Results 9,381-9,400 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: I move amendment No. 7: In page 12, after line 36, to insert the following:“Exemption in respect of compensation for certain living donors 6. The Principal Act is amended by inserting the following section after section 204A:“Exemption in respect of compensation for certain living donors 204B. The compensation for donation of a kidney for transplantation payable to a living...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: It has increased to €12,000.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: There is no exact science in this regard, so Deputy Doherty’s €11,000 might be as effective as the €12,000 I proposed. We had and still have a situation where both in terms of family homes to purchase and rental accommodation, in Dublin in particular but also in other parts of the country, there is a supply side problem. I was looking at a series of possible measures...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: Some of the things I have proposed might not work, but one has to try a range of solutions. To be honest, I do not know what effect the change in the room rental relief will have, but I have erred on the side of being a bit more generous than doing what the market or the consumer price index might justify.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: No, I capped it at €70,000.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: I did not do it in the way mentioned.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: I will press on again. The Deputy has described people who are suffering from the economic collapse in the country for a number of years and still are suffering. He described that in very cogent terms and I do not think he will get much disagreement on it either from Labour Party Deputies or Fine Gael Deputies. The Deputy was incorrect to say that Fine Gael is a high tax party. We happen...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: The Deputy has pointed out that there is a difference between our approaches ideologically, philosophically and economically. That is not to say that the Deputy's analysis of how people feel on the ground is much different from mine. Everybody in Fine Gael and the Labour Party – we are constituency politicians — knows the sacrifices people have made over the past six or seven...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: -----and redistributing it among poorer people for good social objectives, is flawed. As I stated, a single person with a gross income of €70,000 may look very well off but is paying more than €25,000 of that in personal taxes. The solution required is not that of the Deputy but to do everything possible to grow the economy, put more people back to work and ensure there are...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: The Deputy's point comes back to a point I made to Deputy Boyd Barrett. If one believes that regardless of qualifications, ability, enthusiasm, work ethic and all of the rest of it, everybody should be paid the same, I would argue that is an unrealistic model of society and an unrealistic model of the labour market. I think we would all acknowledge that because of the nature of society...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: I thank both Deputies for their submissions but they have not alluded to the huge amount of documentation provided to them which accompanied the budget on budget day. First, if they look at the main features of the budget, there were the changes in income tax. There was a full analysis of the income impact on various families, and that was modelled over 20 pages in the budget booklet....

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: The Government has no plans to introduce a wealth tax although all taxes and potential taxation options are constantly reviewed. Wealth can be taxed in a variety of ways, some of which are already in place in Ireland. Capital gains tax and capital acquisitions tax are in effect taxes on wealth in that they are levied on an individual or company on the disposal of, in the case of capital...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: I thank the Deputies for the amendment. A substantial amount of analysis covering some of the groups the Deputies have outlined has already been published by the Department of Finance, or is due to be published in the coming months by Departments and other stakeholders. A very detailed distributional analysis was published by the Department of Finance in sections B.1 to B.26 of this year's...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: What tax rate would apply to those four bands?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: That would be the income tax.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: This is the point-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: No, this will help the Deputy. Someone on a salary of €100,000 is paying just under €40,000 in personal taxes. That consists of income tax, USC and PRSI. These are not fabulously wealthy people. Their net take-home pay is €60,000. If one piles on another 11% through the marginal tax rate, one can see where it will lead. One needs to work off net figures to see the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: I do not think they are struggling either. Neither do I think they are very wealthy, however.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: The Secretary General keeps a confidential arrangement pertaining to any contact or correspondence between him and members of the Opposition, especially finance spokespersons. I would not have seen Deputy McGrath's letter coming in or his letter going out.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2014: Committee Stage (18 Nov 2014)

Michael Noonan: The date of 2 October was a long way before the budget.