Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat. I welcome the opportunity to speak. The Finance Bill takes cognisance of so many issues on which we have been lobbied, as Deputy O'Donovan has said. The pupil-teacher ratio has been reduced, there are provisions on child care, more people have been taken out of the USC net, income tax is reduced and so on. Money is being put into services. It was not concocted overnight; the Government and the backbenchers have been listening. There has been dialogue with stakeholders and individuals. On the whole, it is a very hopeful budget and the Finance Act will fulfil that.

One area which needs a very focused approach is the situation regarding our market towns. This is particularly obvious in rural Ireland but also applies throughout the country, as I know from talking to backbench Government Deputies. There has been a lot of investment in farming and we have a dynamic Minister in Deputy Coveney but that is all inside the farm gate. Market town centres throughout my own County of Mayo are dilapidated. A number of years ago there were people living in these towns and the places were buzzing, but very few live in them now. We see old townhouses, very fine commercial buildings, in a state of decay.

This did not happen with the collapse of our economy and the banking crisis, it was going on during the Celtic tiger. Shopping trends changed and people wanted new houses further out. No matter how good things are in certain areas and how much improvement we see, we go back to the same point. These monuments of decay, as I call them, are quite depressing. The Minister of State, Deputy McHugh is a rural representative as well and will have seen it.

We need spatial planning involving perspective and impetus from local government, along with tax breaks to encourage people to come back, do up these properties and live in the towns. We have, I believe, 200,000 empty private properties in the country, not to mention those owned by local authorities. A lot of these are in town centres. An incentive, not investor-developer led but offered to individuals who chose to come back to live in town centres, in the form of either a tax break or a grant, should be seriously considered. Why would we not want people to live in town centres? It makes more sense than building out in the country where services and all the rest have to be brought out. We have fine buildings in the town centres. Let us take the same approach as all of those lovely European villages we like to visit on holidays in Spain and France. We should renovate the buildings, put in the facilities and give them some TLC. We should make town centres vibrant places again, such as people would want to go to.

We also need a reality check. There is not going to be a corner shop everywhere as retail has changed. People want to go to multiples and shop online. We have to be more focused on the niche sectors. In conjunction with councils, we need to decide what the town centres are and support independent traders and small businesses. In the UK they took an initiative called the "Tesco levy". Multiples are very welcome here as they provide a lot of employment, but there has to be a balance. We cannot treat multiples like small independent traders. We should consider bringing in a similar "Tesco levy" which would see multiples such as Tesco, Aldi and so on pay rates on a higher basis than the small independent traders. Small traders and commercial premises in the centres of towns should then get a reduction in their rates. Why are they on the same playing field when there is no comparison? A small shop pays the same amount for its cigarette, wine or petrol license as Tesco. I do not mean to single out Tesco. UK studies showed that 50% of money spent in multiples leaves the local economy, while 90% of money spent at small independent traders stays there.

I appeal to the Minister for Finance on this. Let us have a vision for rural Ireland and get the local authorities involved. Let us incentivise and have tax breaks, not for investors or developers but to make a meaningful impression on rural Ireland and give it a boost. Normal market forces during the Celtic tiger did not help the situation. Are we going to be forever looking at decay in our town centres? Let us do something. Finance and taxation form a crucial part of addressing this issue.

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