Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The first petition, No. P00032/13, concerns the introduction of a supplementary primary education tax payable by Australian and other non-EU nationals on working visas in Ireland. The petitioner is of the view that as a result of the current financial situation in the country, the Government should study the system adopted by Australia and implement the same system in Ireland. Australia has enacted a law under which working visa holders, with children attending government funded primary schools, must pay an additional fee per child attending school. We first considered this petition on 26 March 2014. We wrote to the Minister for Finance as we considered it was a tax matter. The reply from the Department of Finance states this proposal would be more appropriate to be administered via a charge similar to that imposed on third level students from outside the European Union. The Department of Education and Skills has confirmed that it is not planning on introducing such a tax. We forwarded the petition to the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. We have considered it and received responses from the Departments concerned. We have agreed to forward the departmental responses, the rationale for the viewpoint expressed and close the petition. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Petition No. P00024/2014 relates to social inclusion. The petitioners believe the Government policy of tendering out the new Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme, SICAP, threatens to undermine community development projects and will result in a deterioration of services for the most disadvantaged. They cite as the problem the enforcement of EU procurement Directive 2004/18/EC and advise that it has been superseded by EU Directive 2014/24/EU. When it came before the committee on 11 December, it was agreed to invite the petitioners to address the committee on 28 January 2015. We have deliberated on this issue. I invite Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh to propose the recommendation.