Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)

When we strip the jobs initiative of the padding, waffle and unquantified and lofty aspirations, this is what it finally boils down to - a Finance Bill putting forward four measures which will not deliver a single job and which in fact will continue the policies of Robin Hood in reverse which have been a hallmark of this Government and its predecessor, namely, taking money out of the pockets of ordinary workers in order to pay for a crisis that was not of our creation. There has justifiably been much focus on the pension levy aspect of the Bill. Of course, as other Deputies have said, it would be an outrage to pass on this levy to pension holders who are already reeling from pay cuts, tax hikes, mortgage interest rate increases and so on. It is particularly scandalous that this would be envisaged in the context of the lack of choices considered by the Government in terms of other moneys it could have gone after to fund realistic jobs proposals or measures, such as those highlighted by Deputy Healy.

I want to deal with two of the other measures in the Bill which really expose the con it is, namely, the airport tax and the research and development, or R&D, tax credit. Let us be perfectly honest about this situation. The R&D tax credit is nothing more than the legalising of tax evasion. In reality, it would be better characterised as a form of economic prostitution. It will not create any wealth or create a single indigenous job, and it will not provide any useful service whatsoever. It is blatantly clear that this is simply about allowing Irish subsidiaries of foreign multinationals to "enhance", as it is termed, their accounting flexibility. In other words, they can write off this credit against their operating costs in Ireland and in that way give us an edge over neighbouring economies. It is a tax write-off scam that will allow the likes of Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and so on, to continue, an attempt to persuade them to stay by enabling them to pay virtually zero tax on their worldwide profits. It is pushing it to say this will keep jobs in the country and it takes the biscuit to claim it will create any new ones. The only benefit will be the further enhancement of the profits of the multinational corporations.

It was laughable to hear one of the Fine Gael Deputies lauding the example of California, citing it as a model for the type of economics being pursued in this measure as if it was a good thing. He is, of course, correct in that California is a very good example of where this model leads. Let us look at where that state has arrived. The unemployment rate in California is 11.9%, almost 3% higher than the US average. More than 2 million people are unemployed in the wealthy state of California. They are unemployed precisely because of policies similar to those being advocated by the Government in proposals such as this, which basically puts our economy and ourselves up for sale in order to entice companies to come to this country and allegedly provide employment. It has not worked anywhere else and will not work here either.

The other measure I consider to be a farce is the reduction of the airport tax. This is bandied around as if it were some sort of reality, the notion being that if one says something often enough it will not be a mirage. We are being asked to buy into the axing of a tax in return for an unspecified number of extra passengers, with no idea of how they will be delivered or how we may prove they have been delivered as a result of this cut rather than because of any other measures airlines adopt. Is it proposed that Ryanair may get the cut while Aer Lingus may not? It is a joke. No details are provided.

The key point is that the airport tax has already been reduced while passenger numbers have fallen. The idea that a further cut of 3%, even if it is passed on to the tourist, would be sufficient to cut across the international economic backdrop and entice people to come to this country is ridiculous. It is another vain hope that tourism will be a way out of our economic woes but against the backdrop of an international recession and other difficulties this will not be the case.

On their own, those measures highlight the fact this Bill will in no way scratch the surface of a problem that has left almost 500,000 people unemployed. Instead of implementing real measures and a key infrastructural programme that would put people back to work it is simply a giveaway to those who have the wealth in the first place.

See this speech in context