Results 341-360 of 34,444 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: I agree with that; it is just about trying to get the balance right. Planning restrictions and planning conditions still apply in all of these cities that we are referring to. Dublin and Limerick are examples of where the kind of development that local authorities will allow to happen on properties is quite limited because they want to preserve the architectural heritage of the buildings....

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, that is correct.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: We have estimated that there are approximately 139,000 cases of non-filing. It is quite significant, and it is 139,000 for each year from 2020 to 2023.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: I understand the €1,000 would be for taxpayers who have not filed previously. Our judgment is that all of this refers to administration issues in relation to filing the tax returns, but then it does become an issue for Revenue when the administration falls on them. This is just a reasonable change to try to deal with that.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: Revenue will take an average of the past two years of most recent returns if someone has filed before. As I said to the Deputy a moment ago, the estimate will be €1,000 if someone has not filed a return before.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: In turn, the hope is that it will prompt them to file a return.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: I do not follow the Deputy.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: In theory, I can understand-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: The whole idea is to create an incentive for people to pay their taxes-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: We are not looking to pick on anybody. I understand the point the Deputy is making, but I think it is a fair trade-off in order to incentivise people to file an accurate tax return.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: I have done my best to explain it to the Deputy. I understand the point he is making. What we are trying to do here is change the incentives for the 139,000 people who are not filing tax returns the way they should.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: The exemption applies only to cost-rental homes designated from 8 October onwards, as projects designated prior to this date have already been financially modelled with the cost of corporation tax on rental properties included in the cost and rent calculations. The Department of housing has advised that cost rents are set using this project modelling and that it would not be possible to now...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: I expect that this will primarily be about viability. The aim is to further incentivise the delivery of more homes through the cost-rental scheme. In many cases, it will be about viability. The lower level of rent should be delivered through the cost-rental scheme the properties are in.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: Fairness applies in another way, however. My aim in doing this is to improve viability as opposed to reducing the level of rent for properties that are not yet built. In that sense, we are treating future tenants and existing tenants in the same way. The aim of bringing this forward is not necessarily to adjust the rent that future cost-rental tenants will pay. It is to help to have more...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: That goes back to the advice I received from the Department of housing, which has said that these rents are now set and that they are already set at a level significantly below levels in the market. There are two different issues. There is that issue and then the second issue, which is that, in policy terms, I am not looking at this measure as something that will influence the level of rent...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: The rents are already at a reduced rate versus the market rents. When the rents are calculated and an agreement is made with tenants, this must be done on the basis of the policy framework at that point in time. That is what has happened here with regard to the LDA. In any event, the total number of cost-rental properties available makes up a relatively small share of what the LDA is going...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: The estimated cost of the measure is based on estimates of profitability of current rental units subject to tax. The full-year considerations take into account expected growth in the number of units to meet the target of 18,000 by 2030 and assumes that the current portion, of around 60%, will be delivered by local authorities and AHBs, with the balance delivered by taxable entities. The...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: We are assuming 18,000 units.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (5 Nov 2025)

Paschal Donohoe: We are also assuming that within this there will be cost-rental properties delivered by entities other than local authorities and AHBs, and perhaps that will influence the cost. I am very happy to see if we can break down the cost further to explain to the Deputy the granular detail of how we get to €20 million.