Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. One of the surprising things about this Bill and the preceding budget was the reduction in moneys available for flood relief schemes throughout the country. Obviously, I have a particular interest in that because over the past ten years, there have been four major floods in Clonmel with over 200 homes and businesses flooded on each occasion costing householders and business people hundreds of thousands of euro. None of these householders nor business people can get insurance cover and, as I said, they were hit on four occasions. The Minister of State, Deputy Parlon, promised that the scheme would go to public consultation last summer and that it would start before the end of the year, but that has not happened. Unfortunately, we were hit by another flood in November 2004. Now we have been told by the Minister of State that public consultation will go ahead in spring of this year. It is well into the spring of this year but there is still no sign of this public consultation. Will the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy, contact the Minister of State as a matter of urgency to get a decision and a timescale for us in respect of the consultation process for the Clonmel flood alleviation scheme to ensure it starts this year?

Another matter which comes to the attention of a constituency such as mine is decentralisation. It was announced with much ballyhoo and, thankfully, Tipperary town was listed among towns to which Departments were to be decentralised. However, we have heard nothing since. The town is not on the latest list and is not included in the reports from the body dealing with decentralisation. I ask the Minister of State to ensure that Tipperary is included on the decentralisation list, which will be issued by the Flynn group in the next four to six weeks. Everything is available in Tipperary town, including a site, and approximately three quarters of the staff complement have been accounted for by indications of willingness to go there. This is one of the highest indications of job transfer feasibility in the entire process.

The income tax package included in this Bill is very disappointing. A person on the industrial wage, approximately €29,000, continues to pay tax at 42%. This is the same rate at which a millionaire pays tax, if he or she pays any tax. The Government promised that only 20% of taxpayers would pay at the higher rate but the figure has increased from 33% to 42% in recent years. We are going in the wrong direction in this regard. It is unacceptable that an employee earning the average industrial wage must be subjected to a tax rate of 42%.

The removal of those workers on the minimum wage from the tax net is welcome. However, so little has been done that any increase in income by way of wages will ensures that these workers will be within the tax net in a short time.

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