Seanad debates

Tuesday, 7 December 2021

Finance Bill 2021: Second Stage

 

10:30 am

Photo of Maria ByrneMaria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming here for this important debate. The Finance Bill will affect all of us, right across every sector. There is increased spending within the budget, which will affect all sectors in society. I welcome the increase in the tax bands for both employees and employers. That is very important and puts a little bit more money into everybody's pocket. We had a debate earlier with the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment with regard to supports. Senator Casey has just spoken very passionately about these. I have been dealing with small and larger businesses in my own neck of the woods, Limerick, including hotels, restaurants and gastropubs, and with people in the tourism industry such as coach providers. As a result of the Omicron variant, not as many people are coming into the country now. People do not yet know a lot about it. Some people have cancelled their trips, including golf trips, to Ireland. Many businesses have been affected by Covid.

I compliment the Government on the supports that have been put in place to date. They have certainly helped keep many businesses afloat. I told the Tánaiste a little story earlier. I was talking to a small business that employs 45 people. The 50% threshold definitely does not work for it. I give that as an example. It maintained its business just above that 50% threshold, business being down by 46% or 47%. It did this by doing such things as selling vouchers to support this Irish business and encouraging people to buy takeaways. That is how it increased its business. It would not normally have gone down that road. The 50% threshold needs to be looked at. I welcome the fact the Minister of State's Department is in negotiations with the Revenue Commissioners and that it has had meetings with the industry and with small businesses in the performance industry.

The Minister of State mentioned the issue of housing and Housing for All. I will raise a few matters in that regard. A parent who bought an apartment for €200,000 years ago whose son or daughter cannot afford to buy a house may gift that apartment to his or her child to be used as the principal private residence. However, if the value of the apartment is now €250,000 or €280,000, the parent will be taxed on the difference between the two figures. The Minister of State needs to look at this. We hear of many people who are on housing lists and of parents giving loans to family members to help them raise the deposit for a home. I understand these areas have not been looked at in more than ten years. They really need to be looked at properly because more and more parents are now helping out family members but are being penalised for doing so. There is also an issue with parents gifting farms to young farmers. Perhaps the Minister of State could look at that. With regard to the ten-year period, it is probably unlikely that a definitive estate planning period would be allowed but perhaps the Department of Finance could look at the issue of tax on gifts from parents to children. I have raised the issue around increases in the value of a premises.

With regard to the proposals on climate change, I welcome the €5,000 in respect of electric vehicles, but we also need to look at how we are going to bring in charging points. People living in terraced houses or apartments might want to buy an electric vehicle, but there are not a lot of charging points around the country. This needs to be taken into consideration.

I have covered pretty much everything I wanted to cover. There is just one other thing. With regard to a parent giving a gift to a family member, the total value of all gifts over a certain period is aggregated. Once the ten-year period is up, does it start again? That is something that needs to be looked at. When a parent passes on and leaves an inheritance to a family member, it can sometimes count against them if they have already received a gift of a house or apartment. That is another area I would like the Minister of State to look at.

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