Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I accept the principle behind his amendment, that policy and policy changes should be based on evidence. The scheme is only in place since 25 November 2011, the very last days of that month. That means that it is only in place for just over 15 months. Before that we had the business expansion scheme which was supplanted by this new scheme. Before the new scheme was introduced, as I said in my previous remarks, there was an ex ante evaluation of the benefits of the new scheme. I have been asked how well the scheme has operated since its introduction in the last days of November 2011 but a full year's figures are still not available. It is too soon to carry out an evaluation. It is also too soon to give a commitment to carry it out before next year's budget. I will give a commitment that I shall review it in due course without tying myself to a timeline.

I am interested, as I am sure that the Deputy is considering the constituency that he represents, that we repair the damaged tourism industry further. Extensive repairs have been carried out already but we should address that problem whereby hotels cannot trade properly due to legacy debt. To restructure their debt it is important that they have access to seed capital and that is the purpose of the extension.

On a wider issue, many of the debates about what the Government is at now are focused directly on the programme, bailout scheme or whatever one wants to call it. There is a far more interesting programme being run in parallel with it. We are examining the economy sector by sector and are trying to enhance the strong sectors and repair the weak sectors. That is being done right across Departments. Many of the most interesting changes taking place are in that space; for example, the current inward investment record. The reason we are tweaking, nuancing and enhancing the IDA packages is to keep us competitive with competitor countries like the Netherlands and now the UK. The latter has become our main competitor for inward investment.

That is going very well. Under the Minister, Deputy Bruton, last year was a record year and it looks like another record year this year. Agrifood and farming are going very well. Members will recall the measures we took in last year's Finance Bill, and again this year, to prepare farming for the non-milk quota days after 2015. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has estimated that production of food on Irish farms will increase by 40% in volume terms between 2015 and 2020.

They are strong sectors but the tourism sector was hammered coming out of the crisis. It had declined by 30% and traditional markets such as the UK had declined dramatically. We have been working to get it back through the promotional activity of Fáilte Ireland, the changes to the VAT rate and the concentration on other measures. This is another measure to put a better base under the tourism industry. I commit to a review in due course but I do not want to be tied to a timeline and I would like to see how this works in the tourism industry before I carry out a review. The hotel sector currently employs almost 51,000 people. It is a big employer and earner of foreign income. We need to build up the tourism industry to be a strong pillar of our economy. It is moving in that direction and we should enhance it in every way we can. That is the purpose of this section but I thank the Deputy for his remarks. I can give a commitment on the general principle of proceeding with policy on an evidence base. It is important to renew the evidence base regularly and we will also do so in respect of this.