Simon Harris

I always listen.

There is one army.

The Deputy cannot come in here and spend the surplus and then pursue a policy agenda that would have resulted in us never having it. We would not have had a surplus if we had followed his economic plan. It has been hard-won and earned by the Irish people and is there to be deployed in an appropriate manner and to make sure that the Deputy's children and mine never experience the austerity we exper…

Fair enough. Once we do one thing, the Deputy wants us to do the next. He originally asked us to suspend it.

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. It is my time so I am going to speak.

I have been very clear that we do not rule out the need to make further energy interventions. An energy crisis in the months of April and May will be very different from an energy crisis in the months of October, November and December. We have to prepare for that period too. The fuel allowance is being provided to 470,000 households. I do not know the circumstances of the pensioner's home the Depu…

The Deputy suggests the Government does not take action to endeavour to assist people. That is his mantra. That is air enough. That is what he says but it is not true. There are other facts. We are presiding over a country where the average weekly wage is over €1,000. They are not my figures; they are from the CSO. Every working day in this country 200 new jobs are being created. The long-term un…

The Deputy is seriously out of touch in terms of the scale of the economic challenge facing the world right now. The Deputy’s position on this is to ask for more and more money to be spent every day. Maybe that is what one does when one is in opposition. In fairness, not all Opposition parties do that, but maybe that is what the Deputy’s party does when it is in opposition. The Deputy is ignoring …

If you accept that the fuel allowance is a payment, albeit one you want to blow a hole in through the carbon tax-----

Ignoring that, if you accept that the fuel allowance is an important way of helping the people most at risk of fuel poverty, which I think is your position in the North-----

The only step the Sinn Féin Minister of Finance in the North has taken is a very small step towards a smaller version of the fuel allowance. You are in government in the North.

You have the First Minister, the Minister of Finance and the Minister for the Economy-----

-----but you are not doing anything to help in the North at all. People need to look at how you say one thing down here and you do another thing up there.

It is complete hypocrisy.

There is lots you could do.

There is lots you could do.

I thank both Deputy Brennan and the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach for their engagement on this matter. The revised general scheme of the finance (tax appeals and fiscal responsibility) Bill was published in November of last year. Head 5 of the general scheme concerns necessary amendments arising from the 2021 Supreme Court j…

The position as of now is that we have been endeavouring to comply with the Supreme Court judgment. Following that judgment, the view from the Office of the Attorney General was that there were proposals that we needed to make changes to the tax appeal system, specifically around the request for appeals to be held in private as well as the determination of appeals in the absence of a hearing. It i…

Obviously, making sure Ireland remains a competitive location for foreign direct investment, FDI, is an important consideration. I will reflect further on that on foot of the Deputy raising it. In looking at what other parts of the world do, we see that Canada, England and Australia operate in a similar environment to what the current legislation, as currently drafted, proposes for our tax appeals…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 236 and 298 together. I thank the Deputy very much. The EU VAT directive, which Irish VAT law must comply with, generally holds that all goods and services are liable for VAT at the standard rate which must be set at a minimum of 15%. If a good or service is listed under Annex III of the VAT directive, a reduced or zero VAT rate may be applied. It is important to …

We have not formally made a request in relation to zero percent VAT. The reason we have not is that my genuine feedback from engagement with the European Commission is that it is unlikely to have unanimous support. I am not against formally seeking further discretion on VAT but we have tried to target our asks to areas that we hoped we could make progress on, including seeking a temporary derogati…

I try to be constructive.

That is not fair.

That is not true.

People expect more from an opposition. At a time of a national crisis when a Minister stands up and is trying to constructively engage, the Deputy just wants to give me the lines to take back. I explained to the Deputy very clearly. I said we are happy to go back and further engage with Commission. Hang on for a second.