I move amendment No. 11: In page 20, between lines 28 and 29, to insert the following: “16. Within three months of the passing of this Act, the Minister shall lay a report before the Dáil, on the income that would be generated by introducing four new income tax bands as follows: (a) earnings between €100,000 and €150,000 taxed at 50 per cent; (b) earnings between €150,000 and €200,000 taxed at 55 per cent; (c) earnings between €200,000 and €275,000 taxed at 60 per cent; and (d) earnings between €275,000 taxed at 65…

I move amendment No. 12: In page 20, between lines 28 and 29, to insert the following: “CHAPTER 4 Wealth Taxes Reports 16. Within three months of the passing of this Act, the Minister shall lay a report before Dáil Éireann, on the amount of revenue that would be raised if he were to tax the top 5 per cent of households 2 per cent of their accumulated wealth less 1 million for a family home.”. We raise the issue of wealth taxes every year. We are consistent in believing that we need to have wealth taxes in order to …

I said it would be scary if interest rates rose. That is a vulnerability. I accept interest rates are low at the moment and it is sustainable at this point but that could change. We learned to our cost after the crash in 2008 where that can lead. I will make an elementary point about the borrowing of money. You borrow off rich people, and you pay them interest. People who have surplus money lend it to people or states who do not have enough money and charge them interest. Therefore, the people who have surplus mone…

I move amendment No. 14: In page 79, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following: "33. Within three months of the passing of this Act, the Minister shall lay a report before the Dáil, on the functioning of section 481 relief for investment in films, particularly in relation to the degree to which it is meeting the requirement to meet "quality employment and training" and to examine whether film producer companies in receipt of the relief are hiding behind short lived designated activity companies (DAC) to avoi…

There are real consequences to not having proper employment relationships between the producers and employees in the film industry.

I acknowledge that the Minister engaged, listened and took action. That action has brought some improvements and it has put a bit more pressure on. However, to be honest, what the Minister is being told by Screen Producers Ireland is not the truth. He needs to look beyond it. I have quoted what its CEO said in a witness statement this year in the Labour Court. She does not just say “this person was not an employee” or a recipient of section 481. She goes on to say that nobody could be. I want the Minister to absorb…

In order to have that relationship between employer and employee somebody has to be the employer, but the people who are getting the money are saying they are not employers. This is the point. It is so elementary and it has to be addressed. Screen Producers Ireland is like the film branch of IBEC. It has no entitlement to making an agreement for an industry, particularly when its members say they have no employees. How can it have an industry agreement when its members say that? It is not just about this individual…

I move amendment No. 15: In page 81, between lines 33 and 34, to insert the following: “(c) whether the employment generated in the development of the digital game ensures quality employment and training for those employed in its development and in particular to ensure that the digital games development company is not engaged in bogus self employment or employment practices which limit the ability of employees to avail of employment rights legislation,”. The Minister is proposing to introduce as part of the Finance…

Indeed, but let us be honest, we are dependent on the information from the ground. It is difficult to establish the real facts on the ground. It is a hard thing for the officials to do as well. We are all dealing with multiple issues. We are talking to particular people, but we get a better sense when we get everybody in a room, and we hear the different perspectives, especially when we can get in some independent people who have no stake in the game to assess the information. The Minister should consider that also…

To be clear, insofar as this is modelled on section 481, does the same designated activity company, DAC, approach apply where it is done on a project-by-project basis? What was the Minister's favourite cartoon when he was younger? Was it "Tom and Jerry"? Let us say I am employed by Tom and Jerry DAC and then I am employed by Speedy Gonzales DAC. I am then employed by Wile E Coyote, DAC, but they are all Warner Brothers. Who was I employed by then? Was I employed by Warner Brothers or by Speedy Gonzales? He was ther…

-----it will take me two years to get into the WRC and Speedy Gonzales is gone over the horizon but Warner Brothers will still be around. I am asking this as a serious question because there is a distinction between how the live-action film industry and the animation industry operate. The animation industry does not go cartoon by cartoon. People are employed by an actual company and they have a job, but in the film industry, they are not. Which is it going to be in the digital gaming sector? Will it be digital game…

Yes, I am.

Deputy Farrell has made most of the points and it is her and Deputy Doherty's amendment. My wider view on banks is that, after we bailed them out, we should have kept them in public ownership, taken them over and developed a not-for-profit banking system. These private banks we bailed out are carrying losses forward and dramatically reducing their tax liabilities year on year. Then their customers pay the highest interest rates anywhere in Europe and they are ruthless when it comes to dealing with their customers. …

I move amendment No. 17: In page 94, between lines 33 and 34, to insert the following: “Reports 37. Before the publication of the Finance Bill 2022, the Minister shall lay a report before the Dáil, on the impact of the change of the corporate tax rate to 15 per cent, and what measures are needed to ensure that this rate is a minimum effective rate which cannot be circumvented through the exploitation of reliefs allowances.”. The amendment calls on the Minister to produce a report on the degree to which the 15% corp…

Under socialism, we would want foreign direct investment. I welcome the jobs. I understand how important they are in many areas, including my own constituency, where a number of these multinationals are located. That does not mean they should not pay their fair share of tax. I will give an example from The Irish Times this year, "Google used 'double-Irish' [which was supposed to be gone in 2015, but lasted until 2020] to shift $75.4bn in profits out of Ireland". In 2019, it shifted them to a holding company, Google…

I said we questioned the issue.

There was international questioning. We were part of it.

I would not claim credit for major international changes in corporate tax. However, until we arrived in the Dáil, nobody was willing to question these things. I speak no word of a lie when I say I was on the finance committee and we asked for Google, Facebook and Apple to come in to the committee to explain their tax affairs and effective tax rate. Not only did the committee vote against it, members insisted the cameras were turned off while we discussed whether they would be invited in. That happened. Deputies can…

Amendment No. 40 relates to the tax treatment of institutional investors and corporate landlords and their impact on the housing sector, affordability and rents. I did not hear all of Deputy Lahart's contribution but the thrust of it seemed to suggest that there was a time when we needed these investors and that they brought some beneficial impact to the housing sector but that maybe we need to tighten up a bit. I disagree with that narrative. I think it was a terrible mistake to invite them in, for which we are pa…

Where would we get the money if we did not have these investors to build the houses we need? Credit unions have said repeatedly they have the money, which are savings as well, but in a not-for-profit institution, where they have the interests of our communities and the social objective of housing people at heart. That is one source of money. I refer to what we discussed earlier about household wealth in this country. Of the €936 billion net household wealth, more than €400 billion of it is financial assets, the sav…