Results 5,361-5,380 of 5,629 for speaker:Mairéad Farrell

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: Yes.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: I wanted to speak to sections 26 to 28, inclusive, as a group.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: If we leave it until we deal with section 28, will we be able to vote on sections 26 and 27 or how does that work?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: Yes.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: Yes. These sections provide for multi-annual increases in carbon tax. I am concerned that they will have a consequential effect on lower income households. In June 2019, the ESRI published the report, Carbon taxation in Ireland: distributional effects of revenue recycling policies. In its research, the ESRI found that carbon taxation is found to be regressive, with poorer households...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: We have a serious climate crisis here now and we need to deal with it swiftly and effectively. What we do not need is a regressive tax measure which hits low income earners most. If one takes my constituency of Galway West, for example, there are people living in rural west Connemara who have no, or very limited and expensive, access to public transport, so for those people there will be an...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: The point I am making is that we are being asked to agree multi-annual increases in carbon tax but on the other side of the fence we are not seeing an agreement or a commitment to a multi-annual increase in social welfare.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: On a point of clarification, in the distributional analysis of tax and welfare changes in Budget 2021 the reduction in VAT was counted as progressive and partially offsetting the increase in carbon tax. Can the Minister clarify if he expects this measure to be passed on to consumers or as a business support to be absorbed by the business balance sheet? If it is the latter, will he accept...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: That is okay.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: It is somewhat ironic that we are talking about excise duty exemptions for NATO and EU military forces just after we talked about carbon tax increases which will affect households with lower incomes most. These big military forces have a massive impact on the environment. The US military is one of the largest polluters in history. It consumes more liquid fuels and emits more...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: For clarity, the Minister is saying that as we are supposed to be a neutral State this section will not be applicable to anyone and it will not be enforced at all. I do not understand why this section needs to be provided for. I need more clarification. The Minister is saying that because Ireland is a neutral State there will not be any impact by this at all. Will the Minister clarify...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: If we want to state clearly and categorically that we are a neutral State then we absolutely should be pushing back on this. I believe there is no question on this matter. The mind boggles that this was not already pushed back before it was brought to this point. If we want to make it very clear, and we need to be a lot clearer, that we are a neutral State then we should be pushing back on...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: I want to come in on the excellent point Deputy Barry made. We are seeing a massive increase in military spending in the EU. Between 2004 and 2006, €65 million was spent and now we are looking at billions of euro. We have also agreed to the permanent structured co-operation, PESCO, which sees an increase in our military spending so I agree with Deputy Barry. It would definitely be...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: When we analyse the impact the measures in section 32 will have, we see that they are focused on electric cars that cost between €35,750 and €46,500. Does the Minister agree that the distributional benefits of this measure are geared towards higher earners?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: I know Deputy Naughten has raised this issue previously but it definitely has been coming up on all our contacts. Many people are deeply concerned about this. I hope it will be rectified quickly because it is an issue that is really affecting people's lives.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: I ask the Minister to comment briefly on this section.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: We discussed this section at length when we dealt with section 29. I reiterate my opposition to the section and I want to have that put on record.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: On section 44, I welcome the application of the reduced rate of VAT to certain sanitary products but I am wondering why the section refers to "certain" rather than "all" such products. I ask the Minister to clarify that.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: We are talking here about people who, in many cases, have not been working since March because of Government restrictions. These restrictions had to be put in place but the fact that these people have not been working since March has had a massive financial as well as mental health impact on them. Now we are saying that we will tax them retrospectively. What legal advice has the Minister...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (16 Nov 2020)

Mairéad Farrell: This comes down to the issue of affordability. That is the core issue we see across the State and in Galway city. We saw a report again last week which shows that rents have risen by 5% in Galway city. No properties within Galway city fall within the HAP limits. We need to have affordable rents and affordable housing. People must have the ability to buy affordable houses. The...