Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Chair. I will be very brief; I have just three quick points to make. At one of our meetings here yesterday, I mentioned the issue of projects having to stall at various stages along the way because we do not have multi-annual budgeting. When you are doing big projects that run for years, you cannot be waiting for the annual budget each year. The funds could run out in September and no payments can be made without Supplementary Estimates which may not get made until the new year and sometimes work stops on site. What can be done to address that?

The other question I would ask, because we have heard so much about big figures, is what is the cost of servicing the national debt each year and the average interest rate on that? The last question is a VAT issue. I had a gentleman phone me the other day who had been in business all his life and has handed the business over to the son. The son is a self-employed photographer and he said the VAT registration rate has a turnover of €40,000. This man told me decades ago when he started it was €40,000. He is now saying if you think of €40,000 as turnover, it grows €40,000, 50% of which is expenses. You are probably on a net income of €20,000 and you are paying VAT. He said it is wildly crazy. There is no money to be got for the Government out of it because the level of turnover is so small but he says the amount of paperwork for people starting businesses is crazy. He said as far as he knew, that figure has not changed in decades but I am subject to correction. They are my questions.