Results 61-80 of 7,640 for speaker:Cian O'Callaghan

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: -----with a lot of apartments that are included.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: Okay. I understand. I thank the Minister.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: If the section is removed, will we still be able to speak to it? We want to speak to section 67.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: I have significant concerns about this in terms of deadweight, the massive tax break for developers and the opportunity costs of this as well. The millions of euro here could be better spent subsidising the construction of affordable homes to buy or rent. There would be no deadweight in that. We would get thousands of additional homes that people could afford. There would be no question...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: The Minister should have done an assessment of how this will affect home ownership. The reason I say that is that most apartments that are constructed - the Minister is putting in a preferential VAT rate for apartment construction - end up as rental accommodation only. Very few are available to buy and in the past 15 years, home ownership rates have collapsed, particularly among people...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: We were told there would be a vote on the new section.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: We were told we would get it-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: -----in good faith.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: We want to also flag that we had been expecting we would have the opportunity to oppose this new section. Given we do not, I intend to table an amendment to that effect on Report Stage.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: In the first quarter of 2025, compared with the first quarter of 2023, 13,000 more people were working in the sector to which this section relates. The rate in the UK stands at 20%. As a result, the 13.5% rate currently in place here is considerably advantageous in comparison with the rate that applies in the UK, our nearest neighbour. In the context of the profits of some of the fast-food...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: There are some points that the Minister made with which I agree. Hospitality businesses in rural towns and villages where there is not much economic activity and not many business open, and equally those in urban areas that may be economically deprived and have very few local business, have a function that goes well beyond their economic activity. They have a social function. They can be...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: Many of the issues relating to this topic were discussed during the previous session. I will not repeat them. I will move and press amendment No. 68 when appropriate, but I will not go over-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: I will. There is no need to repeat the discussion we have had, although this is slightly different.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: To briefly respond to the Minister of State, a six-month review of this is necessary to see what the level of deadweight on this is. It is a very significant expenditure that is going to prevent the Government from investing in other areas. The Minister of State talked about assessment of employment levels and so on, but the review I propose refers to prices as well. Given that there is...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: I move amendment No. 68: In page 90, between lines 10 and 11, to insert the following: “Report on VAT cut for hospitality and hairdressing services 69. The Minister shall, within 6 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the consequences for employment, prices, and Exchequer revenue arising from the reduction in the VAT rate...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: We obviously have a housing crisis across the country but the impact of the housing crisis in Gaeltacht areas and what it is doing to our language is incredibly serious. There has been huge disruption to limited housing supply for Irish speakers. This is something that has been caused by disruptive practices from the short-term letting sector. BÁNÚ has highlighted the situation...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: Amendment No. 75 is about the banking levy. Section 80 maintains the banking levy at what I consider to be a derisory rate of 0.1%. Given that the larger banks in Ireland are not contributing corporation tax, I do not think it is a sufficient contribution. At a minimum, the levy should be ensuring the contribution akin to a normal year’s corporation tax contributions. There should...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: Briefly, we have a situation where there are very considerable profits and a very low tax contribution, including the revenue that comes in from the levy, which is well below normal corporation tax levels, and at the same time a Minister asking what if this gets passed on to the individual bank customers. With regard to mortgage spreads, the amounts that the banks take in profit off...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: On the issue of the mortgage spreads being out of kilter with other countries, are there any plans to tackle that or raise the matter? The issue is the profits being taken on mortgages being out of kilter with other countries.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2025: Committee Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2025)

Cian O'Callaghan: I raised the issue of significant profits - €5 billion in profits - being made with a derisory tax contribution. The Minister in his argument said that if we were to take in more taxation, that could go on the customers, the people who have mortgages and so on. I pointed out that, actually, people who have mortgages are being ripped off. Comparing our country to others, people here...