Results 4,781-4,800 of 8,196 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am entitled to come back but I would like not to have a politics in which we simply say, "You're saying this, this is what you're saying, this is what you're saying, this is what you're like." That is the politics we are hearing and it is not constructive. The Minister of State made some valid points in relation to Schedules D and E which Senators acknowledged and engaged with. Then the...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I am speaking to the section and how it may or may not be changed.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: This is, in fact, very relevant. I might not agree with the exact letter of Senator Mullen's proposed recommendation of two of every three years. To recognise the fact that sometimes artists will get a very large payment once in perhaps five or ten years, this might have been a better nuance, although there is value in the overall proposal to be examined. Senator Mullen is correct in his...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: -----when I had a similar debate in respect of the continuation of a special tax relief for golf courses-----

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: When many other areas of hospitality had their VAT increased, golf courses were given an exemption. It is a misinterpretation and an undue measure. "The people" is "the State" and "the public purse" and "the revenue" is "the revenue". To move this and, in fact, to have amendments that benefit Revenue and benefit the people, effectively, with whatever interpretation of it, is a skewed...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: -----but it is one we will need to take up either at higher political level or perhaps at the Committee on Procedures and Privilege.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I do not take particular exception to this scheme but I do object to the idea that we need to coax builders when a bigger and more substantial change would be brought about if we addressed the issues that were mentioned, including the fact that speculators can buy large numbers of units and benefit from tax relief measures through other schemes. That is the end of it.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: No, but as was raised by a Member, that is the context of this support. I am in favour of supporting first-time buyers but one of the reasons they need support is that they are up against speculative purchasers that are also helped by other schemes which outweigh this one. They are in a situation where builders have been allowed to hoard land for strategic housing developments, get planning...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move recommendation No. 4: 4.In page 11, after line 34, to insert the following: “11.The Minister shall, within three months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report on the introduction of a new threshold for High Wealth Individuals defined as persons in possession of net assets of the value of €10 million and...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I acknowledge that the Minister of State has taken an interest in this issue in the past, that he continues to take an interest in it and that the threshold has been reduced to €20 million. I am of the view, however, that a threshold of €10 million would be better. There are two issues here. One is the question of the gathering of the information and the other, which is...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move recommendation No. 8: In page 56, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following: “26. The Minister shall, within three months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before both House of the Oireachtas a report on— (a) the introduction of Capital Gains Tax at a rate of 33 per cent where a REIT or a group of REIT disposes of a property of its property rental...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: If anything, the Minister of State has made the case for a far more ambitious investigation into REITs than mine. We all have a concern about the potential homeowners and those in rental situations. The Minister of State is correct that approximately 70% of the money has gone into commercial office blocks, many of which are empty. We can take a walk in the square mile around these...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Minister of State has acknowledged that the complexion of the situation has changed in the past six months. This has not been a normal six-month period. The complexion of how our towns and cities might work has entirely changed. I do not think it is by choice that everybody is moving home. It is also because property has become very valuable, in a speculative way, over the past few...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: That is not accurate.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: They are different-----

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Let us not try to do made-up maths because it does not help or serve anybody. We are suggesting a 33% tax on the capital gains that are made when a company makes a purchase. REITs do not have one person who is the investor, they have multiple investors. Those investors, at the end of whatever year or quarter of the functioning of the company, get the dividends of the profits. The Minister...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move recommendation No. 9: In page 56, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following: "26.The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report on policy options which could be taken to restrict banks from carrying forward losses against taxability of their current profits of those banks, and where banking...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: If they are not making profits, this recommendation will not affect them. It only applies to profits, so if they are making losses they have absolutely nothing to fear if this recommendation was brought in on Report Stage and if the measure was implemented right now. It would not have any effect because they are not making profits. The very nature of this measure - it was the balancing act...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: If we had had a small portion of the €2.5 billion in profits the banks made last year, I have no doubt it really would have been helpful to the Exchequer in dealing with all of those measures the Minister of State has just described. The Minister of State is clearly not going to do this in this Finance Bill but let us not wait until the third crisis, which is not far away. I would...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I move recommendation No. 10: In page 56, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following: “26. The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report on policy options which could be taken to restrict banks from carrying forward losses against taxability of their current profits of those banks, and where...