David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to say a few words on this Bill. I pay tribute to Deputy Neville and I listened carefully to what he had to say. The impact of recession and depression on people's mental health and the stress which people are under very often because of financial pressures is something we are all encountering increasingly. We must redouble our efforts to assist people who are under unbelievable pressure at the moment. It is frightening.

The Minister recognises that the unemployment rate will peak this year at more than 13%. However, he does not take into account the 60,000 people who have emigrated, many of them young people. Almost every family has now experienced this. That is something the Minister should have acknowledged in his speech and perhaps he will do so when he sums up later. We need to work as hard as we can to encourage and support small business. There is not much mention in the Minister's speech about small businesses, which are haemorrhaging jobs at an alarming rate. I see no strategy in that regard from the Minister.

In his speech the Minister spoke about the responsibility to change our behaviour to reduce greenhouse gases and he has introduced a carbon tax and so forth. I recently raised the matter of electricity micro-generation with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. He told me that in February 2009 he launched the micro-generation programme, which had "the potential to provide up to 4,000 domestic customers investing in micro-scale projects with a financial payment for electricity exported back to the grid". This is direct import substitution. However, the uptake to date has been very disappointing. Although the target was 4,000, only 189 people had taken up the programme. I am glad the Minister for Finance has joined us. I asked people why this might be the case. Many people who want to participate in micro-generation are farmers who want to install a wind turbine on their land. However, they will be charged VAT to install a turbine. If the Government target is 4,000 and only 189 have taken it up, what is wrong? I believe VAT is a problem.

I understand that farmers, who put in a diesel generator to generate electricity for their farm, pay no VAT on it. However, those installing a wind turbine to do the same job must pay VAT. I ask the Minister to review the matter. I believe there is an anomaly which should be corrected. If the Government is serious about micro-generation from renewable sources this matter could be addressed now in the Finance Bill. I ask the Minister to consider it on Committee Stage. He may have a reason for not doing it. In a response to a parliamentary question the Minister stated it would be acceptable if it were only for agricultural purposes. However, if a farmer wants to generate electricity using micro-generation for farming purposes he should be assisted and encouraged to do so. If VAT is a problem then perhaps that should be removed if it is possible.

Another matter is related if we want to encourage people in enterprise and so on. The Student Support Bill is languishing somewhere in Committee and has been there for years. Every day people contact us saying they want to go back to college or school. People contacted me today who had submitted an application in August and have still not received the grant. There is something awfully wrong there. Perhaps the Minister could bring forward the scheme for third level grants to earlier in the year. The Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science is also in the House. Why not publish the scheme in March so that before people go to college they know whether they qualify for the grant? Why wait until the end of August? People must prove that they are in need of financial support in order to get the grant so they must be not well off. However, they then must wait until February to get the grant. People are dropping out of college across the country because they cannot afford to keep going. They do not have enough money to buy food to eat. This is an administrative, bureaucratic problem that has nothing to do with anything else. I challenge the Minister for Finance to bring the scheme forward earlier in the year. The tax year ends in December. There is no reason these forms should not be available in March allowing students to know in June whether they will get the grant. If they get a place in college, they would then know they could finance it. This is something simple that should have been done long ago.

Some €900 million was supposed to have been provided for the disability strategy. I have asked several Ministers, including the Minister opposite, to provide me with a breakdown. It was supposed to have been €900 million over five years. Was it ever there? My suspicion is that it was not. I challenge the Minister opposite to go back to the Department. Either he or his predecessor committed €900 million for the disability strategy. Where is it? This goes back to value for money. I want to know if the money was provided and on what was it spent. Despite asking time out of number, no Minister can tell me what happened to that money and whether it ever existed.

The Bill makes no mention of tackling all the quangos and their cost. Although we have been promised it, it has not happened.

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