Results 1-20 of 6,968 for at speaker:Pearse Doherty

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: How do we know? The Central Statistics Office is telling us. The Government is locking out an entire generation from home ownership and locking people into sky-high rents. The vulture funds and investors are sweeping up those houses and renting them out at astronomical prices. That is Government policy.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: ...;ochas leis an Tánaiste. Faoina Rialtas, tá praghas na dteach ag méadú le bliain anuas. Méadú de 7% a chonaic muid inné. Ar fud an Stáit anois, tá meánphraghas €400,000 ar thithe do dhaoine atá ag iarraidh teach úr a cheannacht. Yesterday, the CSO reported that in the past year house prices have continued to...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: What planet is the Tánaiste living on? He stood there and said the rate of increase of house prices is coming down. He should open his eyes. It is accelerating. It is increasing month-on-month. We have had ten months of house price increases. In the Tánaiste's constituency, house prices are €100,000 higher than when he took office just four years ago. The...

Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (15 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: As we have discussed, the Bill provides for the establishment of two funds, that is, the future Ireland fund and the infrastructure, climate and nature fund. These funds were first proposed in response to two trends, namely, the future costs likely to be incurred by the State and the growth of corporation tax receipts in recent years. We all acknowledge that we have seen a significant...

Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (15 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: I say this often, but Deputy Gould is 100% right. Earlier, I said the reason the Government is getting the Bill so wrong is it does not understand what is happening in the housing crisis. Deputy Gould put to the Minister what is happening on his doorstep and he seems to think everything is okay. It is far from okay. Deputy Gould also mentioned the statistics released today. What is...

Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (15 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: I move amendment No. 3: In page 12, between lines 16 and 17, to insert the following: “ “designated housing project” has the meaning assigned to it by section 21;”. I will speak to all of the grouped amendments. These amendments relate to the infrastructure, climate and nature fund and under the legislation, €2 billion will be contributed to the...

Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (15 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: I made the point that there may be a slightly lower return from domestic investment than from international investment. The NTMA will feel it has to get the most competitive returns available, even though there is an opportunity cost lost. Amendment No. 2 does not direct it to invest in the domestic economic development or sectors such as housing, infrastructure, energy and water. It...

Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (15 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: Deputy Nash outlined the substance of his amendment. My amendment is very similar. It relates to the investment strategy under the Future Ireland Fund and would provide a focus for the investment strategy with respect to the Future Ireland Fund towards domestic investment in the State. As I outlined on Committee Stage and Second Stage, I believe the establishment of funds is appropriate....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revenue Commissioners: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: I welcome Mr. Cody and the officials from Revenue. I was at another meeting, so the witnesses may have already answered some of the questions I am going to ask. If they have, they can skip over the relevant questions and I will look at the transcript for what I missed. I have quite a number of questions. I will try to get through them as quickly as possible. I also have a couple of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revenue Commissioners: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: It will be a small amount compared with what it was at first. I presume a risk analysis was carried out in the early days. You were looking at these type of numbers and you would be in a good position, given the pandemic and all the rest.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revenue Commissioners: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: Not everybody went for it. Not everyone went for the 0%, as Mr. Cody said. Some are paying up. If we look at Irish real estate fund, IREFs, the assets they hold have increased dramatically. In 2022, assets held by IREFs stood at €28.1 billion. It was less than one third of that in 2018. It is a 14% increase on the previous year but a 209% increase on 2019. There has been an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revenue Commissioners: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: This has been going on for a couple of years. I have been raising it with the Minister. I am glad he has finally asked for a formal review. The Revenue Commissioners looks at this all the time. We are not talking about small companies. Earlier, we were talking about SMEs which have tax warehoused. Some warehoused tax is just a couple of hundred euro. We are not talking about that - we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revenue Commissioners: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: The amount of data being provided to us is brilliant. We could always do with more to keep us up late at night.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revenue Commissioners: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: ...and all the rest. I saw a video on TikTok in the past couple of days on how to get money out of a company. Any company director will know about the problem of having money locked in a company that is going well. Under Irish tax law, somebody earning €18,000 does not pay income tax and they may pay USC. The point was made that, instead of giving €10,000 to a son or...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revenue Commissioners: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: I have raised this with the Minister for Finance but no concern has been expressed on the floor of the Dáil. Tax advisers are telling companies to use the loophole. It was created in the Finance Act 2022 and the Society of Chartered Actuaries warned against it. It wrote to the Department of Finance in advance of the change with its recommendations and stated there were some concerns...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revenue Commissioners: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: Is there anything that could be done? For example, the guy who owns a corner shop in west Donegal and has approximately €2 million invested in the company knows that if he draws it down, he will have to pay a 40% tax rate. He may be thinking of retiring but his pension pot might be small. He has not put a huge amount of money into his pension and his pension pot may only be at...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revenue Commissioners: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: Revenue cannot legislate afterwards under care and management. On mortgage interest tax relief, only 10% of the money has been drawn done so far. It is not deducted at source. Hundreds of people have applied for it, but they do not have a tax liability. They have not paid tax, maybe because they are looking after disabled children and do not have a tax liability. Is Revenue supposed to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Revenue Commissioners: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: I have a very brief last question. We are dealing with the Gambling Regulation Bill, which is going through the Seanad at present. Under tax law, and Revenue has an updated opinion or guidance on this, VAT does not apply on the sale of tickets in local GAA club lotteries and so on. I will make a declaration, and it is in my declarations of interest, that I am involved in a not-for-profit...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Reports (14 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: 530. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if a report, believed to have begun in June 2022, into 11 allegations of abuse at a disability centre (details supplied), will be made public; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21741/24]