I was certainly not being flippant about the programme for Government commitments. I do not want anyone holding off on staying healthy until future budgets. These are issues that we will, of course, consider in the round, as we always do in advance of the budget.
I was in Millstreet in west Cork recently to visit a community gym that is part-funded through Government grants. It was great to see. I was on the same ro…
TDs / Simon Harris
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Members of the Government answer questions rather than ask them
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Debates they spoke in most
Plus 2,685 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Wicklow 29 November 2024 to now
- office Taoiseach 29 November 2024 to 22 January 2025
- party Fine Gael 29 November 2024 to now
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- office Minister for Finance 18 November 2025 to now
I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett for raising this issue. I know it is an issue in which he has taken a keen interest since long before I was in this role. The Deputy and I, along with Deputy Ó Snodaigh, had some engagement on this matter during the Report Stage debate on the Finance Bill. Section 481 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 provides a 32% payable credit for eligible expenditure on film production in Ireland. T…
Deputy Byrne captured the point I would make. This tax credit has been extraordinarily successful. Deputy Boyd Barrett is not suggesting that it has not. It has created lots of employment and investment and an ecosystem. I happen to live in and represent a county, as does Deputy Byrne, which has benefited significantly from that, as have lots of parts of Ireland. We have seen progress in workers' rights and the enfor…
It is from my Department.
I would welcome seeing that and I am sure the Deputy will give me what he has about the survey. I will also raise it through my Department with the Department of culture and Screen Ireland. If there is useful information that provides us with an insight into the industry, I would like to see that. It is important to see it and it should not be suppressed. I share that view. On whoever is giving me the information, th…
Ultimately, that is what we should all be trying to foster here. However, I take the issue seriously. I know this sector through my own constituency and I know many people who work in it. I am aware that the ecosystem has benefited. It is a really positive part of the Irish economy and the Irish offering. Many countries would love to have what we have. If there are areas in need of improvement, I will be very happy t…
I thank the Deputy. On an addendum, he raised with me on Report Stage of the Finance Bill a specific issue in relation to rental properties and their availability in Donegal. I undertook to engage with the Minister for housing on that. I sent him the information from our discussion and I will be engaging with him in January. I am happy to talk to the Deputy further about this.
I am aware that this is a very difficul…
I believe people. I believe them when I meet them. I believed them when I sat in their kitchens in the Deputy’s constituency and county. They have told me about some of the issues they are still experiencing regarding shortfalls, anomalies or issues with banks. They raised some of those issues with me quite truthfully when I was in Donegal, which I believe, from memory, was during the month of August.
We are trying …
Let me reflect on what Deputy Doherty said. While some of this is not within my direct remit, I am a leader in government and am not recused from responsibility. My sense from engaging with people in Donegal and other parts of the country is that the scheme is now working for more people than it was but that there are still some who have significant concerns that they cannot access the scheme, and that there are othe…
Are they the Chair's people? Hello to them.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 177 and 364 together.
The Deputy was determined to ask this question because it came in as a priority, regular oral and a written question. I am glad it got tabled because it is an important issue in relation to the expenditure of public money and the impact of that on the delivery of housing. A well-functioning housing market, we can all agree, is crucial to supporting labour mobili…
I am not aware of any research or information that is not already in the public domain but let me double check. I bring the Deputy back to the political decision we made - and it was a political decision - in relation to recognising that viability is a major issue when it comes to apartment construction. Only a month or two after the budget, and I do not want to reach too much into the data, the initial data is somew…
I have heard Deputy O'Callaghan make this point before and he holds a legitimate policy viewpoint on linking this to affordability. My predecessor was clear and I am clear too: this is a viability measure. While I do not have it in front of me, we have seen a very small example of where this measure has led to people building apartments to say that it has reduced the costs. However, it has not been introduced primari…
I thank Deputy Ward for taking this question on behalf of our colleague, Deputy Pete Roche. As part of the budget process, my Department annually conducts distributional analysis to examine the impact of proposed tax and welfare measures on a range of households. Given the variety of ways in which means tests are applied it would not be possible to do such analysis specifically on households that do not qualify for m…
It is a very interesting point. This week, the Minister, Deputy Foley, took a very important step forward in publishing the first instalment of the action plan on childcare. That has a number of areas on which she is endeavouring to move including on the issue of staffing and pay but also in trying to provide maximum fee caps starting with lower income families. Next year has to be about publishing a comprehensive pl…
Sometimes it is like Goldilocks – too hot, too cold or just right. In every debate I do on finance, whether it is here or the media, the first half is spent saying we spent too much money and the second half is a list of things we on which we should have spent more. The job of the Minister for Finance, the Government and the Oireachtas is to try and get the balance right. The first of five budgets had to be about get…
That is absolutely right. We have to keep the means test under review so they do not become mean. That is why we took a number of steps in the budget, particularly around carers, to make sure more people qualify because, ultimately, we want to phase out the means test. The Department of Social Protection, certainly in the previous Dáil, was working on reviewing the means test. I will seek an update for the Deputy on …
As stated earlier in relation to my Department’s forecast on inflation, an uptick was anticipated. That was down to what it describes as the base effects. The CSO outlined that the increase in inflation since September is largely accounted for by base effects. As a result, the assessment relating to inflation for next year has not materially changed. That is important to say because I understand that the cost-of-livi…
I very respectfully make the point that we put in place an extraordinary level of support for people over the past four years. Thank God this country was in a position to do that. We did it at a time of very high inflation. Those measures always had to be temporary. It is always difficult to unwind such measures, but I am crystal clear that if we did not get back to a situation of being able to deliver one regular bu…
-----with which the EU has an agreement. There is also the issue of what has transpired. The Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, has apprised me of this in terms of how the industry has changed in the Netherlands where it is now conglomerates essentially running the industry. They are clearly winning a lot of influence to get the outcome they got last week.
At the time of budget 2026, the Department of Finance forecast a headline harmonised indices of consumer prices, HICP, inflation rate of 1.9% for next year. For household incomes, the Department of Finance forecast continued growth in wages per head of 3.9% in 2026. This implies continued growth in real incomes, which will support the purchasing power of households, and is an important indicator of improving living s…
That is not the message. The message is that we took a number of measures in this year's budget that will help families, businesses and workers as well. It includes investing - the Deputy and I have different policy views on this - and deciding to extend the renter's tax credit for a further three years. It includes making sure that people who benefit from the minimum wage increase do not find themselves paying a hig…
That is not the message at all. The Deputy and I rightly discuss the issues of fuel poverty and energy prices in this House regularly, as we should. What I say to the people is that we have taken a number of measures to assist with the cost of energy, including the reduction of the VAT rate to 9%, a real budgetary cost that we decided to prioritise.
We decided to do that.
Did we or did we not-----