Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The proposal to introduce self-certification into this procedure is bizarre. The Minister of State is leaving himself open to significant risk in terms of the success or otherwise of it because a lot will depend on the calibre and quality of the applicants. If these are honest applicants who have proposals which may result in much-needed investment, it should be possible to assist them to make valid applications that are likely to be successful. What the Minister of State is saying is that he has an idea of a scheme but he is confused as to whether the people who apply for it deserve to get it. That is no good to a company or a local person in a town like Dundalk where the employment is much needed. The self-certification route is riskier. In moving to it, we risk attracting people who are only in it for the tax break and are not committed to the project. Some level of scrutiny in regard to the project and quality thereof is necessary. There are towns throughout the country that have experience of people who optimistically overpromised and others who set up, took what they could get and then left, leaving the people and the areas high and dry. The Minister of State needs to reconsider this proposal.

In providing for self-certification we are handing the scheme over to accounting and legal firms. Rather than going the self-certification route, the Minister of State ought to be focused on whether this is a valid scheme that is worthy of Government support and will produce employment and investment outcomes for people and areas that badly need those outcomes. How does one allow for self-certification in the case of a person who has no track record? The Minister of State might not be doing people any favours. He might just be providing for a short term boost to the figures and a lot of chaos in regard to the scheme. There is merit in Deputy McGrath's proposal in terms of a study. It could be a relatively small study of anonymised applications over a specific timeframe and a breakdown of the applications that have been successful, and why, and the applications that have not been successful, and why.

This could even be done by the public service, perhaps Revenue in conjunction with the likes of the IDA and Enterprise Ireland. What people want is for schemes such as this to be successful. If they are not successful, they should be changed. I have no idea why the Minister of State has decided to go down this path. I bet some accountant whispered in his ear. They will do the filling out.

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