Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I propose to share time with Deputy John McGuinness.

We all welcome initiatives which focus on jobs, the number one issue facing this country. However, many issues need to be clarified when the Minister for Finance comes before the House tomorrow. Given that seven or eight Departments are affected by the jobs initiative, it is a matter of concern that only the Minister for Finance will speak tomorrow.

I welcome the Government's commitment to introduce a temporary credit guarantee scheme. The former Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, had substantially progressed this initiative before leaving office. I am concerned that the document, as published, does not make a financial allocation for the scheme in this year. I am even more concerned that the Taoiseach did not know anything about the initiative or its funding when I questioned him on it this morning.

The initiative announced by the Minister makes a clear commitment that the scheme will be up and running in the autumn. Will it be restricted to export companies or, as is typical of such schemes, companies employing more than ten or 30 staff? Alternatively, will it be a focused scheme which gives smaller businesses a chance? Small businesses are struggling, particularly in the retail sector which is bearing the brunt of the economic crisis. We need answers to these questions.

The Minister stated that a tendering process would commence almost immediately. Who will be involved in this process? Will he seek opinions from the committees of the House, if they are ever established, or the interest groups directly affected by the scheme? Such consultation would ensure the scheme is focused and designed to be effective and relevant to those involved in business. I hope the Minister will clarify this matter tomorrow and I intend to table parliamentary questions on the issue.

Lowering of the VAT rate in the interests of tourism is welcome given that tourism is a key product, albeit one which we tend to take for granted. Those of us who live here may not realise how much the Irish countryside is appreciated. Having examined the detail of the measure to lower the VAT rate on the Revenue website this afternoon, it is clear the reduction is taking place in a farcical manner, to use a diplomatic word. Surely a tourism initiative should affect every aspect of a tourist's experience. While the VAT rate has been lowered for a meal in a restaurant, it has not been lowered for any drinks served with a meal, except where it is purchased from a vending machine en route to the restaurant. A cup of coffee will cost 4 cents less as a result of the decrease in VAT but, as Deputy Mitchell noted, there is still no white smoke with regard to the archaic system of joint labour committees. The Government has not given a commitment to reduce the 13.5% VAT rate for car hire companies or tour guides, which have been specifically excluded from the scope of the reduction.

Tourists will arrive in airports which will have lower landing fees. I am not convinced that airlines which charge €40 to print out a boarding pass will pass on small discounts in landing fees to passengers. Tourists had better walk around the country because the cost of car hire or tour guides will not have fallen. Furthermore, they had better buy their drinks in advance if they are eating out. Surely a proper examination of this issue would have shown that in an island nation which most tourists access by air the majority of tourists need car hire. Rates for car hire are generally higher here than in other European destinations.

Aside from tourism interests, it is unfair that the Government has decided to exclude fuel from the reduction in the VAT rate, particularly as fuel prices are going through the roof. We all know from our constituency offices the difficulties people are experiencing with fuel poverty. The Government has missed an opportunity to address this issue. I ask the Minister to rectify the matter before the finance Bill is published.

I endorse the comments of Deputy Mitchell on joint labour committees, JLCs, and employment regulation orders, EROs. The Government has given a commitment to increase the minimum wage and introduce VAT reductions in certain areas of the economy by 1 July. Will the Minister clarify whether any of the recommendations of the report on JLCs and EROs, which should be published, will be implemented by 1 July? If the report is to have an impact on prices and the competitiveness of the retail and tourism sectors, we will have to address premium pay rates, particularly Sunday premiums, which are out of sync with those in place in the Six Counties and other countries with tourism markets. If wage rates and prices are to be changed by 1 July, is it dangerous to assume that changes in premiums and so forth will also be introduced on 1 July? For this to occur, the report must be published as soon as possible.

I have heard the usual chorus argue that the review of the joint labour committees and employment regulation orders is an attack on workers. The review was designed specifically to allow Members of the previous Dáil to make a contribution. I specifically inserted this term of reference to allow the usual chorus to place its cards on the table and offer solutions. I am not sure it has done so but I have no doubt we will hear it issue the usual rallying cries.

In the coming months, as we consider further jobs initiatives and commence preparations for the 2012 budget, which must focus on job creation, the big issue facing business is the level of local authority rates and charges.

Nationwide, shops, retail and tourism operations and snooker clubs are being hammered by rates, which in some cases were established at the height of the so-called Celtic tiger or by valuations that have been in place for nearly 100 years. Moreover, those who pay rates do not receive anything for the rates they pay as they are obliged to pay separate charges for water and for refuse and if they are located within Dublin's business improvement district. The Government should spend time between now and December in identifying this issue and coming up with a fairer way because together with credit, this is the number one issue being faced by businesses. The issues that constrain job creation are businesses' inability to get credit and the pressure under which they operate from unchanged fixed charges.

Many of the programmes announced in this jobs initiative are pre-existing programmes that have been rebranded or refreshed or have had budgets reallocated. While I heard some Ministers assert that this was the first time we have had joined-up thinking or the first time this or that has been attempted, that is not the way. Ministers will be aware that for the greater part, these are existing initiatives that have been rebranded, repackaged or re-financed. During the election, Fine Gael in particular with its five-point plan created expectations by stating it would great things with regard t job creation. Fianna Fáil's criticism is of the creation of this expectation in the knowledge of Ireland's financial position and the Government now faces the reality of delivering on that expectation. Over the course of this initiative and as the Government prepares a finance Bill, it should take on board the thoughts being expressed in the House. As I stated last Thursday in the debate on the EU-IMF programme, this exposes the need for the committee structure to be in place. This document should be debated hammer and tongs within a committee structure in which people have a chance to feed in suggestions or ideas. Two months have elapsed since the establishment of this House and yet there still is no sign of the committees. Apparently they will be established next week but it is a bit like Christmas in that next week is every week when the Taoiseach is asked about the committee structure.

There is much to be welcomed in this initiative. It is to be welcomed that the Oireachtas is focusing on unemployment. However, there are anomalies in the system the Government has two weeks to address before introducing its finance Bill. I refer to the anomalies regarding the VAT rate as it reflects on the tourism product and in particular, given the great pressure being experienced on fuel prices at present, there is a chance to do something substantial that would affect people's daily lives and the Government should take this chance.

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