Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I welcome the Bill. My daughter, Gillian, studied under Senator Barrett in Trinity College and graduated in 1988, one of a group of 38. The day after her graduation, 37 of the group emigrated. Those who talk about how difficult times are now - I agree times are difficult - should be reminded that we have gone through difficult times in the past. What happened after 1988 was that we got it right in the following years and by 1992, we employed far more people. I believe we can do the same now. The reason we got it right then was that we decided to take the tough decisions. We must take tough decisions now too.

It is interesting to see that others around Europe are beginning to recognise we are taking tough decisions. I am involved in an organisation in Brussels and go there regularly. It was clear five, six or seven years ago that there was great regard for Ireland, but we lost respect in the past few years. We are now beginning to get that respect back because of the tough decisions we are taking. Recently, the intelligence unit of The Economist suggested that Ireland will create 20,000 jobs in the next three years and that 50% of those jobs will be in the financial services sector and another 25% in the IT sector. The intelligence unit suggests the reason for this is that we are taking the tough decisions. It is very easy for us to criticise a finance Bill that lists what we must do, but back in the 1980s we took those tough decisions. Some of the credit must be given to the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrat Government. At the time, the leader of Fine Gael, Alan Dukes, said that if the Government took the tough decisions, he would support them. We need the Opposition to do the same now.

I would like to focus on some proposals of the Bill. The Irish Credit Bureau gives information to lenders to help financial institutions decide whether to give credit to a business or individuals. One positive aspect of this is that the credit bureau also compiles positive information, such as the fact that loan repayments have been made on time. However, along with the compilation of information from financial institutions, it does not compile information from retailers, trade creditors or utility companies. Some, including the World Bank, have highlighted this as a deficiency in our system. We need to include this further picture when a business or individual applies for credit and should consider doing something about this.

I also wish to mention the special assignee relief programme. This programme aims to cut employers' costs in hiring skilled workers from overseas to work in their Irish-based operations. Employees signed up for at least one year and a maximum of five years will be exempt from income tax on 30% of their salary, between €75,000 and €500,000. As an employer, I am concerned that this will create some resentment in the workplace. We have already seen some resentment at the high salaries being paid to some people. I am also concerned that we will still find it hard to compete with other countries such as Holland and Malta, which have much more competitive schemes in place. For example, Malta offers a personal tax rate of 15% in certain skilled areas of the financial services sector. Should we not be looking to attract such talent in order to build up our financial services sector, which is of such importance? Can the Minister of State be more specific with regard to the types of workers he wants to introduce through this programme?

Is it possible we can do something about providing more research and development tax credits for food and marine research? We have significant potential in the food, agriculture and marine research area. The number of agricultural colleges and the number of students in them are increasing. We supply baby formula world wide. Did the Minister of State see the figures recently which indicate that one in five Chinese children receive Irish baby formula? However, we need more investment in new agricultural techniques. We also need to consider areas such as food research. Can we attract more foreign direct investment to make Ireland a centre of excellence in food research? I am involved in the institute of food and health in UCD where there is significant work going on behind the scenes. There are great links between the institute and the agricultural university in China. The Swiss food giant, Nestlé, employs 5,000 people directly on research and development around the world. Can we establish similar centres or even attract them here with incentives? It would be worthwhile because the investment is very good. I know the Government is doing something about it.