Simon Harris

You see-----

The Deputy is wrong. When you run the economy well, wage growth counts-----

It is going to be a long night if the Deputy is going to be so rude the whole time.

I thank Deputy Nash for this proposal. I have heard him talk about this time and time again, and for good reason. I fully accept that budgets are about choices and we will have rigorous debates in this House about whether our choices are right. I contend – the Deputy will have a different view – that the choices we made this year were about trying to boost economic resilience, protect jobs and sti…

I thank Deputies Nash and Lawlor for tabling this amendment. I acknowledge that Deputy Lawlor had an initial conversation with me on it this week. I appreciate his genuine interest and expertise in this. I also find myself in much agreement with some of the points Deputy O'Callaghan made in terms of how we keep companies that we as a country invest so much in getting to that point in Irish ownersh…

I thank Deputies Doherty, Conway-Walsh and Ward for this amendment. Let me first read out some of the factual answer for the record and then I will try to engage on some of the issues being raised. Two amendments have been grouped and we are discussing amendment No. 4, which calls for tax-based measures to support rental property activation in areas affected by defective concrete blocks. Deputy Do…

That is a point that merits further consideration by us. While I am not in a position to accept the amendments, there is the legislation coming forward next week and there is also the commitment in terms of the planned review of the scheme. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage will, as required by section 51 of the 2022 Act, carry out a review of the operation of that Act. Legal…

In truth, this is not about compassion, from our perspective. We feel very seriously and strongly about what people are enduring in relation to this situation. The time available to me is not enough to outline a number of the measures we tried to take to assist. These include significant changes to the current scheme, more legislation to come forward next week, and the review of the scheme that i…

I thank Deputy Farrell. The Deputies are requesting a report on the rent tax credit operating in the absence of a cap on rents, and making a direct comparison between the amount of the credit and rent increases. They suggest that the rent tax credit should be complemented by rent caps. There are currently certain limits to rent increases. Rent increases in a rent pressure zone cannot now exceed ge…

One day, if Deputy Doherty can ever form a Government or can find people in this House who wish to form a Government with him, he will realise that you go out to the people and seek a mandate from the people on your manifesto. You get as many votes and seats as you can in Dáil Éireann. If you do not have enough seats to form a Government, you then seek other parties in the Dáil to work with you. Y…

That is the answer.

Deputy Doherty has not done it yet.

He put a question to me but he did not wish me to answer it.

The Acting Chair is grand. I say this just for the people watching at home. I did not have an opportunity to answer the question.

That is fine.

I move amendment No. 7: In page 13, between lines 23 and 24, to insert the following: “Amendment of section 477C of Principal Act (Help to Buy) 5.Section 477C of the Principal Act is amended, with effect as on and from 26 November 2025, in subparagraph (ii) of the definition in subsection (1) of “qualifying residence”, by the substitution of “paragraph (c) or (cac), as the case may be, of secti…

I acknowledge the very constructive way Deputies Doherty and Cullinane are engaging on this issue. While I am not certain an amendment to the Finance Bill is the way to go about this, I am willing to work with them and maybe the relevant Oireachtas committee, at which I think Members had a decent discussion about this on Committee Stage. From listening to the two Deputies, I think they are ponderi…

I am happy to genuinely engage on this and engage with my colleague, the Minister for Health. The Deputies would expect me to say this as a finance Minister, but my sense of this is that it is probably something in the direct expenditure and mapping out space and probably a broader whole-of-government discussion, which I am, of course, a part of, as to how we support people in these situations and…

I thank Deputy Doherty. I will emphasise some of what he said. My Department commissioned Indecon Economic Consultants to carry out an independent review of the share-based remuneration scheme. The review made a number of recommendations pertaining to share-based remuneration and the PRSI exemption. The review found that the PRSI exemption is regarded as an important support for SMEs and other bus…

I do not want to be overly argumentative because we have a lot to get through, but the amendment is only looking for another report. I am simply saying to people watching that we do not need another report about the report. We need to consider the recommendations of the report. This is an important area to get right for the reasons the Deputy referenced, including competitive advantage that matter…

I do acknowledge that.

I move amendment No. 13: In page 29, to delete lines 25 to 28 and substitute the following: “ “ ‘relevant state’ means, as regards the years of assessment 2012 to 2025, the Russian Federation, and as regards the years of assessment 2012 to 2030, the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Republic of India, the People’s Republic of China or the Republic of South Africa, and includes—”. While taking …

Those are all very fair points. My first response to the question of why Russia was included until now is that I do not honestly know the answer. I do not want to mislead the Dáil but what I can imagine from my involvement in past postings is that as the sanctions regime evolves and do-not-travel notices are issued, we are constantly looking at both the domestic and European levels for more opport…

I will take amendment Nos. 17 and 18 together. These amendments relate to the temporary reduction applied to the original market value of cars in categories A1 to D, inclusive, and all vans for the purpose of determining the benefit in kind, BIK, payable. The amendments seek to keep the OMV reduction at €10,000 until 31 December 2028, in contrast to what we believe to be the tapering out of the re…

There is a further offset for electric vehicles to try to incentivise the transition to them as well. I take the point the Deputy makes. What we are trying to avoid is a moment of cliff edge. You could have a cliff edge in the here and now or in 2028 but we are trying to adopt a gradual, tapered approach to provide that policy certainty and, over time, incentivise and enable people to move to the …