Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I believe the Minister's analysis of the impact of the VAT reduction within the tourism sector is flawed. It entails measuring growth in tourism against a very poor year, that is, the previous year, which was greatly affected by the ash cloud from the volcanic eruption. Clearly, the Minister's VAT reduction measure has not had the benefit it was set out or expected to achieve. My suggestion concerns the €400 million the Government has taken from the private pension funds. While I will not discuss the impact this measure had on such pensions, it had a capacity to raise funds. Had the Government a more appropriate methodology for investing that sum in the economy, it could have had a greater potential to increase employment levels. I suggest it was a pool of funding that could have been used to provide for the Minister's capital programme, thereby sustaining investment in the economy in those shovel-ready projects many of the Minister's colleagues identified in advance of the election and which were going to be the panacea to create employment when the Government parties came to power. Sadly, that has not happened. Will the Minister review the €400 million grab on pensions and consider the use of that pot of money towards assisting in the capital funding available for those important projects?

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