Results 321-340 of 1,046,115 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Ciarán Cuffe OR speaker:Jack Chambers OR speaker:Rose Conway-Walsh OR speaker:Jim O'Callaghan OR speaker:Thomas Pringle OR speaker:Michael Moynihan OR speaker:Simon Coveney OR speaker:Roderic O'Gorman)
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Jack Chambers: It is a good question too.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: It will be up to the people. We had some good presentations before the Minister came in. One of them was from NERI. Its representatives said in their statement, which really struck me, that we have an economy of winners and losers. Net household wealth is at record levels on one hand while material deprivation is rising on the other. Will the Minister speak to that. Are they right?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Jack Chambers: If we take the measures we have made from a tax perspective, for example, and the progressive nature of our decisions on tax over the last four years, a single person earning €40,000, for example, had an effective tax rate of 21% in 2020 and has an effective tax rate of 17% now. There has been a progressive nature to all of the decisions we have taken from a tax policy perspective....
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: If we were to take out the one-off payments, they would not be progressive, would they? These are the measurements I have seen. It is adding in the windfall that-----
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: Is the Minister saying they would not be as necessary this year to the extent they were last year because of interest rates and inflation decreasing?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: I will reiterate what the ESRI said regarding material deprivation and the inability of households to afford essentials increasing markedly between 2022 and 2023, especially for children. While we congratulate ourselves on budget decisions, the figures relating to child poverty and deprivation speak for themselves. Reference was made to inheritance tax. NERI has stated that inheritance...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Jack Chambers: The current threshold has not moved for many years. Property prices have risen significantly. It is an issue for many families in communities throughout our country. Capital acquisitions tax is important. There is a separate campaign calling for its removal completely. It is important that it is there to have equity in our society. There is a necessity to examine the context we are in,...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: The Minister would favour that over addressing the worsening intergenerational inequity. While he is here, I want to ask him about an issue that came up earlier today with regard to the Central Bank. The Central Bank has renewed the agreement to facilitate the sale of Israeli sovereign bonds. ISIF said earlier this year that it would divest from six Israeli companies active in the occupied...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Jack Chambers: As Deputy Conway-Walsh is aware, Michael McGrath was advised by the NTMA that it had decided to divest from several ISIF global portfolio investments in companies that have certain activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. This decision relates to shareholdings with a value of €2.95 million in six companies. It determined that the risk profile of these investments is no...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Rose Conway-Walsh: I know it is, but one would seem to contradict the other in terms of the Central Bank agreeing to facilitate Israeli sovereign bonds. Obviously, the money from this is used in the context of genocide. More than 40,000 people have been slaughtered in Gaza. It is of great concern for many people that this would happen. Can this be prevented from happening?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Jack Chambers: I can revert to the committee on this. Deputy Conway-Walsh is asking about the Central Bank, which is independent of me and the Department. What I will share with the Deputy is that the Government's position on what is happening in Gaza is that it is shocking and we have been clear on that in our statements in the Oireachtas and at EU and international level. On the matter relating to the...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Jack Chambers: We are working within the Government. We have had constructive discussions in recent days. There is absolute agreement in Government and throughout the Oireachtas on ensuring the tax addresses hoarders in our country. This is important to everybody. There is also consensus on excluding active farmers who are now an unintended consequence of the tax as it exists today. The majority of...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Jack Chambers: It is our intention-----
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Jack Chambers: -----to exclude active farmers and have the tax. This is what we have consensus on.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Jack Chambers: Correct.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Jack Chambers: Who could not get out.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Jack Chambers: The most recent figure I have is a percentage because information is still coming back from local authorities. The latest information as of a week or two ago is that more than 90% of farmers who sought to exclude themselves could not do so in the process that existed in previous months. This is why it is a serious issue being raised by most political parties.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Jack Chambers: The process they entered into was an application to change the zoning from residential to the respective use they presently have. In a majority of those instances, based on the data we have received, that has been refused by local authorities. That is why we have this challenge and why we are trying to develop a mechanism that resolves it in a context of ensuring we have a tax, which this...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Jack Chambers: I appreciate the points raised by Deputy Nash. On the wider matters we will set out the total tax package and expenditure package on budget day, which up to now with this Government has been highly progressive in the context of changes to taxation and public expenditure considerations. On inheritance tax, we are considering that issue. I said to Deputy Conway-Walsh there is a campaign to...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)
Jack Chambers: Correct.