Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 89:

In page 186, line 11, to delete "€3" and substitute "€2".

This relates to the travel tax which my party proposed to scrap in its entirety in our alternative budget.

The Minister has reduced the charge from €10 to €7 and we propose to reduce it further to €2 or zero, if the Minister would accept that. The issue sends out the wrong message. We know tourism figures are well down, with numbers down by a couple of hundred thousand in the past year. That has a direct impact on many tourism providers, including those involved in accommodation, retail and amenities. People are under serious pressure, having built up businesses on established tourist numbers. They are falling away and nothing is being done to help these people; the opposite is occurring, which brings a direct cost on jobs and will put more people on dole queues.

In our alternative budget we put it up to the airline industries, indicating that Michael O'Leary, Aer Lingus bosses and anybody else involved should put their money into a marketing campaign and match the resources of the State in this area in order to bring in clients. If they can prove that the reduction of the tax will bring more people into this country, we will leave the tax at zero. If they fail to do so the tax can be reinstated but they should be given the chance to prove that the Government is wrong on the issue. These parties have been campaigning with an argument that the tax should not be in place, and we agree, but we challenge them to prove it.

By keeping the tax, the wrong message will go out. A person booking a flight online will see increased taxes, which will put him or her off and that person will go elsewhere. The Minister seems to believe people do not choose where to fly based on price increases of €3 or €4 but they do. When people pick a country to visit they can see the prices for flights so when taxes start building up they soon become disinterested and go elsewhere. Tourists are voting with their feet and not coming to this country for many reasons, one of which we know is the travel tax.

At this stage I ask the Government to consider reducing the figure. We would prefer to see it gone altogether but we had to put down an amendment for the €2 figure. The issue should be given some real thought as the message is wrong. We are suffering in this country because of a lack of tourists and we can really grow the sector and create jobs.

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