John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Scanlon for sharing time with me. The primary purpose of the Bill is to give legislative effect to the increases in motor tax rates and trade plate licences contained in the financial resolution on motor tax passed in the recent budget. It provides for increases in motor taxes of 4% for cars below 2.5 litres and CO2 bands A to D, inclusive, and 5% for cars above 2.5 litres and CO2 bands E to G, inclusive. The increase in motor tax rates must be viewed against a background where all such increases since 2000, including the current increases, are below the inflation rate for the intervening eight years.

The most important aspect of the Bill is that it will increase substantially the amount of funding that will go to local authorities in 2009. The Minister estimates it will raise an additional €40 million for the local government fund next year. This fund is of great importance for local authorities throughout the State. Successive Governments have been engaged in an effort to ensure that local authorities have a reasonable amount of funding. As a former member of Wexford County Council, I always argued that there was insufficient funding for local authorities. Perhaps more powers should be granted to members to raise additional funding, although they may not want such powers. It is an issue that should be considered in the future.

In total, local authorities will spend some €11.7 billion on capital and current expenditure in 2009. It is important that they get value for money. From talking to the county manager and engineers in Wexford, it seems that quotations being submitted under the tendering system have decreased substantially due to the decline in residential construction throughout the State. We must ensure that we obtain better value for money in the future in regard to the construction of roads, local authority housing and so on. Local authorities must negotiate with builders and developers to ensure there is a substantial decrease in the prices submitted for tender.

Local authorities must prioritise their spending in 2009. Business people, particularly owners of small businesses, are anxious that rates should not be increased in a substantial way in the coming year. One local authority in Dublin has already implemented an increase of 3.5%, leading to uproar among business owners. Given the economic climate in which they are operating, business people consider the rates to be far too high. I urge local authority members throughout the State to reflect seriously before increasing rates in any substantial way.

Local authorities should have a greater input into efforts to encourage road safety. Last week, I attended Wexford County Council's environmental awards, which recognise the efforts of school and community groups working in partnership with the local authority. There should be greater co-operation between local authorities, schools, the Garda, ambulance service, fire service and local authority road engineers to raise awareness of road safety among young people. By the end of the year, some 300 people will have been killed on the roads in 2008. My daughter died in a road accident some years ago and I would not wish that to be visited on any family. The Department of Transport and the Road Safety Authority, under the chairmanship of Gay Byrne, are very active in promoting road safety, but there is a need also for awareness-raising at a local level. The Minister should encourage local authorities to work in partnership with communities and schools in conveying to young people the dangers of driving too fast, driving after consuming alcohol and so on.

The Leas-Cheann Comhairle and I travel on the N11 on a regular basis. Several black spots and bottlenecks remain on that route, including the section near Jack White's in Wicklow. The Enniscorthy and New Ross bypasses remain to be completed. I hope these projects will be undertaken without delay via public private partnerships and that they will not be affected by budgetary cutbacks. Wexford is a gateway to Rosslare and on to Europe and we need a top class road network. I ask both the Minister for Transport and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to ensure these projects proceed without delay.

As Deputy O'Dowd observed, motor cars have largely taken over our lives. I see this in my town where inadequate parking facilities at schools have become a serious problem. No young person is asked to walk to school anymore. Even though families may be living a couple of hundred yards away from St. Aidan's national school, St. Senan's national school or the three secondary schools in Enniscorthy, parents still have to drive their children to the school. This is causing mayhem for our schools and for people who have to travel longer distances. Cars are being abandoned and I have serious concerns about the safety of children. Local authorities and town councils are working in conjunction with schools to try to alleviate this problem. It would do no harm if young people living nearby walked to schools with their friends. There was great camaraderie and fun walking to school in my day, when we had to walk three miles to Marshalstown national school. The issue needs to be addressed quickly.

The Minister spoke about funding for local authorities and value for money. In County Wexford, we have serious problems with coastal erosion. Perhaps the Government will not be in position to tackle this on its own due to the high costs involved. Figures for Wexford provided a few years ago suggested that it would cost about €200 million to deal with the coastal erosion problems in the county. There is a need for specifically allocated funding from Europe, along with funds from the Government, to ensure that we can deal with coastal erosion. Acres of land are being lost, even in tourism centres like Rosslare, Courtown, Curracloe, Kilmuckeridge and Blackwater, so tourism is also affected. There is a need for adequate funding and for Europe to recognise there is a problem in certain countries with coastal erosion.

In our county, soft sand banks are eroded by wind, rain and heavy floods. There is a need to deal with that. We have tried several times to seek special allocations directly from Europe into the county, but this has not happened. I understand that responsibility for coastal erosion has been transferred to the Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW. We should have a partnership arrangement with Brussels to ensure that this issue can be adequately dealt with. There is a mixed view about coastal erosion. Some people say it is cheaper to let eroding coastline fall into the sea than to deal with it, but landowners with property along the coastline do not want to see that. We need a proper coastal protection policy.

The Government announced in the budget that it will introduced a €200 charge for holidays homes. In Wexford, we have hundreds of holiday homes. We are taken over by Dublin during the summer as the population increases by practically another county. When we were arguing for the retention of the hospital in Wexford, we always maintained that the county population increased by 40,000 in the summer months, with people staying in their second homes for the period. I have a problem with the way the Government is dealing with the holiday home situation. I am a firm believer that moneys collected in Wexford for our holiday homes should be allocated to local authorities, and not into a central fund. The county provides the water, the sewerage, the roads and all of the other services for the holiday homes in our county. I cannot understand why we should have to suffer while the money goes into a central fund and is redistributed to counties that have no coast and fewer holiday homes. We have gone out of our way to welcome these people, to give them planning permission to build their houses and to allow developers make money building them. All services are provided in difficult times by Wexford County Council to ensure that people in towns along our coastline could buy holiday homes. If Wexford County Council was allowed to keep the €200 charge per holiday home, it would have a substantial budget that would allow it to run the authority properly. The Minister should think again about this.

I welcome the announcement by the Minister for Transport and the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources of a project on electric cars. Oil stocks are dwindling and prices can be high at times. They have fallen recently due to the volatile situation, but oil prices could increase dramatically again. The pilot project is worth €1 million and is managed by Sustainable Energy Ireland. It will be used for retail, research, development and the demonstration of electric vehicles nationally. That is a welcome initiative and I would like to see progress on it as quickly as possible.

I generally welcome the Bill. However, I have some concerns. The Minister mentioned holiday homes in his speech, and I am asking him to think again and let each county spend the money where it is collected.

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