Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to make a brief contribution to this important Bill. I was going to spend my five minutes talking about Tallaght because it is important to correct what has been said during the week in regard to urban renewal schemes, tax exemptions and so on. Members who know Tallaght will know that the Tallaght to which I moved in 1969 was a completely different place from what it is today. Fifteen years ago it was said that Tallaght had a population of a city but the status of a village. The decision of the Fianna Fáil-led Government at the time to grant urban renewal status to the area allowed for the development of the Square and other projects. Tallaght is now a major city in its own right, with many of the facilities that one would expect. I say this because I was sensitive about some of what was said during the week. I am proud of where I live and where I represent.

The annual budget and Finance Bill are as much part of the annual winter festive season as Christmas. Prior to the budget, our media friends often speculate whether the Minister for Finance will prove to be Santa Claus or Scrooge. That can be seen as entertaining speculation and another friendly form of Christmas fare. However, it is far removed from the work of compiling the document that will affect the lives and welfare of all those who live in the State and beyond. There has been reference to the image of the Minister, Deputy Cowen, and I have been a long time admirer of his work. I have always admired what he did in government, particularly when he was Minister for Labour and in other Ministries. I commend him and wish him well on this Bill.

The Minister is neither a Santa nor a scrooge. He is a servant of the State who is forced by circumstances to make choices between competing demands, many of them valid in their own right, and limited resources. The Minister must listen to many hard cases and at times adopt the policy, if not the persona, of a scrooge. It would be easier for a Minister to adopt the persona of a Santa and have goodies for all. He would still be criticised by the Opposition because the goodies were not good enough, too few of them went to certain places or the reindeer did not manage to cross the Shannon and so on. The one thing the Minister for Finance has in common with Santa is his range of willing helpers. These men and women are specialists, experts in the areas of economics, insurance, banking, taxation, business and highly specialised areas that now form part of a modern and well developed economy which is what Ireland is now.

Any pre-Christmas budget, whether it is the work of a Santa or a scrooge, must be given legal expression. This is the task in which we are now engaged with the Finance Bill. It is not a Bill that displays outbursts of Santa-style largesse or scrooge-like retrenchment, it is a Bill which has been put together in conjunction with the budget, and by the team of men and women to whom I referred. The Bill is designed to address and remove certain anomalies in financial practices where they are known to have been identified. To address this and to ensure that no further example of high earning tax residents manipulate the system to their advantage, the Minister is granting extra powers to the Revenue Commissioners. He will approve regulations under which financial institutions and Departments will automatically report interest, profit and certain other payments to customers.

The balanced approach taken by the Minister in the Bill can be seen in the area of property. Some reliefs have been exposed as having outlived their usefulness while others, some new and some existing for some time, are being retained, and even in some cases enhanced to encourage further innovation and economic development. I gave my support in the House to what the Minister is doing in regard to the film industry. I gave my strong support last week to proposals being brought forward by SIPTU and other agencies to produce a film about the life of Connolly. I record my strong support in that regard.

The Minister has proved himself to be neither a Santa nor a scrooge, but rather a careful manager of this country's finances. When he introduces the budget this time next year, we can be assured that there will be real goodies in his bag, goodies that will not be the product of empty promises made out of smoke and mirrors, but the result of real economic progress. I commend the Bill to the House and look forward to supporting it.

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