Mr. Ian Talbot:

To take the questions in sequence, local authority parking charges are an issue that is consistently raised with us. There are 55 chambers around the country and our members are consistently arguing that local authorities could support local business by providing free parking in town centres for the first 30 minutes or the first hour. That is feedback we are consistently getting from our members. I accept that if one has invested in a car park, one is entitled to expect a return. Investing in car parks goes back to previous eras of tax reliefs and so forth. I do not have any particular views on that matter and I am not sure that many of those who made such investments are members of Chambers Ireland.

Regarding tax clearance certificates, there are some anomalous situations. Case managers in the Revenue Commissioners are taking absolute discretion in deciding how long they will issue a tax clearance certificate for. If, for example, one goes to Revenue to put some arrangement in place, the likelihood is that the case officer will then give one either a monthly or quarterly tax clearance certificate. A lot of private companies also ask for tax clearance certificates these days as a way of validating how well a company is doing, and in that context, this issue is not just about dealing with State or semi-State organisations. The moment one sees a business or individual with only a monthly or quarterly tax clearance certificate, one is immediately on high alert and one suspects there is a problem. Discretion is being used and such discretion is causing problems. Five or ten years ago, the process of obtaining a tax clearance certificate was quite cumbersome. Now the process is very streamlined and maybe the solution is for the Revenue Commissioners to issue all certificates on a quarterly basis, for example. That is what we were referring to when we spoke about how discretion can sometimes mean a business falls over at the last hurdle.

On capital gains tax, we have spent many years proving that as we reduced taxes, we generated more revenue. As Mr. Noonan said earlier, we have increased capital gains tax by 40% and the returns are coming down. We are getting close to 33% at this stage. We are all trying to encourage entrepreneurship and all of the organisations here today have proposed different measures, all with the same basic thrust, that is, to make people who are thinking about investing in a business believe that the State does support entrepreneurship. It is more about confidence-building measures than about the return to be had from the tax. Reducing capital gains tax is a statement that we, culturally, are supportive of entrepreneurial activity.

The Ireland rate of return issue is a tricky one. The wording that the Departments and semi-State bodies tend to stick with is the "most economically cost-effective" but one will get different answers if one looks at this from the perspective of an individual Department, a division or the economy as a whole. We are very concerned that, for example, a large number of local authority contracts are going to service providers in Northern Ireland, where a different minimum wage regime is in operation, as well as different working hours and JLC arrangements. The local authorities are potentially putting Irish companies and the Irish Exchequer at a disadvantage by going down that route. However, I admit that it is a very complex area.

The final issue is the roll-over relief, which I will ask Mr. Noonan to deal with.