At the outset, as Minister I acknowledge the reality that many individuals and families are genuinely struggling at this point in time. Of course, I accept and recognise that point. I meet people in the course of my constituency work all the time and I know the lived reality of many. That is why we brought forward a budget with an overall package of new measures of €11 billion, of which €4 billion were once-off in nature and around €7 billion were permanent measures. I have to make the point that many of those meas…

First of all, I remind people that the next round of the electricity credit is being applied this month. A further round of that €200 credit will be applied to domestic accounts in March. Again, that is part of the measures that we announced in late September which are still working their way through. Because of the way in which we scheduled and staggered them, the benefits of those measures are being spread. I accept that in the month of January, many people are facing big energy bills, and that the consumption an…

As the Deputy is aware, at present the 9% rate applies on a temporary basis to the hospitality and tourism sectors until the end of February. The 9% rate was introduced in recognition of the fact that the tourism and hospitality sectors were among those most impacted by the public health restrictions put in place throughout the pandemic. Through no fault of their own, bars, hotels and restaurants among others had to close on multiple occasions in response to the public health crisis. The measure initially ran from …

To answer the Deputy's question directly, I have asked my Department to carry out an assessment of all the measures that are currently due in law to expire at the end of February. I will shortly meet my officials to go through that and consider their assessment of all those measures, the economic impact, the current economic circumstances and so on. The key issue for me is to make sure we make the best use of taxpayers' money, which is limited by its very nature. We hear every day in this House more and more calls …

As the Deputy knows, the costing that has been put on the overall measure being extended to the end of the year is €427 million, which is a very large sum of money by any yardstick. The Deputy asked verbally and in writing about excluding hotel accommodation. I am advised by Revenue, as I set out last week in written replies to parliamentary questions, that there would be significant practical operational concerns in having different VAT rates applying to hotel accommodation and meals given how the sector operates,…

I thank Deputy Shortall very much. I look forward to working with her over the period ahead. In the summer economic statement 2021, the Government adopted a medium-term budgetary strategy that would ensure continued investment in public services and progressive reductions in personal taxation while maintaining our public finances on a sustainable path. This strategy was operationalised through ceilings on growth in public expenditure. Core current public expenditure growth will be capped at 5% per annum, broadly in…

I am not anticipating any cutbacks in public services arising from the budget for 2023. I am very well aware of the projections the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council made about the costs the State will be incurring over the years ahead in respect of a whole range of areas, including demographic costs, the cost of Sláintecare and the cost of climate action measures. That will involve the Government making choices. As the new Minister for Finance, I have, as the Deputy knows, inherited the Commission on Taxation and Welf…

I do not accept that there is a shortfall in 2023. We believe we have made adequate provision across all of the expenditure Votes in 2023 to meet the Government priorities. Within that there will be a lot of choices and decisions to be made but from our perspective, there is certainly not any shortfall in the budgetary position across Departments for 2023. The Deputy made a point about income tax reductions. I make the point to her that if you have a static tax system and, at a time of rising incomes, you make no c…

I thank the Deputy. I will put the initial reply on the record because it deals with some of the issues. As the Deputy will be aware, VAT on supplies of Covid-19 testing kits were subject to a temporary zero rate until 31 December 2022 as the result of an EU Commission derogation. While recognising the success of the Government’s vaccination programme, I have decided that Covid-19 test kits should be subject to a zero rate of VAT on an ongoing basis. This is because there are still significant levels of this virus …

We will add it to another Bill at the first opportunity.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 68, 110, 157 and 237 together. I thank the Deputy for his good wishes, and I look forward to working with him. It is important to note that from the outset the Government has acted forcefully and decisively to help ease the burden of inflation on households and businesses across the country. Budget 2023 was a cost-of-living budget, incorporating a total package of €11 billion with the focus on protecting the most vulnerable from rising costs. This built on some €3 billion in measure…

I thank both Deputies for raising these issues and I want to take the opportunity to thank all our public servants who were involved in administering the exceptional payments issued between budget day and early December. Payments of the order of €1 billion outside of normal payments were made through our social protection system, including some universal payments such as child benefit and so on. I know from talking to people on the ground of the benefit that was derived from those particular payments. It was welcom…

I am advised by Revenue that, to date, it has refunded €554 million to PAYE taxpayers in respect of 2021 and €193 million in respect of 2022. In 2022, Revenue wrote to over 400,000 individuals who, based on the information available to Revenue, may have overpaid or underpaid tax in some or all of the years 2019 to 2021, inclusive. These letters provide a preliminary tax position, advising the recipients to submit a tax return to claim any additional tax credits or reliefs that they may be due and-or to declare any …

The figures are significant and it is important we all take every opportunity to highlight this and to remind people of their rights. As I outlined, for the remaining PAYE taxpayer units with a preliminary end-of-year statement for 2022 who are yet to file an income tax return, some 25%, or 563,300 people, have potentially overpaid tax of up to €400 million, although there are others who have underpaid tax, to an overall value of about €118 million. If we look back at the equivalent figures for 2021, for which we w…

On the question of awareness, we are all familiar with websites that are available and we will have seen advertisements of bodies that provide services in this regard. In addition, the Revenue Commissioners make a lot of information available regarding how people can make such claims. We have a role in this House and the Government certainly has a role to make people aware where they may well be in a position to claim back tax they have overpaid. That is an important point to make. As for what happens after the fou…

I thank the Deputy for his good wishes. SMEs are the foundation of the economy, accounting for 99.8% of all enterprises and the majority of employment in the State. Their importance to our economy is reflected in our programme for Government commitments. The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and I, as Minister for Finance, jointly chair the SME State bodies group, bringing together SME representative bodies and other stakeholders including State agencies to identify and understand current challenges bus…

I thank Deputy Dillon and assure him that we will take on board the points he made and ensure that we carefully consider the current business environment when we examine all of these issues. I acknowledge the cost of doing business has increased because of the nature and level of inflation currently being experienced. Our response in the budget in part was the introduction of the temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS. I encourage businesses that have yet to register and submit a claim to now examine their…

I thank An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach and Deputy Conway-Walsh for her good wishes and for raising this specific issue, which I will follow up on. The most important thing is that the departure of Ulster Bank and KBC is done in an orderly manner and the interests of their customers are protected. The fact that these two banks are leaving the Irish retail market is deeply regrettable and will have implications in terms of competition and consumer choice. That said, it is beyond our control. They have made their commerci…

The Central Bank code of conduct on mortgage arrears, CCMA, is the key consumer protection measure for borrowers experiencing difficulty with a mortgage secured on a primary residence. This statutory-based code, which is issued by the Central Bank under section 117 of the Central Bank Act 1989, sets out how regulated mortgage creditors must treat borrowers in or facing mortgage arrears. Regulated entities are required to comply with all aspects of the CCMA as a matter of law and as such it has full legal effect. Th…

I thank the Deputy, who has raised very important issues. I know that the Central Bank takes them very seriously. The review of the consumer protection code is a very important body of work which is currently under way. I encourage all Members of the House to engage in the process and to share the real-life experience of constituents, which has been conveyed to us, so that the Central Bank is fully aware of what is happening on the ground and in reality. It is worth putting on the record that the level of mortgage …