Results 10,261-10,280 of 35,575 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

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

Pearse Doherty: May I intervene on this point? It is a burning issue for many, and there has been some commentary on it over the last while. I have a question for the Minister on the background to this change. Is the Tax Appeals Commission's ruling relating to the €394,000 that was deemed to be paid by a company for the sale of church candles between 2013 and 2016 the instigation of this measure?...

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

Pearse Doherty: I thank the Minister for clarifying that it does not relate to the Tax Appeals Commission ruling. What is the revenue that is expected to be generated from the introduction of VAT on these products? I presume this applies when we purchase small candles for our homes as well and that it is not just church candles. Is that the case? It is all cylindrical candles we buy, so it is wider than...

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

Pearse Doherty: I move amendment No. 146: In page 62, between lines 24 and 25, to insert the following: “Report on applying full rate of stamp duty on non-residential property to all corporate structures including REIT and IREF in certain circumstances 47.The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on introducing...

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

Pearse Doherty: We have seen the issue arise and we have seen the impact of it. I refer to Green REIT and Henderson Park, where a 1% stamp duty applied as opposed to the 7.5% that should have applied. This is a question of fairness and balance. There is not need for a further review. I am unconvinced. I ask the Minister to elaborate on why these structures should apply a stamp duty of 1% as compared...

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

Pearse Doherty: The purchase of shares is the purchase of property. When Green REIT sells to Henderson Park it does not sell only shares. Henderson Park owns all of the property. It is a property investment company. It is bricks and mortar that is being sold in this instance. There is a loophole in the law.

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

Pearse Doherty: Let us be clear on this. This is the sale of over €1 billion of property in the state. If a company in Ireland sold off hotels, apartments, shopping centres, residential units and so on a 7.5% stamp duty would apply but because this structure can sell the shares as a means of selling the property it gets away with paying stamp duty at 1%. It is ridiculous. It is a massive loophole...

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

Pearse Doherty: The Minister made changes in last year's Finance Bill in regard to this structure because it was going to get away with paying no stamp duty on a €1.3 billion sale of residential or non-residential property. As I said, 1% is better than nothing but the stamp duty on non-residential property is not 1%, it is 7.5%. This is not an entity that is engaged in selling shares. It is not a...

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

Pearse Doherty: I have acknowledged changes that have been introduced in the Finance Bill. I have also acknowledged that some of those changes have happened because of amendments I have tabled or by exposing areas where loopholes have existed in the past. I acknowledge that the Minister and his officials have introduced amendments to close them. However, he allowed Green REIT to get away with blue murder...

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

Pearse Doherty: I moved amendment No. 148: In page 64, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following: "Report on introduction of residential stamp duty surcharge for non-residential purchases 52.The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the introduction of a residential property tax surcharge where property is purchased...

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

Pearse Doherty: I seek guidance. The meeting will suspend at 1 p.m. What will happen if we are in the middle of a vote? If we are coming up to 1 p.m. will the vote be deferred to the second session? I suggest that is what we do.

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

Pearse Doherty: The vote will take 20 minutes.

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

Pearse Doherty: This section deals with the pandemic unemployment payment and the payment that was paid prior to early August, which was known as the pandemic unemployment payment. What the Minister is attempting to do in part of this section is to turn back the clock and make taxable a payment that was not taxable under the legal basis of the Finance Act 2018. It was clear this type of payment, paid out...

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

Pearse Doherty: No. Let us deal with this. Regardless of the Minister's intention, will he clarify whether the payments that were made between 13 March and 5 August, which was before they were put on a statutory basis, were paid out, as has been repeatedly said by him and others, under section 202 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005? Is that the legal basis on which those hundreds of millions of...

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

Pearse Doherty: Section 202 does not mention means-tested or regular payments. The Government's argument is that, because the payments are regular and not means tested, they are not deemed as urgent needs payments. However, I welcome the Minister's clarification that the legal basis for paying out these hundreds of millions of euro was section 202 of the 2005 Act. I am not dismissing what he or the...

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

Pearse Doherty: We can all give examples, but the Minister gave an example of somebody on the pandemic unemployment payment for 12 months. First, he will acknowledge that this is impossible because the pandemic unemployment payment did not come into existence until mid-March. People were earning full wages prior to that, or at least a large cohort was. Indeed, people came off the pandemic unemployment...

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

Pearse Doherty: The Minister cannot have it every which way to suit his own narrative. Nobody is disputing the fact that those payments needed to be made. Indeed, they were vital and the right thing was done by the Minister and his colleagues in Government at the time. However, there had to be a legal basis for making those payments. The Minister accepts that the undisputed legal basis for that is...

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

Pearse Doherty: Chairman, I have asked the Minister a question on two occasions now to give us the precedent of when he has done this. I would ask him to stop trying to take us for fools, or at least to stop taking me for a fool. The Minister talks about income support. I can read section 202. It is an urgent needs support. The Minister's amendment to the Finance Bill asks us to rewind the clock. It...

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

Pearse Doherty: No.

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

Pearse Doherty: No matter how important the Minister believes his words to be, his words are not to the law. The law at this point is that this payment is not taxable. That is why the Minister is asking us to change the law to rewind the clock. The reality is that the Minister cannot give an example of this because this does not happen.

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

Pearse Doherty: On section 4, I ask the Minister if this is the first time this will be made exempt from tax and the background to this allowance.