Results 15,901-15,920 of 27,251 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I want to make another point. Most of the points have been made. One of the amazing things about all of this is that it will not deliver a single extra house.

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The housing and homelessness crisis is the biggest crisis facing this country. The Government never tires of telling us that it is caused by a lack of supply and that we need to consider where that supply should come from. We think the State should provide that supply, but any bloody supply would be pretty helpful at the moment. It is an absolutely disastrous situation. All of these...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is incredible that we do not even know how much tax is forgone through these tax breaks the Minister allows for these speculators and investment funds of various kinds. I thought I knew a thing or two until I started to delve into the world of finance as a Member of the Dáil. I am consistently amazed by the elaborate variety of mechanisms that somebody - I presume the tax lawyers...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I move amendment No. 78:In page 63, between lines 1 and 2, to insert the following:“23. The Minister for Finance is to order a study to be carried out on introducing a Financial Transactions Tax and is to report to the Dáil within six months of the enactment of this Act on the findings of the study”. I will be brief to save us all the Chinese torture we are now undergoing....

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: What is the benefit in the area of property?

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister did not answer my question. I asked it on Committee Stage and I asked it again but he did not answer it. He told me what he thought this was doing and that it is a marginal improvement in that it tries to impose some sort of withholding tax, but it retains the fundamental tax break, or tax status, for these funds that are speculating in property. Can the Minister explain how...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I face a dilemma in dealing with this section because our amendment, which was more targeted, was ruled out of order. I take the point about the withholding tax, and this is something of an improvement on what we had before us on Committee Stage, but we are disallowed from doing what we really want to do, which is what we tried to do in amendment No. 46. The whole thing is unacceptable. ...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am allowed to speak.

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I asked on Committee Stage and I did not get an answer. The only answer I can surmise from this is that back in 2011, 2012 or whenever, the Government decided it wanted to get these big property investors into the Irish property market to inflate the value of property for NAMA to make a profit. The consequence of this for the Government was it would be able to say NAMA had done its job, it...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Briefly. I will come back in when we come to the Government amendment. I tabled the amendment, but the real target is the target set out in amendment No. 46 which, unfortunately, has been ruled out of order. Deputy Donnelly's point underlines why we are concerned about this section, which is that we are allowing the continuation of a special tax status, or non-tax status, for people...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Sorry. Which amendments are we dealing with?

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They are important issues.

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am not.

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I move amendment No. 41:In page 43, to delete lines 13 to 40, to delete pages 44 to 62, and in page 63, to delete line 1. The amendment relates to the Irish real estate funds. We had this discussion on Committee Stage. We tabled a few amendments on the issue, most of which have been ruled out of order, in particular, amendment No. 46. Amendment No. 41 deletes the sections that we were...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Government has tabled an amendment, which slightly amends what was agreed on Committee Stage. What I am trying to get out of the amendment is that, essentially, there should be no such thing as the exclusion of profits from Irish real estate funds. The Government amendment slightly varies what it had earlier but it still allows significant profits to be excluded. I do not see the...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, but it is important to get across what I am trying to ask.

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I do not see why any of these profits should be excluded. It just seems to me that the Minister is allowing a massive tax loophole to continue for the benefit of property speculators.

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I agree with the amendment and endorse Deputy Donnelly's comments, but I will go further on a point that is not covered by the amendment but is connected to it. It relates to section 110 generally. I do not fully understand the mechanism through which these companies have avoided significant amounts of tax or even how much they have avoided, but we need to know the details. What else is...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: To be honest, I do not fully understand it, but I am not satisfied that the Minister has made a case for section 110 in general. His main argument seems to be that there are 38,000 jobs in the IFSC and that, therefore, we should not worry about people such as those in Matheson telling investors to get into the area of aircraft leasing and use section 110 to ensure they will pay no tax. To...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Our amendment proposing that the section 110 tax break be done away with, full stop, was ruled out of order. I would like a simple answer from the Minister as to why that should not be the case. It is very technical and one's head would be fried, frankly, with this stuff, which, I suppose, is half the point. These flipping tax lawyers are so far ahead of us, the Government and Revenue in...