Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the measures for small and medium-sized enterprises because the retail trade is dying on its feet throughout the country. Every night in most provincial towns is like Christmas night - bereft of cars and bereft of people. Notwithstanding that it is hard to stand in the way of people's changing purchasing habits, we need to bring in measures to facilitate them.

I want to address some measures in the Bill, starting with section 16. For some years I have raised with the Minister for Finance and his predecessor the concept of releasing money caught up in pension funds. I welcome that a person can now access up to 30% of accumulated additional voluntary contributions, AVCs. However, this should be extended to other categories of pensions. It is difficult to understand how somebody - an employer or whoever - might have invested and money is caught up in it. They cannot get access to money from the banks and yet we will not permit the release of this money. It is important to realise that if the money is released, tax will be paid on it. I would like to see the Minister extend this measure.

I welcome the section 20 provisions on film relief, which is very important in my county. I would be a strong advocate of tax reliefs. While I accept it was populist to change the provisions on stud fees a number years ago, I disagreed with the removal of it. It helped the industry greatly at the time and we should not shy away from reliefs when we believe they are appropriate.

Section 21 extends the timeframe for the employment investment incentive, EII, scheme and its remit to include hotels, guesthouses and self-catering accommodation for a two year trial period. However, Dublin, Meath, Wicklow, Kildare, and Cork county and city, with the exception of the docklands in Cork, are excluded. Deputy Dara Murphy will be interested to note that a person seeking to invest in a small and medium-sized enterprise in Cork will not get the tax relief he or she might get across the border in Tipperary or somewhere. This is inequitable and unfair to the counties. There may have been a logical and pragmatic reason for introducing it in the boom time period from the point of view of having regional balance. However, there are parts of those counties, including in my county, where areas are definitely as impoverished as anywhere else in the country. I ask the Minister to go back to the EU and try to get this issue addressed so that there is a level playing pitch. It is difficult to understand how a hotel in Galway, Mayo or Kerry can avail of this tax relief and yet a hotel in parts of south-west Wicklow cannot. Actually we have very few, if any, hotels in that area because we do not have the tourist numbers.

Section 24 deals with the donation of heritage property. I am glad that has been extended to include certain accompanying buildings, outbuildings, yards and land. I note that the tax relief has been decreased from 80% of the value of the property to 50%. If I am reading this correctly, it is a retrograde step because the values of properties have decreased anyhow. We should be encouraging people who want to hand over property. Altamont Garden in Carlow is a classic example of a property handed over to the State and is of great benefit to the State. If Coolattin House on the golf club in south Wicklow were handed over to the State, it could be of great benefit to the country. When the Minister is wrapping up I ask him to outline why this measure has been taken, which seems retrograde and not progressive.

I wish to make a point about the economy in general. The only way we can come out of this difficulty is by making everything subject to measurement.

We cannot afford to be wedded to outdated ideology. Whether an organisation is in private or public ownership is irrelevant to me if it works. If a hospital, school or local service operates better in private ownership, let it be. Equally, if they operate better in public ownership, let it be. We should be prepared to remove services from organisations that are not efficient. No one can stand over the inefficiency and complete mess made by SUSI of the third level grants system. It is totally unacceptable that families, six or seven months after their children started college, have not still received their grants. When grants had not been processed within three months we should have introduced emergency legislation to remove that function from SUSI and give it to another body. There are plenty of organisations that could do the job.

We must also address the issue of labour law. The hands of companies are tied, in terms of dealing with employees who are inefficient, owing to our labour law. Companies are afraid to address this issue owing to the raft of labour law in place. Equally, we must ensure there are in place measures such as education, retraining and upskilling for people who are unemployed. I am a great advocate of workfare rather than welfare. I welcome the moves being made in this regard. People want to work and an opportunity to contribute. It improves their self esteem, the economy and society as a whole. Every cause has its merits. However, there is a limit to funding. The population of the European Union accounts for approximately 10% of the world population yet it spends in the region of 50% of its budget on welfare. We need to address the issues of good causes and value for money.

The Gettysburg Address contains 272 words and the EU directives on eggs contain 10,000 words. Somebody might confirm for me if the latter statistic is correct. The lesson in this regard is that we need more action and less words.

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