Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)

I propose to share time with Deputies Luke 'Ming' Flanagan and Donnelly. The Government said that this Finance Bill is geared towards creating jobs but I would have liked to see less emphasis on foreign direct investment and more on indigenous industry. Jobs and exports will come from foreign direct investment but, if we are serious about creating jobs, we must look more closely at the domestic economy. Introducing tax reliefs for high earners coming from abroad and paying for private schools is not the right way to go. Mortgage interest relief is a good idea for people who bought homes in 2004 and 2008 but it should have been more selective. The crisis has hit the majority of the population but a minority of people paying for properties bought in that period could afford to do without the mortgage interest relief. I thought the Government would have looked at it in that light.

Rates are one of the things killing the domestic economy. A revision of rates has begun in Dublin and will spread around the country. The link between rates, local government and lack of funding at local government level is a major problem. Local government is so dependent on rates that they are impossible to reduce unless it can be done in a different way. Many rents have halved while rates stay the same and it seems there is no connection with the market. Rates are far too high. The rents that have not changed involve upward-only rent reviews and properties such as restaurants, which commanded rents of €100,000 four or five years ago, now have a market rate of €50,000. However, because of the upward-only reviews rule, they are not allowed to change the rent and it is really killing them. The Government walked away from this matter because there is an issue with contract law. It is difficult to make illegal a law that was legal a couple of years ago. However, there is a way around it if the Government had a mind to do so and it should consider introducing a prohibitive tax where there is a difference between high rents and the market rent. The benefit accruing from the rents should be worked back to the person suffering, the person renting.

The biggest problem is the lack of finance. On five occasions, I asked about the strategic State investment bank that the Government said it would introduce. A year later, there is no word about a date for when it will be established. A proper investment bank would recycle savings within the Irish economy rather than using tax revenue to buy credit at commercial rates, which is what happens with Enterprise Ireland and the IDA. So many small businesses cannot access credit. History shows that banks have never been kind to innovators. Banks like to give money to those who least need it, safe bets. Banks have never been good at giving money to those who really need it, such as innovators who need cash. There is no one better to stimulate this than the Government., which has the financial clout. It says it has no money today but, when the banks ran into trouble, who did they run to? They ran to the Government because that is the one strong force that can deal with all these problems. The domestic market is screaming out for a stimulus from the Government and I do not see a huge improvement in unemployment rates until we tackle the problems in the domestic economy.

We are one of the weakest in Europe in terms of indigenous enterprises and too much of our foreign direct investment results in low employment. The pharmaceuticals industry exports over €60 million yet it employs less than 2% of the workforce. Too much foreign industry is not sourcing goods at local level; it is importing 85% of the produce it uses, which is a huge problem.

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