Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

This amendment deals with a special case which affects one of the few historical places remaining in this country, namely, Westport House estate. There are only about seven of these estates in the country. A master plan for this estate was drawn up with the agreement of the town council and county council. This was something for which I and other members of the council had been asking for 20 years. A massive amount of money was borrowed and a professional team has been employed to deal with every aspect of the plan. The owners of the estate borrowed a lot of money to get a professional team to deal with every aspect of the plan.

This 80% windfall tax was really put in place to penalise developers and not to penalise people like Lord Altamont. The Browne family have had this estate in their name for many years. They want to develop that estate, as do the people of Westport. This estate attracts over 50,000 visitors every year and it has done more for tourism in the west of Ireland than Bord Fáilte and Ireland West Tourism. We had been encouraging the council to sit down with Lord Altamont to try to develop this plan. Now that we have the plan and we have brought Lord Altamont on board, this tax is brought in. I ask for an exemption for this plan. The council is in favour of it and I want an exemption for Westport House and estates like it. There are only seven or eight such estates in the country.

Whatever money is needed to pay for the development of the estate will be spent on the windfall tax, and so the estate will not be developed. I ask the Minister to accept this amendment because it will only affect a few estates. The Government can go ahead with the developer aspect of the tax, although I believe it is wrong as well. The Green Party wants to do this but it will not be good in the long term for the development of lands. However, I am asking the Minister to exempt Westport House and estates like it.

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