Results 4,741-4,760 of 35,549 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I move amendment No. 4: In page 8, between lines 7 and 8, to insert the following: “(4) The Minister for Finance and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment shall, within one month of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a progress report on the introduction of a scheme to provide financial assistance to businesses relying on oil and LPG as an...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: We have no timeframe, no costs and no number of businesses. Is that what the Minister is telling me about this scheme? Businesses have been left out since last year. There is no timeframe for when this scheme will happen, no estimate of the number of businesses affected and no costings.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: To clarify, coming into the month of April, we have no timeframe, we have no costings and we have no idea how many businesses are affected.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Does the Minister know?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: As Minister for Finance, does the Deputy know how much funding is ring-fenced for this? Does he have an idea?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: There is no scheme and nobody knows how much money any of the businesses will get. Am I wrong? Does any business know the level of grant aid support that is going to be provided to it? Does any business know when it will get it? There is no scheme. The Government does not have a clue. This has been a massive error since last year. These businesses have had to fund all of the energy...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: How many businesses are eligible for TBESS?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Let me rephrase the question. How did the Department cost the €1.2 billion for TBESS? What were the assumptions used?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: How did the Department come up with the figure of €1.2 billion based on 400,000 businesses?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Under the existing legislation, what is the maximum amount a business could draw down under the scheme?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: That is under the amendment we are dealing with. It was €10,000 under the existing scheme so how many months would it apply for? Did it apply for six months, which would mean a business could receive €60,000? Is that right?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: A business could receive €60,000 but the Minister has estimated that the 400,000 businesses that were eligible would only get €3,000 over the entire period of the scheme. Is that correct?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: The Minister said that based on a figure of 400,000 businesses, the price tag was €1.2 billion so the estimation is that, on average, businesses would get €3,000.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Yes, the average.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Using the same principle, which is that the Minister wants to cost it and wants certainty and all of that malarkey, 400,000 businesses could get up to €60,000 under the scheme. What is the upper price tag to which the State was exposed?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: However, the Minister could not guarantee that. The Minister and the Department built in assumptions, which are very reasonable, but he made the point to the committee that he would not bring forward a scheme unless he could cost it properly. The argument against a scheme for households is that energy prices may go through the roof. What if they went through the roof for businesses? What...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: What is the outer limit?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: One multiplies by the upper limit of the cap. What is the outer-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Of course, because energy prices did not increase. The assumptions the Department used are appropriate, but the Minister made the point that he would never introduce a scheme, because he does not know where energy prices go. If energy prices multiplied over that period, these companies would have reached the cap and, therefore, the exposure of the State would be in the tens of billions of...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2023)

Pearse Doherty: However, the point I am making is that the Minister said he would not introduce a scheme where he cannot accurately cost the cost of the scheme. It is not credible, either. TBESS is a fine example of that with regard to the upper exposure of the State in scenarios that are really completely unlikely to happen, because of how energy prices are hedged in the market and so on and so forth. It...