Results 101-120 of 1,406 for at speaker:Gerald Nash

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Business Supports (23 Nov 2023)

Gerald Nash: Does that mean, for example, that a business will qualify if it is restructuring its arrangements with a local authority for a repayment scheme, as many have done in recent years because of the difficulties they may have experienced in trading through Covid and so on? If they are in an arrangement with a local authority for a repayment scheme, I assume they will qualify for that support....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Business Supports (23 Nov 2023)

Gerald Nash: I apologise for the earlier confusion. As Deputy Richmond knows, I expected not to be here as we were stuck on the M1. Deputy O'Reilly probably was too. I thank the Minister for that clarification. We have all received significant correspondence from businesses in our own constituencies concerned about additional costs for their businesses, as a result of positive moves relating to...

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Report and Final Stages (22 Nov 2023)

Gerald Nash: I will speak to the grouping. The Minister is aware of the views from this side of the House. They were well ventilated on Committee Stage. Fundamentally, the point is one made at committee just two weeks ago that there should not be any cash without conditions. We all welcome the move with the increase of the cap. We want to see an industry that is vibrant, vital and dynamic but which...

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Report and Final Stages (22 Nov 2023)

Gerald Nash: I support Deputy Shortall's proposition. We have a progressive tax system, which has been defended under successive Administrations even in the toughest of times. That is something that we, as a country, should be very proud of. However, the reality is that the kinds of changes introduced by the Minister in this Bill see that progressivity fraying at the edges. Looking at the direction of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (22 Nov 2023)

Gerald Nash: 83. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 194 of 19 October 2023, if she will arrange for staff at the building unit at the Department to meet persons on a matter (details supplied) relating to the issues raised; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51261/23]

Employment (Collective Redundancies and Miscellaneous Provisions) and Companies (Amendment) Bill 2023: Second Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Gerald Nash: Today is a bit of an emotional day for me. The Minister will recall the work done by the Government in which I served to start to address these issues, issues that became all too apparent to us in light of the Clerys debacle. I will never forget two phone calls I received that afternoon, the first from Gerry Light, the then deputy general secretary of Mandate trade union, soon followed by...

Energy Charter Treaty: Statements (9 Nov 2023)

Gerald Nash: I am glad we are finally getting around to having a debate on this topic. At the outset, I state that the Labour Party supports withdrawing from the ECT. This is one of those rare instances in which the Government and the Opposition are, broadly speaking, in agreement, though we may disagree on the mechanics, so to speak, regarding how we get there. We in the Labour Party have numerous...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2023)

Gerald Nash: There is a degree of value in what Deputy English said. That may be something we could explore at some point in the future when the Minister with responsibility for the sector could look critically at the idea of introducing sectoral bargaining arrangements on a more formal basis. I am open to persuasion on whether a joint labour committee is the right approach. Deputy English is familiar...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Facilities (7 Nov 2023)

Gerald Nash: 1367. To ask the Minister for Health for an update on the additional units being built at St. Mary's hospital, Drogheda; when the units will come into operation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48807/23]

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Gerald Nash: ...from a charge to tax by virtue of subsection (5G), then such expenses are exempt if incurred again within four years, where they were incurred in order to replace a bicycle or bicycle safety equipment that was stolen.”.”. This relates to the benefit-in-kind relief for bicycles. This and the other amendment taken in this grouping are issues I raised last year. The...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Gerald Nash: That is unfortunate. I will just speak to amendment No. 4 again. For most reliefs of this nature, when we look at benefit in kind, by definition there is a presumption of an employee-employer relationship. I will note that the rent tax credit for a student can be claimed by parents. The Minister is making provision for that. The same principle should apply to his consideration of this...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Gerald Nash: We are on the question of PAYE assessments and refunds and release more broadly. The Minister announced on budget day that he and the Revenue Commissioners intend to roll out a public campaign to inform people of their entitlements. I know from a reply to a parliamentary question I received from him last week that there are several hundred thousand tax units or individuals who have yet to...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Gerald Nash: We are used to the Government of the day, whatever the colour of that Government is, describing itself as a responsible policymaker. In this case, it is the Opposition that is the responsible policymaker, because this policy is bananas from a public policy point of view. By the time this scheme is wound down, and it certainly will not be wound down between now and the general election...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Gerald Nash: Absolutely. It is common practice, but that does not make it right. For the Minister to say he is concerned about certainty suggests that we should be undertaking work to design the kind of scheme referred to earlier or the kinds of schemes which Mazars and others might have in mind that would appropriately address the problem. This is not appropriately addressing the problem; it is...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Gerald Nash: I move amendment No. 5: In page 15, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: "Tax credits, etc.: report on cost of indexation 10.The Minister and the Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform shall include in their Summer Economic Statement in each year a report setting out the estimated cost to the Exchequer of adjusting— (a) tax rate bands and tax credits...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Gerald Nash: The Labour Party opposes this section and the initiative involved on the basis of the basic rule of thumb that a landlord should not pay less tax on his or her passive income or investment than a PAYE worker on his or her income. I do not believe the policy is sustainable, as has been said before, including by me. Assistant professor of economics Barra Roantree, who works in Trinity...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Gerald Nash: I know we are up against the clock. We will not conclude discussion of these amendments this evening. The Committee on Budgetary Oversight has spent an enormous amount of time discussing and debating these really important issues. It goes back to the basic principle of no cash without conditions, something we are very bad at implementing and enforcing in this country. I absolutely agree...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Estimates Publication (26 Oct 2023)

Gerald Nash: I think we can assume the Supplementary Estimate will be very significant indeed based on the information that is in the public domain at present. I think everybody in this House, or at least a very significant number of Deputies in this House, and indeed experts would be of the view that the Minister must re-examine the planned expenditure in health for next year. That is very clear....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Estimates Publication (26 Oct 2023)

Gerald Nash: I find it quite extraordinary that we are in a position where the Minister for Health would be preparing to introduce plans here in this House and ask the Dáil to approve a budget which the HSE chief executive and he consider to be entirely inaccurate. This is about parliamentary accountability. Our primary concern should be for the well-being of all those of us who depend on a decent...

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023: Second Stage (24 Oct 2023)

Gerald Nash: I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak on the Finance (No. 2) Bill on behalf of the Labour Party. This legislation gives effect to many of the proposals announced in budget 2024 two weeks ago, including the important changes to the corporation tax code, which are the most significant and far-reaching since 1997. While the finance Bill, by definition, focuses on the taxation...