Results 4,001-4,020 of 35,563 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Real Estate Investment Trusts (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: 124. To ask the Minister for Finance for an update on his Department’s review of the IREF and REIT tax regimes; his views on whether IREFs and REITs are paying sufficient tax; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30177/23]

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: 135. To ask the Minister for Finance to provide an update on his engagement with Revenue with respect to the current tax rules regarding the importation of vehicles from Britain and the North and their impact on North-South trade and the domestic motor vehicle market. [30179/23]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I thank the Minister for coming before the finance committee to discuss this issue. I understand he will also take questions on the national children’s hospital. Starting with the secondment and to clarify, the report found that the Secretary General, namely, Robert Watt, bypassed all acceptable protocols for research funding in committing €2 million of taxpayers’...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Does the Minister accept that finding?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: There is a divergence between the Minister and the Secretary General and that is fine. We have asked people in this committee for their opinion, they gave their opinion and I value that. He is entitled to his opinion on that. The Minister said he would implement the recommendations of the report in full. Has he determined that all secondments from the Department of Health, the HSE and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Within the Department of Health, there are still secondments of more than five years. Is that what Mr. Mooney is telling me?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Are they often for an indefinite period, that is, secondments that have no end dates?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Is it the proposal that there will be a timeframe for all of these secondments?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Has the Minister reviewed the existing process for approval and sign-off? The Secretary General kept the Minister in the dark and felt that he did not need to tell him about committing €2 million of funding in breach of all the protocols that exist for research funding and aligned that €2 million funding with one individual, which should never happen.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: To be fair to me, and perhaps I articulated it wrongly, with which part in my question does the Minister disagree? Is it that the Secretary General breached all protocols, that he assigned it to one person and that should never have happened or that he allocated €2 million of taxpayers’ money? I am wondering which part of the question-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: This is significant. Now the Minister is disputing the findings of this report. When he disputes that it was committed to, the conclusions in section 5.4 are clear, stating: "The substantial proposed funding commitment of €2 million a year until the retirement of the Chief Medical Officer, by-passed all of the accepted protocols." Is the Minister challenging the report when he told...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Does the Minister accept that it was committed?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: A clear distinction has now opened up where the Minister is disputing a finding and conclusion from this report when he said earlier that this funding was not committed. He said that it was promised, not committed. I ask the Minister to clarify that. It is one of the five conclusions that have been reached. It was committed and was atypically linked to one named individual. I need...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Does the Minister accept that the funding was committed?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: That is not true. There is a significant issue, which the Minister knows. This report has five conclusions. I referred to the third one already. The fifth one refers to "The ‘commitment’ to Trinity College Dublin by the Department of Health of €2 million per year for research funding". A commitment was made. The Minister is disputing the fact that a commitment was...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Nobody has ever claimed that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Nobody has claimed that but Dr. Holohan would personally benefit from the €2 million because a portion of that would have paid his wages.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Nobody is suggesting that either.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Nobody has suggested that either.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Let us be very clear that the report makes it clear that the research funding was linked atypically to one named individual. That is the point it is making. If the Government is providing research funding, give it to the board and let it decide how to fund it. That is not what happened here. This is funding that was allocated on the basis that the wages, which were the same as what he was...