Results 17,341-17,360 of 35,756 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: I am not opposed to this scheme. What is its cost?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: Is there a breakdown of the proportion of the costs that are drawn down by, say, a certain section of the companies? We see with other schemes that the major benefit goes to the top 100 companies in the State and so on, or is it-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: I wish to go back to the fact that the Minister is extending this scheme. I am not opposed to its extension but I want to look at how he is making this judgment. It is provided for in the Finance Bill that a scheme will be introduced with a deadline; the deadline approaches; lo and behold, the deadline is extended. I cannot recall when a scheme in the Finance Bill that was supposed to end...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: When we put a deadline to a scheme, is it not to incentivise and force companies to do something, such as looking at energy-efficient equipment, because unless they do so they will not have the benefits later on? As schemes are extended over and over again, we send a message to companies that while there is a deadline and a scheme, for example, will not be available after 1 January 2018, in...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: It is a very low uptake on the scheme.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: Has the Department considered any other options to try to encourage uptake in the scheme apart from simply extending a scheme that has been in existence for a number of years and which has a very low uptake?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: With regard to the 2014 review, will the Minister clarify for the committee the cost of the scheme at that stage compared with the €1.1 million cost today? How many claimants were there in the period for which figures were available for the 2014 review, compared with the 65 claimants in 2015?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: These claimants could be the same companies each year.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: I move amendment No. 15:In page 20, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following:“13. The Minister shall within 6 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the introduction of a vacant home tax.”. This amendment relates to the vacant home tax. We have had a lot of conversation around the housing crisis and the emergency the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: The Government has had a year to come up with a vacant homes strategy and it has failed to do so. This was supposed to have been done months ago. The Finance Bill is going through and there is no mention of a vacant homes strategy. The three initiatives the Government has set in train for vacant homes are all welcome but they are minor. They target some 6,500 vacant homes over a period of...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: The Minister pointed out to me and the committee that he is fully aware of the homelessness crisis. I accept that, although ignorance would not be a defence anyway. Being fully aware of it and then taking no action or not taking the appropriate action makes it even worse. The Minister gave us figures about how many vacant homes came into use between 2011 and 2016. During the Minister's...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: No.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: I move amendment No. 16:In page 20, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following:"13.The Minister shall, within one month of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on how he will monitor on an ongoing basis the effectiveness and the value for money of the Help to Buy scheme.". Amendment No. 16 deals with the help-to-buy scheme. I would have...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: First of all, the Minister did not prepare a report before introducing this scheme. The Indecon report makes reference to that fact and says that it should not happen again. No evaluation was carried out. We had a big talk earlier about how homeless families could benefit, but the Minister said that he could not introduce a vacant property tax as he would need all the statistics and so on....

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: It was a daft idea in the first place. I do not think members should be patting the Minister on the back for that.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: The Minister said that I did not acknowledge the positive decisions he has taken. He is wrong. I have acknowledged them. I have supported many of the measures brought forward by him in this Bill, some of which I referred to when I was addressing this issue, particularly the previous measure we discussed in terms of the write-off around returning vacant homes into stock. It is unfair of...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: Yes.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: In 2015 changes were introduced to ensure that EII complied with state aid rules.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: It did not. The State has been in breach of state aid rules since then. Is the Government telling the Commission to butt out, that this is an issue of tax sovereignty and that it will be taken to the European courts?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Pearse Doherty: I am only messing. I am merely highlighting the difference between the approach to the Apple matter and the €13 billion it owes and these couple of hundred individuals. Rulings on state aid come from the European courts quite regularly. How many individuals have benefitted from potentially illegal state aid? Are we saying it was illegal state aid at this point in time?