Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the short time available to me I will limit my remarks to two issues. I have received correspondence from the Irish Tax Institute. Members will be aware that there has been extensive consultation on the proposal to bring forward the tax pay-and-file deadline of 31 October. The reaction of the overwhelming majority of chartered tax advisers who contacted me from the north west is that the wheel is not broken and we should not try to fix it. If the date is brought forward it will lead to serious cash flow problems for businesses. The earlier date will not lead to greater certainty or accuracy in tax predictions and it will put at risk the efficiencies that are part of the current infrastructure. I ask the Minister for Finance to consider the proposals emanating from chartered tax advisers and to heed their calls given that they are working at the coalface.

While spending time in Boston and Washington last September, I followed the debate about whether the US recovery is city led. A similar conversation is taking place in England about London and the south east. During the boom from 1997 to 2006, London and the south east was responsible for 37% of the UK's growth in output. Since the crash of 2007, their share has rocketed to 48%. Cautious optimism is now being expressed in Dublin about the economy stabilising and property prices rising. All of us, but especially those in the ranks of the Civil Service and officialdom based in Dublin and the Pale, should be cautious about assuming that stabilisation in Dublin will automatically filter into rural areas. As we have seen from the figures for London and the east coast of America, a city-led recovery does not necessarily mean the regions will see the same magnitude of recovery. I am concerned to know what type of plan will be put in place for the rural regions. We need to work on all aspects, such as incentivising new schemes in local authorities to build new houses.

A woman presented to my constituency office last Monday to seek my assistance. The woman and her partner had both lost their jobs. They built their house as far as a square and paid for it that far but they are unable to progress construction further. There is no point in them going to the banks or the credit union because they do not have jobs that would allow a system of repayment. We need to find ways of helping couples in that position. They are in rental accommodation but they own their own land and have brought their house to a certain stage. We also have ghost estates. We have to reinvent policies on rural housing and urban housing in the regions. This is something of which our officials in Dublin need to be conscious in the context of the recovery we want to see.

In the regions we have a history of fighting against IDA thinking about keeping industry in clusters and near services. Clearly there is a need for this among industries but the country in which I want to live is not an east coast developed country with the regions for shooting and fishing at the weekends. This has been a great country where people could work in rural areas. We have to keep that sharply in focus because the Ireland I want to see in 20 or 50 years time is not the ESRI type island of big roads and rail services along the east coast from Belfast to Dublin and down to the south east. I want to live in the country in which I was reared, where services and jobs were available locally and rural people could have the same lifestyles as those who had the advantages of all services on the doorsteps in the more populated urban regions.

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