Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)

I thank the Minister for bringing forward what is a comprehensive and wide-ranging Bill. The legislation addresses a significant number of issues and at its heart is an effort to make Ireland more competitive and fairer. More could be done and I hope it will be in future budgets. As Senator Phelan noted, some 330,000 have been relieved of paying the universal social charge.

Although it was not announced in the budget, I welcome the increase in wealth, capital gains and capital acquisitions taxes, as well as the cap of €3 million on reliefs for family businesses and farms. These measures will ensure that wealth pays its way, which I welcome. For far too long people have said that people with wealth have not been paying their fair share, and this is an example of the first step in dealing with that issue. I also note the increase in DIRT to 30%. Deputies should be happy with that measure as it is about making everybody pay their fair share.

Further efforts to clamp down on fraud are welcome and people should have confidence in the Revenue Commissioners and know that everybody will pay a fair share. We should not return to what would have happened with tax evasion practices in the 1980s. Measures on fuel laundering are long overdue but are contained in the Finance Bill. I know this issue is deeply felt by Deputy Phelan, who has raised it on several occasions.

There is a series of amendments relating to the licensing process, which is progressive. Nevertheless, certain issues should be addressed. I would like to see the implementation of the recommendation of the Commission on Taxation Report 2009 that there should be an annual tax expenditure report published within several months of a finance Bill outlining the cost, effectiveness and economic impact of various tax reliefs on measures. That would be a progressive and reforming measure that would allow us to see very quickly how a finance Bill would perform.

I have an issue with the increase in mortgage interest relief to 30%, as the measure is not targeted at those who need it most. I ask the Minister to introduce an income threshold on eligibility for the tax relief. I suggest that the cap should be at least €200,000 for a married couple, and there should be a balance across other income levels.

I mentioned the regulation of motor fuel businesses earlier, and I ask the Minister to consider an amendment to the appropriate section to ensure that one of the conditions of a licence to sell fuel oil and diesel is that an applicant should have planning permission for a premises. That would be a very efficient way of closing down or stopping the establishment of illegal fuel laundering businesses. Many people having driven around the country would have seen fuel stations operated from the back of containers, and one must question how, in the first instance, such people got a licence. If we introduced such a stipulation in the Finance Bill, it would be a very efficient way of closing down illegal trade, which operates in competition with companies paying their fair share of tax and giving good employment.

Deputy Nulty criticised the special assignee relief programme earlier. It is very easy for the Deputy to forget the benefits introduced in this Finance Bill. I was elected and will work to the Labour Party manifesto, unlike Deputy Nulty, which was negotiated with Fine Gael and led to the programme for Government. Deputy Nulty ran for election on the programme for Government, which he very quickly rejected. Like Bobby Ewing he stepped out of the shower and forgot why people voted for him. They did so on the basis of the programme for Government and many of my colleagues canvassed for him in that respect. People knew why they were electing Deputy Nulty but he seems to want to walk away very quickly from those responsibilities.

There has been much heat and misinformation about the special assignee relief programme. This provision is tightly worded and ensures that people on high income currently working in Ireland cannot avail of it. It is only available to 2014 and the person in question must have worked for a company for a year and not have paid tax in Ireland for the previous five years. The idea is to attract highly paid jobs to Ireland and my understanding is it will bring about a gain in taxpayers and increase revenue and PRSI to the Exchequer. I welcome it in that respect. There is another element to this which opens another front in the tax war, and we should be careful with it. The initiative must be reviewed in 2014 to ensure it does what it says on the tin.

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