Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I regret the Deputy takes that point of view but I will not return it in kind.

Deputy Crawford said he was worried about this being imposed but it will not be. We are introducing facilitative legislation which will allow businesses in a particular area to come together for a specific purpose.

Deputy O'Dowd, until his last few moments in a very constructive contribution, was concerned about the majority and he made the point that the British have a double system. The opposite effect would arise here, however, because it would give a disproportionate representation to the views of large business and it is important that there is equality in the system.

Deputies O'Dowd, Gilmore and Crawford mentioned additionality. The idea is that it is protected by the benchmarking arrangements that exist specifically for that purpose.

A number of Deputies mentioned the rating holiday that is being ended. I was surprised this was raised so frequently because it is an injection of equity for all the other ratepayers; a holiday must be paid for and it is not fair if it is paid for by other ratepayers.

Deputies asked about the additionality and how to protect against it. The BID company will have specific requirements that will then be costed and allocated. Nothing other than those things the company requires to be brought on board will be brought into it.

Deputy Cuffe, who characteristically made a contribution and then left the House having asked a series of questions, made the point about local government being sufficiently funded. I draw attention to the allocation yesterday of €958 million to local authorities through the general purposes grant. Last year we allocated almost €600 million for non-national roads and the figure will be higher this year. This funding is almost three times what it was when other parties were in power in 1997.

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