Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for outlining their positions. I apologise for the lack of my colleagues. Deputy Michael McGrath has gone to the Dáil vote and Deputy Dooley is at another meeting. Fianna Fáil is one of the smallest parties here, but there have been many of these meetings this week.

The submissions speak for themselves. I know that the representatives of the farming organisations will also appear before the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and Marine where the specifics will be taken up. The taxation issues they raised are often raised regarding the spending matters, various schemes and the rural development programme. They would be issues for the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine through the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and Marine. The submissions on the taxation side are useful and they will find support from most. The pay and file deadline is obviously a practical issue across many industries. I assume there would be support for the various taxation measures they mentioned, including the consanguinity relief.

I will come to the representatives of the motor trade. I also have a vote coming up in a few minutes, which is why I am rushed.

I like many of the points raised but I wonder what the industry is doing. I opposed the scrappage scheme because I thought the industry should be doing it. When the scrappage scheme ended, we saw some brands in the industry bringing in their own scrappage schemes, which is what they were called in their advertisements. I thought that one of the biggest problems over the past few years was the lack of finance. What should have happened is that these manufacturers should have come in with their own finance schemes to stimulate the market, which they have now done. They are very large corporations. I am not saying this to disagree with Mr. Murphy but to challenge the industry. There is constant lobbying of Government to change tax, etc.

I agree with many of the points made and see the sense in what Mr. Murphy said but, first of all, the industry should reduce prices or look to cut costs and then maybe the Government should do something rather than the other way around. I appreciate what Mr. Murphy said about registration figures, as I have read up on this, but the people talking about all the new car registrations are those in the Society of the Irish Motor Industry.

There is a huge range of finance products available now in the motor industry. Would that not lead to an increase in sales? They have, by and large, been provided by the industry.