark. Before lunch I raised with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, the fact that increases in land values are giving people involved in funds a perverse incentive to sit on lands while such increases continue. I am sure the Minister of State is aware of this problem, which is being discussed widely. Regardless of whether we are ultimately talking about...
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: Does the Minister of State have a detailed note on it?
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: I asked earlier for a technical note. I am happy to accept a technical briefing but this stuff is very complicated. Personally, I need to be able to read it rather than simply hear an explanation.
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: What is the objection? There is a long-standing practice whereby members of a committee ask for notes from which a Minister is visibly reading. There is no reason members should not be given a copy. That is a normal courtesy, if I may say so, which is extended by all Ministers.
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: Does the Minister of State agree to supply his speaking note either after the explanation or together with it?
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: Was any specific or general lobbying undertaken on this issue in the run-up to the budget by a particular fund or representatives of the funds industry?
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: Sorry?
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: It appears that this change has been lobbied for. Many of us would like information on the purpose of this lobbying. I know the funds industry lobbies all the time because this is a complicated area. It is reasonable to ask what was the lobby that led to the particular proposal by the Minister. What is this proposal intended to achieve?
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: They lobbied against it.
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: I am not-----
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: I understand the Minister of State's remit extends to the financial services sector.
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: If I recall correctly from newspaper reports, the Minister of State attended various events in the context of financial services development. We need a full note on this issue and we should be given details of who lobbied, when they lobbied and what they lobbied about or sought to achieve.
- Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)
Joan Burton: Regarding the Department's and the Revenue Commissioners' relationships with REITs and similar funds, will the Minister of State tell us whether there was any lobbying regarding any aspects of this year's Finance Bill in respect of any of these matters? I do not think-----