Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the House for the opportunity to contribute to this important debate. I look forward to contributing at more length when the Bill is before the finance committee next month. I welcome the Bill.

When we had statements on the budget, I said it was progressive and welcome. There are many areas in the Bill that will genuinely be of benefit to so many around the country as they face extremely worrying challenges due to the difficult global circumstances, be they associated with Putin’s war in Ukraine, rising energy costs or the many other factors.

There are one or two aspects of the Bill I would like to highlight and on which I ask the Minister to reflect. We might see a little more clarity in the latter Stages before the Bill is finally enacted. The first issue, which has been raised with me quite a number of times by constituents in recent weeks, concerns benefit-in-kind tax on company cars. There may be a discrepancy in this regard. We need to differentiate between those who receive a company car as a gift or bonus, or as recognition in lieu of further payment, and those who receive one because it is an integral part of their job. The latter do not necessarily drive commercial vehicles, vans or jeeps but are on the road. My late father was a rep on the road for 35 years. His car was not a luxury car; it was his office. It was where the old-fashioned car phone was, and the samples were in the boot. It contained the files, contact directory and old-fashioned Filofax that were brought around when meeting customers and clients across all 32 counties of this country.

Regarding those who receive a car as a gift from their employer, there needs to be differentiation. The increase in the tax such people pay on their vehicles is making a huge difference to their bottom line. It is completely undermining any benefits from the budget. A rep I spoke to, who lives in Ballinteer in my constituency, said that to compensate for the tax increase, his salary would need to go up by 15%. That is the difference it makes. Those who travel longer distances, whose area may be all of Leinster, or Dublin and south Leinster, are suffering a lot more than those who may cover only the Dublin metropolitan region or some such region. Their cars are as essential to their jobs as their laptops or desks. Is there some way in the application of the new benefit-in-kind tax that was announced to distinguish between company cars given as perks and cars used for work?

There is another small issue I would like to raise. I do not have a direct ask but want to raise this in the brief amount of speaking time I have because it merits serious consideration. It relates to the proposed changes regarding a benefits tax, including the working from home daily allowance and the payment of travel expenses. Small businesses across the country have raised serious concerns regarding why they were not consulted on these changes. I urge the Minister to see what can be done to engage directly with small businesses and their representative bodies before this Bill is enacted. We all know about the need to support small businesses. In parallel with meeting this need through the Finance Bill, we need to meet it by opening up the training opportunities of our SMEs.

See this speech in context