Results 16,141-16,160 of 19,445 for speaker:Brian Cowen

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: In regard to the point raised by Senator Phelan, when responding to an identical proposal made in the other House the argument that the commitment to those families should be equated with increases in the home carer's credit is flawed. Significant improvements in take-home pay have resulted from the budgetary measures being provided for in the Finance Bill. Finite resources mean choices must...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: I am not committed in principle to completing the individualisation process. I will consider year on year whether and how I progress it, given the priorities at the time. One thing I have learned from the experience is that it was right to move towards this with caution and to recognise there are societal attitudes and situations that have to be taken on board while at the same time ensuring...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: The Senator is proposing that where moneys are paid to State agencies that would subsequently qualify for tax relief, the Minister would make regulations that would require such State bodies to make returns of all such payments. The purpose of the return appears to be to facilitate the Revenue Commissioners in granting the appropriate relief to the taxpayer. Regarding an amendment on the same...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: The points they raise on this issue is that for TRS to work it requires a small number of payees related to the number of payers. In other words, if a large number of people are paying a small number of agencies, the TRS system works but it does not work as well if there are different ranges and rates of service charges among local authorities. There is not a uniform entitlement. The...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: This recommendation is concerned with contributions to occupational pension schemes by those on lower incomes. It seeks a tax credit to be contributed by the Exchequer to the individual's pension scheme equivalent to relief at the higher rate of tax of 42%. I take it this tax credit is to be instead of relief that the individual may be getting at the standard rate, assuming they are in the...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: The amendment has been ruled out of order. On Second Stage yesterday Senator Browne, untypically of him, quite unfairly asserted that my parliamentary colleagues, Deputy McGuinness and Deputy Nolan, given their membership of the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service, had it in their power to put down an amendment to the Finance Bill which would have been accepted by me. That is...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: On 12 December 2002, following the announcement of the closure of the Comerama factory with the loss of over 160 jobs, the Tánaiste, together with officials of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, met with a SIPTU delegation representing the Comerama workers. From the official minutes of that meeting it appears that the main concern of the workers, many if not most of whom had...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: Comerama workers were never employed by the State and in any event, received substantial ex gratia severance payments in settlements with the company. The meeting between the Tánaiste and some former Comerama workers took place almost six months before the coming into force of the Redundancy Payments Act 2003. In that period, approximately 12,000 other workers were made redundant throughout...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: Is the Senator surprised that I spoke at length on the issue?

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: I very much take Senator Mansergh's point in this regard. I agree with maximum flexibility and seeking to implement our programme to the greatest possible extent. If any party could tell me that it was able to implement every aspect of its programme within the period that it had set itself, I would buy its members a pint. That is not a big prize, but if they took a drink, I would do so. That...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: Prior to the budget, funds were being built up on a fully tax allowable basis and were capable of being distributed tax free or of attracting a long-term tax deferral. Now, however, there is a limit on the size of the fund which can be built up and on the size of the retirement lump sum which can be taken tax free, and there is no longer an option to use ARF structures for long-term tax...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: The assumption was that when ARFs were initiated as a means of long-term pension provision, the annuities would begin to flow when people reached retirement age and that the tax would be paid. Using sophisticated taxation lawyers and other such individuals as we have in this country, people sought another mechanism to further defer taxation and perhaps ultimately transform it into a capital...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: The point I make is that the job of a governance mechanism at any time must be to see where the objective or foreseeable benefits are not flowing. One makes the changes necessary to stop a practice which was not envisaged when the arrangements were initially put in place. As far as its introduction was concerned, it was a bona fide provision, and once it became clear from the Revenue...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: The consideration raised by Senator McDowell in his last point is a real issue. I can see both sides of the argument. At the end of the day I want to achieve an objective where, through the specified reliefs provision, we do not have high income individuals who pay no tax. There is a wider confidence issue here in terms of equity in the tax system that we need to keep to the fore in our...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: I agree with Senator Mansergh that we should be proud of the Irish horse breeding industry. It has developed from being a cottage industry 40 or 50 years ago to being a world leader now. I was in Australia recently and, for the second time in the last five years, I did not get an opportunity to see the excellent facilities Coolmore has there. It also has facilities in Kentucky as well as...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: Rather than being provoked into a response to Senator John Paul Phelan, Senator Mansergh should be aware that the inveterate love between Kilkenny and Tipperary probably motivated some of Senator Phelan's comments about Coolmore's success. The difficulty for a Kilkenny man to acknowledge Tipperary's success should never be underestimated, and vice versa. With regard to the position of Senator...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: In the same way as there was a trop de zèle in some political parties in this country about the exemption, there was also a trop de zèle in the EU Commission. I used all my persuasive and diplomatic skills, to no avail, to get it to look beyond what I considered to be a narrow, legalistic approach to this issue. Thankfully, in the European Council meeting last week we were successful in...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: It was imposed upon me by the European Commission and by nobody else. Unfortunately, the adverse publicity and the unwarranted assertions that were made about the nature of this industry detract from the high regard in which it is held internationally. We should be proud of that rather than begrudge it. It helped create the atmosphere which has culminated in us being told what to do in this...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: We really need to stop the nonsense. I cannot even get a decent tip in Galway when I go there. It is getting to the stage where I might not go there anymore.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2006 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (29 Mar 2006)

Brian Cowen: The Senator is welcome to come into the tent anytime and have a look around. The argument has been made for years about golden circles and millions being salted away. Unfortunately, this is due to the personal agenda of the man who brought forward the scheme originally. If someone else did it, there would not have been a word about it.