Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The reality is that there is no money about the place. As the Minister has consistently pointed out, where there is no money, one must be experimental and creative in seeking to construct a tax system that encourages the type of entrepreneurship we need. One of the great benefits of the current system is that even though many people lost a great deal of money and a lot of people had to lay off employees, they still know what it is like to earn money and to make a profit. We did not have that in the 1980s. In the current situation, even though so many people have lost so much, they know how to make money. We must foster that type of entrepreneurship - that quiet, determined, enterprising culture - through the tax code.

It is wrong to say that the Government has not done anything in this area. Last year, for instance, we brought forward the JobsPlus scheme, which is a deliberate intervention to help people who are long-term unemployed. The home renovation incentive, as I have stated, is a specific targeted approach on the construction side. Under the scheme we are discussing here, we are encouraging people to get going again where they have a business idea and the potential to make that idea work in terms of the profits they might make or the people they might employ. Slowly but surely, we are putting schemes in place that will make a difference.

The good news is that as the numbers out of work decline, as is already happening, the number of long-term unemployed will also decrease. The most recent statistic points to a reduction in that cohort from 8.5% to 7.5%. It is a reduction of only one percentage point but it represents important progress. The definition of long-term unemployed deployed by the Department of Social Protection is that persons so categorised have been out of work for one year or more. We are allying that definition with the tax position we are proposing here. We will have to see how it goes. I absolutely concede that it is an experimental measure.

I hope as a result of this experiment that people will take up the opportunity offered by this relief. Many of them who have lost much do know how to make money.

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