Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this group of amendments. I will discuss amendment No. 23 which is in my name. I acknowledge the rationalisation of the payment dates as proposed in the Minister's amendments. I had tabled two amendments to do with payment dates but these were ruled out of order. I am still wondering as to the reason.

The first payment date was scheduled to be 25 July this year and the second payment was to be 25 October, followed by dates of 25 March and 25 September 2012. On Second Stage I made the point that two years' payments would be made within the next 14 months which in my view was very severe, given we are now halfway through the year. The Minister proposes to change the payment dates to September of each of the years and I agree with the proposal for a single payment date as it makes it simpler. He will still get a full year's payment for this year even though we are well into the year but I will not oppose that proposal. In a way I consider it to be a retrospective levy in that the Minister is introducing a levy in relation to funds. I refer to what the Minister stated in his speech introducing the jobs initiative. He stated it would be based on the value of the funds on 1 January and then when he produced the legislation he stated it would be at the end of March and now today he states it will be the end of June. I welcome the clarification and the bringing forward of the date to the end of June-----

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