Results 401-420 of 1,026,897 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Damien English OR speaker:Ivana Bacik OR speaker:David Stanton) in 'Committee meetings'

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Treasury Management Agency (21 May 2024)

Catherine Connolly: I thank the Minister for the update on that. The background to this is the UN council and the particular committee, which set out 112 businesses. That was published in February 2020 and since then it has been reduced to 97. With regard to Ireland and the ISIF, the amount is relatively small given the overall investment internationally by ISIF. I am aware it is independent, and I know...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Treasury Management Agency (21 May 2024)

Michael McGrath: Perhaps I could write to the Deputy with detail of the investments that have been divested. The majority of what was announced has been completed at this stage. She will acknowledge that difficult and harrowing as the issue is with the occupied West Bank and the conflict and the terrible events happening in Gaza because of the excessive use of force by the Israel Defense Forces, it is not...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Code (21 May 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 9 o’clock The vacant homes tax is a failure. We learned at the beginning of this year that only €2 million was raised from it and it applied to less than 3,500 properties. That is against a background where the census showed 160,000 vacant residential dwellings, 48,000 of which were vacant in both the 2016 census and the 2022 census. We then have about 20,000 derelict...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Code (21 May 2024)

Michael McGrath: I thank the Deputy for his contribution. As he will know, I increased the vacant homes tax rate in the last budget. Just to give him the numbers, the Revenue has confirmed that as of 2 April this year, over 6,000 properties have been declared as vacant with exemptions being declared in respect of approximately 2,500 of these properties. Approximately 3,500 properties have a liability to...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Code (21 May 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister has just confirmed how much of a failure the vacant homes tax is in the context of tens and tens of thousands of vacant properties. Of course, I am for being fair to people where there is a good reason but there should be an imperative to say that by hook or by crook, this house will be brought back into use. It is obscene for that not to be the case. Yes, if somebody has a...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Code (21 May 2024)

Michael McGrath: The vacant homes tax, as the Deputy knows, is targeting habitable properties. The Deputy is raising a number of other issues which are important and relevant when it comes to properties which are vacant but which in many instances are also derelict. My colleague, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, published the Vacant Homes Action Plan 2023-2026 and last month the progress report from April...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Customs and Excise (21 May 2024)

Customs and Excise

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Customs and Excise (21 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: 63. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will cancel the increases in excise duty on petrol and diesel scheduled for August and October of this year, given the cost-of-living pressures facing households and their impact on trade for businesses in the Border region; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22786/24]

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Customs and Excise (21 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: Last month, the Minister increased the price of petrol and diesel and we see that now at the pumps across the State. The Minister is set to increase the tax further in just over 70 days and then again two months later. This will push the price of petrol up by another 6 cent and diesel by another 5 cent. This is happening at a time when workers and families continue to face a cost-of-living...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Customs and Excise (21 May 2024)

Michael McGrath: I thank Deputy Doherty for his question. The Government is conscious of the implications of fuel costs for all sectors of society. This is reflected in the fact that in 2022, in light of the acute impact rising prices were having on households and businesses, the Government provided for temporary cuts in excise rates which, inclusive of VAT, amounted to 21 cents, 16 cents and 5.4 cents per...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Customs and Excise (21 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: This morning, Social Justice Ireland pointed out that the Minister's budget would widen the gap between the rich and the poor. If he has not noticed, low and middle-income families the length and breadth of this State are still struggling with high costs. Yet, what the Minister has planned are more price hikes for them. The Minister increased the price of petrol and diesel last month and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Customs and Excise (21 May 2024)

Michael McGrath: As I said earlier, and I am happy to repeat it, I will keep the situation under review in advance of the final restoration which is due on 1 August. There is considerable volatility when it comes to fuel prices, not least because of the movement in the cost of a barrel of oil which is only one input cost. It increased in recent weeks. It fell back again but it is moving in both...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Credits (21 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: From the figures the Minister has put on the record today, it is patently obvious that he has taken a very good idea from Sinn Féin, although he and his Government resisted it for quite a while. However, when he finally gave in, he made a mess of the design of it. The fact that despite there being 700,000 mortgage holders across the State, only 18,000 households have received the full...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Credits (21 May 2024)

Michael McGrath: I do not accept the Deputy's assertion in that regard. I point to the fact that almost 22,000 taxpayer units, some of whom may be couples given the way they are counted by the Revenue Commissioners, made a claim for this relief as part of their 2023 PAYE income tax return. I expect that many more will do so over the eligibility period. Although it was an estimate, the figure provided to me...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Credits (21 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: The Minister has made a mess of the design of it, as we pointed out at the time, because he took too long to acknowledge what Sinn Féin had spent a year arguing for. It is not just that; he has locked out countless homeowners, tens of thousands, who have seen their mortgage interest rates increase. For example, by requiring that claimants have a balance of over €80,000, he has...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Credits (21 May 2024)

Michael McGrath: I do not accept that at all. This is a non-refundable tax credit. There was engagement with the Revenue Commissioners for many months in the lead-up to the budget last October. They were very clear with me and my officials that it was not possible to put in place the necessary IT infrastructure to-----

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Credits (21 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: That is because the Minister took so long to make this decision.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Credits (21 May 2024)

Michael McGrath: No, not at all.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Credits (21 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: It is.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Credits (21 May 2024)

Michael McGrath: There was very early engagement with the Revenue Commissioners on that issue.