Michael Mullins (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, to the House. I am happy to support this Finance Bill on the basis that it delivers on a number of commitments made by the Government on taking up office, one of which was to increase mortgage interest relief to 30% for first time buyers who purchased during the period 2004-08. Some 270,000 people have benefitted from this change. I also welcome the increase in mortgage interest relief to 25% for first time buyers in 2012. Previous speakers referred to the universal social charge, USC, exemption, the threshold for which has been increased from €4,004 to €10,036 and benefits 330,000 workers. They are significant changes.

I welcome that income tax rates remain unchanged as an increase in income tax would have meant an increase on work. This Government is pro work and pro jobs and wants to ensure everyone is encouraged to remain in the workforce and to seek new employment opportunities.

Senator Mary White spoke about job creation. This Government is committed to job creation. I believe Senator White is being a little harsh on the Minister, Deputy Bruton. Rome was not built in a day. While there are issues that remain to be resolved with the banks, the Minister has made significant progress. There have been many positive changes as a result of budget 2012 which need to be highlighted, including the special assignee relief programme which targets the assignment of foreign based individuals to the Irish based operations of their employers. This will enable Irish operations to attract key specialised personnel around which teams and processes can be built. The modification to the research and development, R&D, tax credit is also significant, as is the introduction of the foreign earnings deduction which seeks to support companies that are promoting Irish exports to Brazil, Russian, India, China and South Africa and the extension to 2014 of tax relief for corporate investment in renewable energy. These are all significant initiatives.

The recent jobs initiative ensures all Departments are working closely on the 270 actions identified. Investor confidence is returning to Ireland. As stated earlier, significant job announcements have been made in recent times. It is hoped that following the visits of various Ministers to different parts of the world we will see further significant investment in our country in the future. Ireland is now a much more desirable place in which to invest. Investor confidence is returning. In addition, with regard to excise duty on petrol and diesel we are getting to the stage where the price of fuel is causing difficulty for many businesses and consumers. Prices have rocketed in recent times and the Government needs to examine the level of taxation. It is causing great hardship and difficulty.

I welcome the fact that 25 cent was put on tobacco in the budget. As the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, comes from a Border county he is aware of the large amount of revenue we lose because of cigarette smuggling and diesel and fuel laundering across the Border. I do not have the figures to hand but I saw them recently and I know we lose significant amounts of revenue through illegal activity with regard to cigarettes and fuel laundering. I welcome the additional powers to investigate serious customs and excise tax offences contained in the Finance Bill.

I also welcome the reference in the Bill to standards of accounting records and the under-reporting of credit card transactions. I believe the non-reporting of online transactions by certain businesses is becoming an issue. This is the equivalent of under the counter payments and the practice must be nipped in the bud. The penalties should be particularly high to dissuade people from getting involved in this line of activity.

With regard to agriculture, capital gains tax retirement relief is being better targeted to encourage timely transfers of farms and businesses. Milk quotas will be removed in 2015 and we are trying to grow the agribusiness industry so it is important to have timely transfers of farms from fathers to sons. We also need to consider how to ensure land which is unlikely to be transferred to a relative in the short term can be utilised to increase our agriproduction. We should have an incentive for people to lease such land or a measure to help grow our agribusiness.

The scope of the Revenue job assist scheme is being widened to include those unemployed for more than 12 months and signing for credits. This scheme had been accessible only to people in receipt of a social welfare payment. I very much welcome this measure and all measures contained the Finance Bill which will help to get people back to work.