Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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On the issue of taxation, is this the year or the budget to be contemplating introducing tax relief, whether in the form of entrepreneurial relief, capital gains or whatever? We have been having Brexit debates here virtually every week, if not every day, and last week the key issue arose of what the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, did last year with his €300 million and what may have to happen if we still get a massive hit to our revenues of maybe €6 billion in the following year, today's encouraging news notwithstanding. Should we be thinking along these terms at all of introducing tax relief? The witnesses mentioned capital gains and the Charlie McCreevy era, but that was a fundamentally different era and the world has moved on very seriously since then. To echo the Minister in some respects, is it not time to be prudent on taxation?

On wages and the demand side, what does the chambers do to encourage members to pay a living wage or to move towards that level of wages in, say, the vast area of service firms on the high street that we are familiar with? Has the chambers a policy of encouraging companies that are doing quite well to pay workers a premium and therefore stimulate demand? Obviously if people are better paid, they have more money to spend in the economy. Is that something the chambers has given any consideration to?

On decarbonisation, I am sure chambers has members around the country who are in the car industry. Do the witnesses think that they have done enough, or have they done anything whatsoever in many cases, to encourage people to move towards buying electric vehicles, hybrids or whatever? We have heard from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, SIMI, one of chambers's sister organisations and a motor industry body, that the 2030 targets are simply impossible and that we could not be like Norway and roll out 90,000 chargers, or whatever it is that the Norwegians have, or that kind of encouragement in that regard.

The witnesses mentioned indigenous business.

Obviously indigenous business can be very heavily impacted by a reliance on the British market, North-South trade and so on. There is a link with FDI because many companies have flourished due to being contractors and provided cleaning and all kinds of services to Google up the road and so on. The organisations have echoed the Taoiseach by calling for hypothecated taxes. We have not had such taxes before. Most economists would now say that there is a strong case for doing so. A lot of us are concerned about poorer households. It is great for us to move towards the 2025 or 2030 targets. However, the levels of fuel poverty that we have seen in the past, which affected between 15% and 20% of the population, are so profound that we cannot afford to leave poorer households behind.

Lastly, we should strive for the cities of Sligo and Limerick, and all of our great cities around the country, to become vibrant regional centres and that Dublin becomes a world-class capital. Recently I was struck by the fact that a certain European capital that is only one third the size of Dublin has, unlike us, a tram service to an airport. The tram line was built in the last couple of years without hysterical debate. Much of Dublin city does not have a fixed line. We still wait for a Luas to be built in Cork city and Galway city.