Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The bulk of the capital for this development now will be funded by tax breaks. These amendments only seek that such tax breaks be costed to ascertain their true value and cost.

In Ireland, tax expenditures through tax breaks are treated as though they were meaningless. Earlier, I noted that not alone is the marginal tax rate 41% but, in effect, it can be considerably higher for different propositions. The result in effect is that every time €1 million is invested in such schemes, the taxpayer hands back €400,000 or more to the schemes' promoters. These amendments merely propose that the Minister conduct a cost-benefit analysis before committing so much taxpayers' money.

As for the Shannon scheme, it would be interesting to know how many proposals are on the table. Although this was driven by private finance, I refer to the cost. At yesterday's meeting of the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service, members had a long discussion on how such private finance is no longer available and now more than ever, it makes sense to have a serious cost-benefit analysis of such schemes. While I understand the Commission on Taxation may be examining some of them, they have been incredibly costly to the Irish taxpayer. When a tax break is introduced, there should be a clear benefit, whereby the taxpayer pays over €410,000 per €1 million invested and there is some return to the public good on a defined and measurable basis, and not simply a system of tax breaks for the golden circle around Fianna Fáil. This has brought the country to ruin and it is not too late for the Minister to revisit such schemes.

Our banks are in disarray and as the Minister noted in yesterday's joint committee meeting, the developers of some of the schemes for which tax breaks have been awarded potentially are on the verge of liquidation and bankruptcy. However, the schemes still are being funded and the Minister seems unwilling in this regard. As his predecessor had come around to the view that it was correct to review the schemes, it seems extraordinary the Minister cannot acknowledge this and introduce genuine cost-benefit analysis of them.

In many cases, it would be better to close them down and to reintroduce for a limited period only those schemes that have a measurable effect, particularly in respect of job retention and employment creation. A back-to-basics approach should be adopted, as the current structure is a mess of rubbish that has cost Irish taxpayers dear. Moreover, they probably will continue to pay for up to 15 years more because many such schemes have an expiry lifetime that will continue for that long and one has no idea what value, if any, they will continue to provide.

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