I and the Department of Finance will be forever careful and monitoring developments in this area because it is so fundamental to us. Deputy Farrell made an important point regarding the provision of financial services such as insurance products. I recognise the work the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, has done in this area where he has been making the case for Ireland as a good place for new insurance services to be provided. He has been successful in supporting and making progress with the availability of insur…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. As she is aware, capital acquisitions tax, CAT, is a tax which applies to both gifts and inheritances. The relationship between the person giving a gift or inheritance and the person who receives it determines the maximum amount, known as the "group threshold", below which CAT does not arise. As Deputy Carroll MacNeill will be aware, I am not in a position to indicate any decisions that I am going to make in a detailed way in advance of the budget but, in respon…

I thank the Deputy very much. I take her point that there are citizens who worked hard in their lives, in particular those who worked at a time when tax rates were far higher than they are now and when interest rates on the properties to which Deputy Carroll MacNeill refers were far higher than they are today or may even become. As people do all of that, they begin to think about their children and other family members. This is a very important decision for them. That is why I am pleased to confirm yet again to the…

As I said, I understand the important issues the Deputies are raising and I hope I have been clear in the responses I have given. We will continue with our work on preparing the budget.

I thank the Deputy and acknowledge that he has been raising this issue with me from the beginning, at the moment when concerns began to develop regarding the future of Ulster Bank. Given the importance of that bank in the communities he represents, he has raised this issue regularly with me in the House. As he will be aware, while I deeply regret the decision made by Ulster Bank and KBC, I do not have a role to play in the operational decisions they are making. Nevertheless, this is a matter of great focus for our …

I agree that while 24% is a big change versus where we were earlier in the year, there remains a great deal that needs to be done. Nevertheless, while that means 76% of the accounts are still open, that does not mean all those accounts are still active. More than 600,000 new accounts have been set up in the three remaining banks, which points to consumers responding back to getting their accounts in order and getting ready to make the change. I take the Deputy's point. We need to ensure that AIB, Bank of Ireland an…

There are indeed important issues we need to monitor and play a role in. The Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, has reminded me of the role our credit unions can play in also providing new services and accounts to people who are former customers of the two banks that are leaving. I am very much aware of the point the Deputy made about how not everybody is able to access services digitally and through the use of IT, and I have information regarding the work the various banks have done to provide telephone numbers an…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 103, 108 and 111 together. The programme for Government includes a commitment to facilitate and support remote working. As part of the national remote working strategy, in 2021, the tax strategy group reviewed the tax arrangements for remote working in respect of both employees and employers. That paper is now available on my Department’s website. Taking into account all these different factors, as announced in budget 2022, the tax arrangements for remote working were enhanced and f…

I thank the Deputies for the points they made. It is probably a little too early to know what the equilibrium will look like in terms of working from home. Even if we did not have the energy price change that is occurring and we were living in - to use that phrase we used for a long time - a "new normal", I still think it would be early to see what the new patterns will be regarding where work will take place. The world of work is undergoing so much change at the moment, not just due to the effects of Covid-19 but …

The Deputy has concluded the discussion in an appropriate way because there has to be a balance. Public services still need to be provided, contact needs to be made available to citizens and consumers and employers still have to be viable and provide for and meet the needs of their customers. There is clearly a balance in how all this can be done. All the Deputies have acknowledged the huge change that has happened, and this change is beneficial for all the reasons I have heard. We need to monitor the impact the la…

As the Deputy will be aware, I gave a commitment to the House that a comprehensive review of the scheme would be undertaken. I am working with the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, on this and we both agree that the review should be brought within a wider review under the auspices of the national disability inclusion strategy. This work is under way, proposals are being developed and a further meeting of this group is taking place at the end of November to try to l…

I take the points that have been raised by the Deputies. The working group has met on a number of occasions throughout the year and its next meeting is coming up in a number of weeks. I will play my role in trying to make progress on this issue because I accept that too many of our citizens are waiting for too long to know where they will be with the provision of valuable supports. We must work to appoint a new board and to conclude this policy work. My officials and myself will play our role in trying to accelerat…

This has been recognised by the Government. We have doubled the size of the tax measures that are afforded for in the summer economic statement. The Government has always recognised the role that taxation can play in helping those on low or middle wages keep the wage increases they get due to their hard work. We will in budget 2023 continue with the progress we have made and put together a package that helps. At the same time, I am confident it will avoid adding to the inflationary challenges we have. The Deputy's …

I welcome the opportunity to open the debate on the summer economic statement.

I am sure my office will furnish one to the Dáil as soon as possible. The summer economic statement establishes the budgetary parameters for the discussions we will have in this House in advance of budget 2023. It also outlines the Government’s medium-term budgetary strategy for ensuring the public finances remain on a sustainable pathway. I will outline the context within which the Government will publish the budget for 2023. Two and a half years ago, we found ourselves facing a public health emergency which no on…

I missed that.

As a Government, we acknowledge there is much to do. We acknowledge there is much progress that we need to make in the rest of our mandate. However, in putting forward the motion, we also make the case for what we have achieved and delivered during two years of unprecedented challenge. Our country faced record levels of unemployment at a time when the world was grappling with a pandemic. Where are we now? We are now in a position where we have never had more people at work in our country than we have today. At the …

I listened carefully to what Deputy McDonald had to say. She talked about the need to change. In the 15 minutes afforded to her, she proposed one solution. What was that solution?

It was tax credit. Anyone in this country looking for change and radical reform will not find it in the speech delivered by Deputy McDonald. What was also conspicuously lacking in that speech was what was not mentioned. There was no mention of Covid, the war in Ukraine, the economy and the value of jobs, and, shamefully, Brexit. That kind of approach might work when leading an Opposition and when one is more interested in the content of a social media video than the content of policy, but it will not work if one is…

What are the Deputy's plans?