Results 11,861-11,880 of 26,901 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Can the Minister of State comment on the 48,000 we know do not have sufficient income?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: This is my last question. One of the justifications for the tax at the time was that it was a sort of fair wealth tax. It certainly is not in the case of the 56,000 who seek deferrals because their income is less than either €15,000 as an individual or €25,000 as a couple. Is that not low income? At least in terms of that cohort, is that not fairly harsh?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It has increased.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: On the facts, the Minister of State has indicated that the non-compliance rate has increased steadily for the last number of years, now standing at 97,000. Will he confirm that deferrals, 96% of which are based on insufficient income, have also increased? In other words, there are people whose income is insufficient to enable them to pay and, therefore, they are seeking deferrals? The...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister of State gave us the figures for 2016 and 2017. We also need the figure for 2015. From my read of the Revenue statistics, the figure for deferrals started at 48,000.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It has increased from 46,000 to 57,700. The Minister of State said that it is not possible for us to deduce why people are not complying but likewise he cannot deduce that those who are complying are doing so on a voluntary or enthusiastic basis.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Never.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We are into a political ideological debate on which the lines are clearly drawn, and it might be useful to get factual information on it. I had one final question but it has slipped my mind.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I remember the question I had.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is a one-line question. Can I ask it?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Has the Minister of State a figure for the administrative costs of collecting the €470 million in property tax, and if he does not, could he supply it?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I asked for the administrative costs of collecting the property tax.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Is there a figure for that online cost?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Are we dealing with section 7?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Every opportunity must be taken to highlight the scandalous suite of measures being introduced by this Government to provide a form of corporate welfare to private developers to enable them to profit from the current housing crisis of which Home Building Finance Ireland, HBFI, is another component. Every opportunity must be taken to highlight the scandalous suite of measures being introduced...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister of State has made a very interesting and accurate admission. This will not be of any use in Dublin. We could probably add Cork and other places where not only the crisis is most acute but the different elements that have produced this unprecedented housing crisis, including property prices, are most acute. We are going to put €750 million into an initiative that will...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister of State said it himself - he was right to do so - it is not going to impact in areas such as Dublin. There is, by the way, an obvious reason for that. The smaller builder cannot access finance or is not building because site values have gone through the roof.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That is certainly what Mr. Mel Reynolds is arguing. He is correct, even as it relates to some of the large sites. Firms such as, for example, Hines in Cherrywood will parcel their sites and offer them for sale to smaller builders at extortionate prices. Those prices increase constantly. If planning permission is acquired, for example, the price will increase. If the Government changes...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: A property does not need to have a southern aspect or something can be built higher. All of these little changes, including strategic development zone designation, mean that the value will increases. Therefore, the little builder who buys a site is doing so at an inflated cost. It is not viable for a builder to build without charging astronomical prices. A bank in looking at this...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Home Building Finance Ireland Bill 2018: Committee Stage (20 Sep 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The problem with all this is it is predicated on the idea that if one increases supply it will help resolve the crisis. If we increase supply but the supply is unaffordable it will not resolve the crisis it will make the crisis worse. That is the basic point I put to the Minister of State and he did not really answer it. We had supply at a very high level before the crash but it was...