Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We had an extensive discussion on this tax relief on Committee Stage. My amendment splits the difference between the figure we proposed in committee and the Minister's threshold of €5,000.

I do not generally favour tax breaks and, in so far as they are discussed in the Chamber, I spend most of my time railing against them because they are given primarily to people who do not deserve them and serve little purpose in terms of the development of the economy and society. This relief, however, is a good one that is well targeted. Its beneficiaries are likely to be ordinary citizens having home improvements such as insulation works carried out and tradespeople who are a key focus of the measure. Given that many tradespeople are in serious difficulty, it is a good idea to have a targeted measure which will, I hope, generate some employment for building workers and those with a trade.

In arriving at the threshold of €5,000 has the Department drawn up a list of works that could constitute refurbishment? Deputy Doherty cited a number of examples of such works and I also set out a number of cases on Committee Stage. Many works that would cost less than €5,000 could not be described as day-to-day repairs that would be carried out in the normal course. I accept the point that the purpose of the relief is to generate work that would not otherwise be generated. This is the Minister of State's concern regarding the proposal to reduce the threshold and it is, I believe, what is meant by the term "dead weight" - I love these new phrases that people come up with. If the Minister of State's argument is that we cannot afford to provide tax breaks in respect of works that would be done at any rate and the purpose of this relief is to encourage new activity, that is fair enough. However, I can think of numerous examples of works costing between €1,500 and €5,000 that one would describe as new activity. For example, in the case of a person I know who is considering landscaping her garden, I suspect the work will not be done if the threshold remains at €5,000 because she could not afford to have it done. I am not batting on behalf of the individual in question but her garden could probably be landscaped for-----

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