Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I wish to share time with Deputy Hayes and Deputy Crawford.

I spoke to the Minister for Finance about the tax to be levied on Knock Airport, as did Deputy Calleary and other Deputies. I know there are still reservations about it, but I am pleased the Minister has reduced it from €10 to €2. That regional airport is very important for the west. It suffers from the disadvantage of not having enough people, and it would be further disadvantaged if the people flying in and out of Mayo were taxed a further €10. I am delighted the Minister dealt with that.

I am disappointed the Minister did not deal with small businesses in the Finance Bill 2008. Small businesses are under terrible pressure. They cannot get funding from the banks. I call on the Minister and the Government to send out a directive immediately to all local authorities. They cannot come in here and look for a 3%-4% increase from small businesses. There are businesses suffering across the country, and if local authorities think they can increase water charges and rates this year, we will see many more of them fold. The day where they can charge businesses as they like is over. I am disappointed the Minister did not bring something in to get small businesses up and moving again.

We have already spoken about quangos, when we dealt with the FÁS issue. The Minister should write to every quango and to the local authorities. What was going on here over the last ten or 15 years was not right. Officials from every quango and local authority were travelling all over the world and thinking this was never going to end. It has ended and the message needs to come from the Department of Finance that we are in a serious situation at the moment. All foreign travel by officials from quangos and local authorities should be immediately stopped. There should be an investigation into every quango in the country. FÁS was one of the big boys, but there are many small boys and girls out there who played hell and thought this bubble would never burst.

There was a job going in Mayo County Council recently. There are interview boards for such jobs and for jobs like general operators. Up to 150 people could apply for these jobs. The new thing now is to put the manager or the county secretary on the interview board, and these people could get three months' work in doing interviews. It is probably more profitable than working. It is time this stopped and that all these quangos were dealt with. It was all about giving the councillors a few trips here and there, but that was nothing in comparison to what was going on behind the scenes, where officials were travelling everywhere using their credit cards and so on. It is time to stop all this. I recently put down some Dáil questions about the Western Development Commission. The same thing was happening there. The good times are over. The small people out there are being attacked in this budget and they will have to pay the 32 taxes introduced by this Government since then. That is nothing compared to what will happen when the local authorities get going in a few weeks' time.

I was disappointed the Minister did not come in with new ideas. I thought he would bring in some initiative to try to get small businesses up and moving. Small businesses employ people in towns and villages across the country. Instead of initiatives to keep them afloat, we introduce stealth taxes and direct taxes. The owners of small businesses are fed up with councils, the Revenue Commissioners, inspectors and so on. Some people are telling me that they would be better off on social welfare because they would not suffer as much aggravation from the State. Instead of encouraging them, they are being annoyed by civil servants who are not creating a job yet have to be paid out of the Exchequer every year.

Maybe it is time we had a proper review of what has been going on in this country. European legislation was coming in here and the Government was passing it on. Every time a European directive was put through, it cost the taxpayer, small businesses and those employing people here. They are sick and tired of going to doctors due to stress caused by the State. Instead of encouraging them to employ more people, we are putting further pressure on them. The recent budget certainly did not do anything for small businesses and I hope we see an initiative shortly from the Government. I know the Taoiseach is sitting down with the Cabinet at the moment and it will come up with some kind of a national plan. It is long enough in the job to get this plan up and running.

I see Deputy White is here, and I am sure she will not mind if I have a few words about the Green Party. I was in somebody's house the other day, and the woman had one of these new bulbs. She said that she was depressed enough with the state of the country and with the Government, but that now she is depressed further with these lights that will not shine. That was the best initiative of the Government in the last 12 months. The Green Party is depressing her with these lights.

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