Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on the Finance Bill 2012 which is the culmination of my first budgetary process, this still being just about my first year in the Dáil. I have enjoyed the process and learned much as we went through it.

We often talk about protecting the most vulnerable in our society and prioritising getting the unemployed back to work. This is right and proper as we all know there is nothing worse to happen to a person or family than to lose employment. However, a country is much more than an economy driven by a workforce which is why we have our social welfare system to protect the most vulnerable and those who fall on hard times. With the recession, our workforce has diminished. The number of people working, which we need to drive this country on out of the recession, has been reduced while the responsibilities and burdens on those in employment have grown.

The budget and the Finance Bill was mindful of those still working who may not be classed as most vulnerable but who still suffer greatly. Even though a person may have a job, his or her wages may have been cut drastically and they may face personal debt with negative equity on their home. They are also not entitled to a medical card for their children or other benefits those on social welfare receive. I deal with a large number of constituents who are struggling in that regard and feel they have been forgotten about with the focus on the unemployed. There were elements in this budget that bore those workers in mind and minimised its impact on them.

Those measures included not bringing in any income tax rises, cutting the lowest paid workers out of the universal social charge, USC, and raising mortgage interest relief to 30% for those first-time buyers between 2004 and 2008, a real and tangible saving which will make a large difference to 214,000 households and families. This relief will run from 2012 to 2017 and will see annual gains from €450 up to €2,000 depending on when the person bought his or her house.

Earlier Deputy Dooley referred to promises that had been made but not kept. The mortgage interest relief support was a promise we made before the election to which we stuck. I commend the Minister for Finance on doing that. When the Keane report came out, it did not overly stress mortgage interest relief. However, in dealing with people before and since the election, I knew changes to mortgage interest relief were real and tangible and could make a difference to their lives. Fine Gael listened to them and delivered on that. The property issue still needs more work but the personal insolvency Bill will assist this.

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, had to reduce his departmental spend by €105 million. He managed to do so while in the least way possible affecting productivity as well as introducing several measures which have serious foresight and will increase land mobility. The Minister for Finance and his Department deserve great credit for taking on board these points from the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

Before I entered this House, I was a young farmer. In 1998, many of those who attended agricultural college with me went on to learn a trade for four years making good money on building sites as their parents were still active in farming and not ready to sign the farm over to them. Now with building work dried up and their parents ready to hand over their farms, many of my friends are looking at farming not as a derisory but a real potential career. This Bill has introduced several measures to encourage farm consolidation and this crossover such as the reduction in stamp duty from 6% to 2% and 1% for family transfers which is a positive development. Incentivising farm partnerships is the way forward because farmers on the continent do not cling to the idea of land ownership as tightly as we do in Ireland. Restructuring retirement relief will create an incentive to transfer farm assets to the next generation. These measures will offer farming as a career option for young people.

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