Áine Collins (Cork North West, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill and would like to thank the Minister for bringing it Bill to the House. With 450,000 people unemployed, the main focus of everything the Government does must be concentrated on reducing this figure, not only because of the cost to the State but also because of the physical and psychological effect that unemployment has on people and families. If we are to achieve the much needed growth in our indigenous economy we need new business and 70% of the jobs required will come from the SME sector. We must encourage the entrepreneurial spirit and boost confidence in people. I compliment the Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation and the Minister of State in the Department on the action plan for jobs which was launched on Monday of this week. The action plan is both exciting and innovative and will have an effect on the ground.

The budget is one of the many ways of influencing the economic environment so that businesses can expand and jobs can be created. Budget 2012 introduced a number of targeted measures designed to support job creation in key sectors of the economy. It also aims to enhance the attractiveness of Ireland as a destination for multinational companies. To that end, I welcome the Government's decision to work with EMC, a large multinational company from my own constituency of Cork North-West. EMC launched a cloud computing initiative earlier this week which will use the Government network as a test bed for cloud technology. Cloud computing will contribute significantly to making it easier and cheaper to conduct business in Ireland. If we are to capitalise on all that Ireland has to offer, we need to encourage start-ups and help the businesses that already exist to expand further. This initiative by EMC, together with the Government's action plan on jobs, will reduce costs and red tape for businesses and help get our people back to work.

The approach adopted in the budget and in this Finance Bill is to use the limited available resources we have through specifically targeted measures. These measures are focused on areas with the best employment potential and return on investment of public money. This is in line with our Taoiseach's vision to make Ireland the best small county in the world in which to do business by 2016. It is a challenge when the amount of money available for stimulus is restricted by our economic circumstances and our agreement with the troika. However we have learnt that throwing money at problems without a strategy does not solve them, it just creates different ones.

The clear measures that are targeted in this Finance Bill are welcome. There are a number of them in particular that stand out that will help job creation. The special assignee relief programme targets the assignment of key foreign-based individuals to the Irish-based operations of their employers. This will enable Irish operations to attract key specialised individuals around whom teams and processes will be built while providing much-needed experience and skills, especially where skills gaps have been identified, such as digital gaming. It is worth noting that when we import people with specialised skills, five new jobs are created in Ireland.

The research and development tax credit will allow companies to reward key research employees by transferring a portion of the tax credit. This is a good measure to help Irish companies in finding new markets for their goods and services. This will help drive our export-led economy and will raise Ireland's profile in the BRIC countries.

Another measure is the extension of the tax relief for corporate investment in renewable energy generation to 2014. We all know the challenges we face in the generation of sustainable energy. Promoting renewable energy generation will have a positive knock-on effect on job creation.

To help the export sector, there is a modification of the tax treatment of foreign-sourced dividends which allows for the extension of the 12.5% tax rate to dividends from non-treaty countries which have signed the OECD convention.

For the software industry, there is an improved relief for excess foreign tax on royalties. While technical, it is another business-friendly measure that is being implemented.

In the SME sector, the amendment and commencement of the employment and investment incentive will help to raise much-needed finance in many new sectors.

For start-ups, the extension of the tax relief and also the broadening of seed capital relief will boost the number of entrepreneurs. Helping these start-ups is crucial.

The changes in stamp duty, capital gains tax relief, stock relief and the double deduction for carbon tax will encourage young farmers back into farming, which was forgotten during the Celtic tiger. We now recognise how valuable this sector is to our economy and how important it will be for our future success.

All of these measures, in addition to many others, are evidence of what has been done by the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, at a time when our county is strangled with debt. This has been achieved without increasing income tax and by reducing the universal social charge and increasing mortgage relief, as promised in our programme for Government.

These measures, together with a more positive outlook from the media, would help give confidence to the people, which would in turn boost the domestic economy. I commend this Bill to the House.

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