Results 281-300 of 1,051,637 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Peadar Tóibín OR speaker:Dara Calleary OR speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett OR speaker:Neale Richmond OR speaker:Gerald Nash OR speaker:Paschal Donohoe OR speaker:Niamh Smyth) in 'Committee meetings'

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I will kick off there. I thank Deputy Canney. I entirely agree with his point that with so much funding being available through the Apple decision, it is imperative we make a decision regarding how we spend that money wisely. When Ireland experienced a gain such as this before, for example, the money that was made available for us in regional cohesion funding through our membership of the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Gerald Nash: Briefly, as we are a little over time.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I mostly want to ask about the future, the budget and all the rest but, given the debate we had in the Dáil today and the Apple tax issue, I just want to ask a question. My question is for the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, in particular, because he was around then. Does he and the Government regret the fact it did not take on the views of some of us in the Opposition back in 2013 when we...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: No.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: -----and should have allowed those representatives to be questioned about the company's tax affairs?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: Absolutely not. A taxpayer is not accountable to the Deputy or to the Parliament for their tax affairs. They are accountable to the Revenue Commissioners and there is a clear line that we should not cross here. A taxpayer is accountable to the Revenue Commissioners, an independent non-political body, for their tax affairs. They are not accountable to Parliament for it.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is not just any old taxpayer.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: It is a taxpayer and it is an employer. I strongly believe that if we get to a point that a taxpayer believes they are going to be accountable for the conduct of their tax affairs to a Parliament in public as opposed to the Revenue Commissioners, which is independent and private, that is a line and a division of powers we should not break. The short answer to the Deputy's question is that I...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We will certainly agree to disagree on that one.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I think most ordinary people in this country would say that if they were accused of taking money from the people that the people should have had, they would be chased down by the State for doing that. In some cases they might even end up in prison for doing it, such as for TV licences and so on. I think most people would find that pretty difficult to stomach. At the time, some of us said...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: If the Deputy wants to reduce it to the understandable paradigm of the average person on the street, I think that if the average person on the street had a difficulty or their tax affairs were not in order, they would have a reasonable expectation they would be answering to the Revenue Commissioners about it and not to the Deputy. They would be dealing with it in private with the Revenue...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We will agree to disagree.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: -----but the Deputy did ask me a question, which I have answered.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister has answered it. I am amazed that the Government does not regret what has happened. If we had had that money, it might have made a difference. We could now possibly do with that money but it seems to me that it would have made a dramatic difference to the current housing crisis that we are facing had we had access to that money then and had the Government pursued it instead of...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: It is the same Central Bank that is also telling us not to overheat the economy. It is the same Central Bank that is telling us there are not enough workers in the economy to build the projects that we need and warning of capacity constraints. It is the same bank saying all of this. We have to listen to the other part of what it is saying, which is in addition to the part the Deputy is...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Let me put it to you-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: Let me finish. That is what we are aiming to do by decisions that we may make in relation to infrastructure. Leaving aside the money that comes from the Apple judgment, the Government is already running surpluses and we have the ability to invest, but the Central Bank warns us in the same voice about not overheating the economy and we have to listen to that as well.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, I know. Nonetheless, that is a very worrying admission on the Minister’s part. Nobody is disputing that we need 50,000, 60,000 or maybe 70,000 houses a year but what the Minister seems to be saying is that it might be overheating the economy to try to deliver that. The Central Bank is talking about a timeline. Does the Minister accept that we are, therefore, facing a deficit...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I do not follow the Deputy’s line of questioning. On the one hand, he asked me if I am listening to the Central Bank and then, when I say that I have to listen to all of what the Central Bank says-----