Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

If this is a move that represents a more mature and fair corporation tax policy, Sinn Féin will support it. It is an intolerable situation at present in which SMEs here are paying the full whack of corporation tax while some large multinationals are paying only a tiny percentage. The Minister has spoken about the importance of our reputation with regard to tax matters and I fully agree with him. That is why the Government must stop claiming to have a transparent corporation system and instead start building a system that is actually transparent.

The biggest wave of anger sparked by the financial aspects of the budget introduced by the Minister for Finance, as opposed to those measures introduced by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, which also prompted huge anger, relates to the changes to tax credits for single parents. The change has angered single parents themselves, as well as those who know single parents who are trying to support their children as best they can. It is a mean move that is targeted to save €25 million in a year. The logic that fathers - and in most cases we are talking about fathers - do not bear the cost of children who stay with them for weekends, on holidays or even for five months and three weeks of the year is absurd. We all know that Christmas is approaching and those single fathers and single parents will provide for their children as much as any other parent. When they have their children in their homes, whether that is at weekends, during summer holidays, on alternate weeks or through some other arrangement, they provide for their loved ones. The Department's latest estimate is that 14,500 people may be affected by this cut. While I acknowledge the amendment the Minister has introduced, I argue that the number of people affected is at least double the Department's estimate because that figure only refers to the adults. It is not just the individual fathers or mothers who will be affected by this. Their children will be affected and for every adult we are talking about at least one child. It is an unfair move. There have been other suggestions with regard to how money could be saved in a fairer way, through, for example, linking the tax credit to the payment of maintenance. That is something the Government should examine. It must also examine the unfair and mean nature of this cut, which ultimately affects the welfare of the children of separated parents.

The Living City initiative is wrongly named. I say that because to be a living scheme, it would have to exist. What the Minister has done in the Finance Bill is to announce an extension to a scheme that has not come into existence yet. Recently, in response to a parliamentary question, the Minister listed a range of measures as long as my arm that were announced in budget 2013 or previously and that are still on the desk of someone in Brussels awaiting approval. Among these is the Living City initiative. As I said last year, I have concerns about how this scheme will actually work and who will benefit from it. In some ways, it harks back to and smells of the old property reliefs that contributed to the bubble. If we go down this road, we should tread very carefully indeed. It is worrying that the Minister is announcing an extension to a pilot project that does not even exist. He is broadening the area and the scope of the project without any experience of how successful it may or may not be. A pilot project is about testing the waters, but with this extension the Minister is plunging in feet first.

Since coming to office, this Government has concentrated on supporting the elites in Irish society. It has failed to take on high earners and continually targets groups on the margins. This year's Finance Bill is just as conservative as last year's. The Minister stated on budget day that he was introducing 23 measures that would contribute to job creation. Given that job retention and creation is a key plank of Sinn Féin policy, I welcome the Government's comments on jobs. Unfortunately, however, they have been nothing more than comments. The Government's jobs policy can be described as all launch and no action. The net jobs that have been created in the economy, after 176,000 people have emigrated on this Government's watch, were created in spite of Government policies rather than because of them. I want to see taxation measures that contribute to support job creation, and in that context I am particularly interested to see if the home renovation scheme delivers dividends. Indeed, this is something that my party examined and I will speak about it again later in the debate. However, I wish to flag the fact that I believe the threshold in the scheme is far too high. The aim is to deal with black market activity, but those who have spoken to me about this have pointed out that the people who are carrying out renovations up to the value of €30,000 are not operating in the black market. It is those undertaking jobs worth €1,000, €2,000 or €3,000 who are in the black market. In that context, we need to consider meaningful amendments to the Bill.

It is only right and proper that the banking system carry its share of the burden. We know that the banks were reckless in the past and that they are refusing to engage seriously with the mortgage crisis now. The detail of the proposed levy is less encouraging than the principle of this section of the Bill. Why is the Minister lifting the limit on what losses incurred by banks can be carried forward and what will be the effect of that? The lifting of those limits could actually mean that this levy will yield very little, if any, revenue. Is this really a levy on the banks or is it just a charge that will be passed onto customers? We know that the Government has been impotent in standing up to the banks, particularly in the context of fee hikes, interest rate increases and so forth. We also know all about the smoke and mirrors surrounding the Mercer report in the context of the pay of senior bankers.

In the interests of full public disclosure, I wish to make an important statement on the Anglo Irish Bank tapes. Within the last number of weeks, Sinn Féin was anonymously sent a copy of secret recordings involving senior officials at Anglo Irish Bank. The majority of these recordings, which are not currently in the public domain, cover the period between February and September 2008. On the advice of senior counsel, we have taken the decision not to release the tapes at this time. I have made them available to the Garda Commissioner and the Governor of the Central Bank.

I personally hand delivered them to Garda headquarters and the office of the Governor of the Central Bank this morning. We have also retained a copy of the tapes with my solicitor with a view to publishing them on a future date.

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