If a consumer suspects fraudulent activity on their account, they should immediately report this incident to their local Garda station as it is a criminal matter. They should also engage with their financial service provider as early as possible to allow them to investigate the issue and try to rectify any unauthorised transactions made. Instances of fraud should also be reported to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) to help prevent other people being targeted by the same activity. Other prac…

The NTMA has provided me with the following table in response to the Deputy's question.

The Disabled Drivers & Disabled Passengers Scheme provides relief from VRT and VAT on an adapted car, as well as an exemption from motor tax and an annual fuel grant. The Scheme is open to severely and permanently disabled persons who meet specified  medical criteria, as a driver or as a passenger and also to certain organisations. In order to qualify for relief, the applicant must hold a Primary Medical Certificate (PMC)  issued by the relevant Senior Area Medical Officer (SAMO) or a Board Medical Certificate issu…

As the Deputy is aware, the Small Gift Exemption is an annual CAT relief available to all recipients of gifts. This means that each parent can give a gift to the value of €3,000 to a child (or anyone else) each calendar year without any CAT arising. Two parents can make gifts to a child to the value of €6,000 in any year free of CAT. Indeed, two parents could, if they wished, gift €12,000 in total each year to each son or daughter and their respective partner (e.g. fiancée, fiancé, daughter-in-law, son-in-law) free…

The Terms of Reference for the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss specify that: the Government shall, on consideration of the report from the Citizens’ Assembly, provide in the Houses of the Oireachtas a response to each recommendation of the Assembly, setting out a timeframe for implementing those recommendations which it accepts. Having now received the report of the Citizens' Assembly, the Government is commencing the process of preparing a comprehensive response to the full set of recommendations from the …

On 8th December 2022, the European Commission published its proposed “VAT in the Digital Age” reforms to amend the European Union VAT system to respond to the challenges of digitalisation.  The proposed reforms aim to make the EU’s VAT system more resilient to fraud and more efficient for businesses.  There are three pillars involved in the proposal. The first is the introduction of common standardised Digital Reporting Requirements (DRR) and e-invoicing on business-to-business (B2B) cross-border transactions withi…

The formulation and implementation of monetary policy is an independent matter for the European Central Bank (ECB). As the Deputy is aware, the ECB has increased official interest rates over recent months as it attempts to combat inflation.  The level of official interest rates will influence the overall level of interest rates throughout the economy. However, the determination and adjustment of retail and business lending rates and deposit rates  are commercial decisions for individual lenders in line with the ter…

They are not.

If Sinn Féin is genuine, it should publish a consolidated package setting out in total what its proposals are. Just as it recycles the same tax proposals every year in the pre-budget submission-----

-----restricting pension tax relief and hammering high earners, there is a predictability to the expenditure proposals as well. Each proposal is designed to target an individual group of voters without any overall strategy or coherence. As regards the impact of this motion, the proposal is unlikely to be of benefit to mortgage holders who fixed their mortgages - approximately two fifths of all mortgage holders or 39% - as the interest rate on fixed interest mortgages will not change until the end of the fixed rate …

That is not spelled out. This is despite such mortgage holders experiencing a significant increase in the cost of their mortgages. Additionally, it is important to note there may be scope for many borrowers, in particular variable rate mortgage borrowers who have built up equity in their homes, to look at alternative mortgage options to reduce their mortgage costs. That being said, there will be some mortgage holders who are not in a position to fix their mortgage or may experience real difficulty. It is essential,…

I thank the Deputies from the Social Democrats for raising this issue and tabling this motion. I reiterate that the Government wants to see vacant homes occupied. I agree with many of the points that have been made. These are properties that are already there and are fully serviced and habitable. If they are not habitable, they are derelict and do not fall under the vacant homes tax in any event, as Deputies will be aware. Bringing vacant stock back into use is a much faster way of increasing supply than turning a …

I thank all Deputies for their contributions and overall support for this measure. I will seek to address a number of the questions that have been raised. One question related to the reason the installation of solar panels is now permitted to attract a zero rate. That is a specific change that was made as a result of the 2022 VAT directive. One of the options that directive provides for is that a zero rate would apply within category 10c. That directive is for the supply and installation of solar panels on and adja…

It is not supply only so someone can go in and-----

Someone can go into a shop and purchase a solar panel, and the VAT will be zero on that.

I thank the Deputies from the Rural Independent Group for proposing these amendments. I also thank all the Deputies who contributed to the discussion. We had a detailed discussion on this issue on Committee Stage but I welcome the opportunity to go through the issue again and address the thrust of the amendments proposed by the Rural Independent Group. The amendments seek to extend indefinitely the proposed benefit-in-kind, BIK, reduction of €10,000 to the open market value of the vehicle and the adjusted upper mil…

The debate has morphed into whether you are for or against EVs. That is not the thrust of the issue we are discussing tonight.

That is not the issue at hand. The question is whether you agree that the BIK regime should apply differently depending on whether you have a 3 l diesel vehicle or a much more environmentally-friendly vehicle, which does not have to be an EV. That is what the table provides for. We have categories A to E and the more you move towards categories C, D and E, the higher the rate of BIK is. It is not about an EV or nothing.

This debate is not about EVs and the amendment brought forward on Committee Stage is not about EVs.

The Deputies have made the debate all about whether somebody is for or completely against EVs and that is not the purpose of the issue. When this change was made back in 2019, many businesses changed the fleets of vehicles they had and they were incentivised to do so. I acknowledge that not all of them were in a position to do so and it was the employees who had to pay an extra price by way of the changes that kicked in-----