Simon Harris

I thank Deputies Doherty and Gould for their contributions. I should point out for clarity these changes in relation to the standard fund threshold were legislated for in the Finance Act 2024. It set out three specific aspects of the SFT regime, one of which was a technical change. The then Minister for Finance did not bring forward further changes to the standard fund threshold above and beyond w…

I have.

That is largely the point I was going to make. I am not unsympathetic to the important issues Deputy Gould raises. I see them in my own constituency. I deal with people like that every day in my role as a public representative in Wicklow and a Member of this House since 2011. That is why we took a number of measures to address child poverty and working family poverty in the budget. I will not have…

It was legislated for.

I move amendment No. 20: In page 36, to delete lines 19 and 20. I believe this to be largely a technical or cleaning-up amendment. As Deputies who addressed this Bill on Committee Stage will recall, there was a commencement provision included in section 28 to allow for state aid approval for the extension of the scheme as it comes under the agricultural block exemption regulation. The commenceme…

The Deputy's initial analysis is somewhat right. He has the corporate memory to be able to go back to the then Minister, Michael Noonan. This scheme has not seen a very significant level of uptake. We have been trying to examine ways in which more people could benefit from this scheme, which brings properties back into use. Across the political spectrum, we all share the objective of trying to use…

In the early days of my time in this office, I agree with the Deputy's broader point on spending reviews, not monetising every problem and making sure there is value for money. I will engage with colleagues in relation to that as well. I also acknowledge, and Deputy Doherty made this point earlier, and I was not saying it to be discourteous, that the way the rules of this place work is that peopl…

I will endeavour to keep to the amendment at this late hour of the night. I have plenty I could l say about general election promises in other parties' manifestos and where the average price of €300,000 for a home in Dublin is, etc., which was promised by Sinn Féin. We will return to all that another day.

You dropped the promise and clarified it after-----

We will return to all that another day. I am just making the point-----

I am making the point respectfully-----

I am making the point respectfully that I sit here and hear wrongful framing and misrepresentation of my party, our manifesto and the general election. I look forward to debating that. As the leader of Fine Gael, I will debate that with the leader of Sinn Féin in due course. I look forward to that opportunity. In relation to the amendment before the House, I do not have a huge amount more to add …

It is the viability.

Exactly.

I actually did not, in fairness.

I responded to a mirage.

Thank you so much.

The Deputy should withdraw that.

Withdraw that slur. I did not make----

Yesterday, when we took a financial resolution in this House-----

-----I responded and the record of the House shows the response.

I thank the Deputies Ó Snodaigh and Ó Murchú for their good wishes. I acknowledge the input of Members of this House, including those I just mentioned, on matters concerning the audiovisual sector in recent years, including through the examination at the Committee on Budgetary Oversight. My officials have directly engaged with all relevant representative bodies in the sector, including those repr…

I thank the Deputies. We have a thriving audiovisual and film sector. Deputy Ó Snodaigh made that point. It is a good thing for our country, but at the same time we also want to make sure it is working well and working well for workers and that workers' rights are always to the fore. We have seen genuine progress in stakeholders engaging with the interim guidelines and I would like a full Irish ne…

The restriction on the amount of loss relief available to NAMA-participating institutions, which was introduced by the National Asset Management Agency Act 2009, as Deputy Doherty correctly recalls, limited the offset of losses carried forward to a maximum of 50% of the trading profits for each accounting period. The cap only affected the timing of the relief; it did not affect the overall quantum…

The advice available to me is that the proposed amendment would possibly have a negative effect on consumers. I accept that is not Deputy Doherty's intent but there is the probability of an increased cost base for the banks, which would be passed on to consumers in the form of higher fees and interest rates on loans or lower deposit rates. Therefore, our view, as per the advice available to me, is…