Results 5,341-5,360 of 8,768 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: As the Minister of State will be aware, I have proposed amendments to address this issue. The section should either be withdrawn or the Minister should exercise his power not to commence it at the same time as the rest of the Bill. We had an extremely lengthy debate in these Houses when changes were being made in respect of the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP. We discussed whether it...

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: Potentially, the Minister of State has made the case for amending the section rather than not commencing it. He has not made the case for taxing income between March and August other than the narrative that the Government said it would do it. In my five or six years as a Senator I have heard a great deal said by Ministers, some of which has not happened, but some of which has. We are not...

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: On a point of information.

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: On a point of information.

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: On a point of information, it is not related to-----

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: There is.

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: As the Cathaoirleach has pointed out-----

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Government can do this on Report Stage.

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Minister of State made indications about a Member of the House.

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: That is entirely disingenuous.

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: There is a substantial Bill before us and if the Minister of State gives an editorial and attributes statements and views to everybody across the House at great length in response to everyone, it will be a lengthy debate. It is an issue if people are attributing statements that are misrepresentations to people in the House. That is a concern. The Minister of State has just said at great...

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

Alice-Mary Higgins: It is a debate on the policy and on the law.

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...