Results 40,221-40,240 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Finance Bill 2005: Report Stage (Resumed). (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: I ask the Minister to give way. He should not put words in my mouth as I have never criticised that decision.

Finance Bill 2005: Report Stage (Resumed). (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: The Minister raised qualms about the notion of free third level undergraduate fees. I do not care what issue he was replying to but it was he who raised the issue of fees.

Finance Bill 2005: Report Stage (Resumed). (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: I do not know if the Minister had an opportunity to celebrate International Women's Day yesterday, although I gather from his gesture that he missed the chance.

Finance Bill 2005: Report Stage (Resumed). (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: We will make special arrangements next year. I understand the Minister's colleague, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, celebrated and hope he enjoyed himself. The Minister made several interesting comments on child care and child benefit. He referred to the equal opportunities child care programme, EOCP, which I have examined in detail, particularly as it...

Finance Bill 2005: Report Stage (Resumed). (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: I am glad the Minister has at last opened his mouth on the issue because his silence was very telling. Only time will tell when we have had an opportunity to analyse it. According to the Revenue Commissioners' figures there were overpayments of tax by PAYE taxpayers of €306 million in 2003, €267 million in 2002 and €193 million in 2001. It is estimated that approximately €170 million...

Finance Bill 2005: Report Stage (Resumed). (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: I move amendment No. 3: In page 11, between lines 13 and 14, to insert the following: 1.—The tax bands, exemption limits and tax credits relating to income tax set out in the Finance Act 2004 are hereby increased by such rate as would maintain the real value of those bands, limits and credits in terms of changes in the cost of living since 2003. The purpose of this amendment is to restore...

Finance Bill 2005: Report Stage (Resumed). (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: Yes, he did. The Minister should check the facts.

Finance Bill 2005: Report Stage (Resumed). (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: We also need low rates of capital gains, capital acquisitions, inheritance and other taxes. If the Minister checks the facts, he will find that rate was agreed during Ireland's Presidency——

Finance Bill 2005: Report Stage (Resumed). (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: If he checks the record, he will find that low rate was agreed and signed off during Ireland's Presidency.

Finance Bill 2005: Report Stage (Resumed). (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: The Minister likes to have history only according to Fianna Fáil. He has sold the message of low marginal rates of tax, but the bulk of PAYE taxpayers pay high marginal rates of tax.

Finance Bill 2005: Report Stage (Resumed). (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: The Minister's officials will tell him that low rate was signed off by Deputy Quinn when he was Minister for Finance during Ireland's Presidency of the European Union in 1996. I am sure the Minister's officials can probably provide him with a note of those proceedings and agreements.

Finance Bill 2005: Report Stage (Resumed). (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: At that stage there was a zero manufacturing tax rate for most companies involved in manufacturing and the rate was reduced to a joint common rate as a consequence of EU changes. The purpose of this amendment is to introduce some fairness and equity for the ordinary man and women who work day in day out, live in the commuter belt around Dublin, pay one mortgage, pay the equivalent of another...

Finance Bill 2005: Report Stage (Resumed). (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: I apologise, I thought I said Fine Gael.

Finance Bill 2005: Report Stage (Resumed). (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: It was ruled out of order.

Finance Bill 2005: Report Stage (Resumed). (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: On the day the Travers report has been published, highlighting and justifying the work of the Ombudsman in vindicating the rights of citizens in respect of nursing home charges, it is ironic that the Minster for Finance will not accept a modest amendment which proposes that the Ombudsman be given the power, authority and duty to produce a report, in the role of taxpayers' advocate, on the...

Finance Bill 2005: Report Stage. (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: I move amendment No. 1: In page 11, between lines 13 and 14, to insert the following: 1.—The Ombudsman shall include in her annual report a special report on the overpayment of tax by PAYE taxpayers, and on the take up of credits by such taxpayers, and the branch of her office dedicated to ensuring that the take up of credits is readily available to all taxpayers, and refunds made as...

Finance Bill 2005: Report Stage. (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: On that basis, the Minister should accept amendment No. 1 from the Labour Party. It is a minor amendment but it would at least balance the scales in terms of tax justice in favour of PAYE taxpayers.

Order of Business. (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: The Taoiseach has indicated he wishes to respond.

Finance Bill 2005: Motion to Recommit. (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: I move: "That the Bill be recommitted in its entirety to a committee of the House." The Minister has introduced a major change to the Bill by way of amendment No. 58 and there is a complete absence of opportunity for the House to debate this section in any detail owing to the presence of a guillotine. In the Bill as amended on Committee Stage, there is a section 141 which deals with the...

Finance Bill 2005: Motion to Recommit. (9 Mar 2005)

Joan Burton: I ask that the Bill be recommitted in its entirety to the Select Committee on Finance and the Public Service so that we can fully debate amendment No. 58. As it stands we will never reach amendment No. 58, which comes at the end of the Bill and this debate is to be guillotined.