Sinn Féin criticises Govt over pension tax break

Sinn Féin's finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty has said the Government has given a massive tax break to people with gold plated pensions.

He told the Dáil that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael want the taxpayer to help those at the very top build up a pension pot of €2.8 million.

This tax break is worth up to €320,000 for more than 250 people, Mr Doherty said.

Responding, the Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien said the Government was acting on some of the recommendations of an independent review of the Standard Fund Threshold which was cut in 2014.

He confirmed there will be some changes to this threshold from 2026 onwards.

However, he insisted the Budget negotiations were focused on increasing the State pension.

Earlier, the Tánaiste said there will be "an indicative statement" on Budget Day from the Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure on how the €14 billion Apple tax revenue will be spent.

Micheál Martin said it is no secret that housing, water and the electricity grid will be the key areas for investment.

Speaking at the National Ploughing Championships, Mr Martin said that he wants any additional funds going to Irish Water to include commitments to invest in wastewater and capacity in town and villages across Ireland where the infrastructure has already reached capacity.

It comes after the Taoiseach Simon Harris told a meeting of his party last night that he hopes the principles around how to invest the money will be set out on 1 October.

Last week, Apple lost its fight against the European Commission's ruling that it underpaid €13 billion in tax due to Ireland.

The European Court of Justice has set aside the judgment of the lower General Court, which previously overturned the Commission's decision.

That lower court's ruling overturned the commission’s 2016 original finding that Apple had underpaid taxes totalling €13.1bn due to Ireland between 2003 and 2014.

Following the commission’s original ruling, Apple had to pay €13.1bn in unpaid taxes, plus €1.2bn in interest into an independent third-party administered escrow account.

The Department of Finance confirmed the value of funds in the third party or escrow account holding tax money owed by Apple is now €14.1bn.

Mr Harris informed his party colleagues that the Apple money would be directed towards infrastructure and investments, which he said can create a better future.

There is already agreement in the Government that the money will not fund day-to-day costs.

It will also not be used to underpin any tax cuts.

Instead, the money will likely be invested in housing, along with improving the State’s infrastructure.

This could include a major investment in water services and increasing the capacity of the national grid.

Talks on the issue have already taken place between the Government party leaders and the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure.

Sinn Féin has said the spending of the €14bn will be decided by the people in the upcoming election and not the current Government.

Minister Donohoe said that the €14bn due from Apple should be spent as EU Regional Cohesion Funds were in previous decades, when Ireland was a net recipient of those monies.

"It's imperative that we make a decision regarding how we spend that money wisely, and when Ireland experienced a gain like this before, for example, in the money that was made available to us in Regional Cohesion funding," he said, that wise decisions "delivered benefits way ahead of what we could have hoped for".

"That's going to be a lot easier said than done, because any State agency, any Government department that spends money already believes they should have access to this money, and they should be spending it.

"[We] do have an awful lot of work to do in relation to this across the coming months," Minister Donohoe added.