Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for, ultimately, during this week raising a serious economic challenge which this country confronts. I note he raised it in a very political context so let me respond first on that before I deal with the substantive issue regarding the threat and difficulty our country could face and our response.

I have in front of me the alternative budget of the Social Democrats. I attempted to see what reference or recognition the Social Democrats gave to jobs and the competitiveness of our economy. I looked at section 1 – I could not see it. I looked at section 2 – I could not see it. I had to go all the way down to section 15 of the Social Democrats’ alternative budget to find any reference to jobs and how we support our economy. Having scrolled all the way down through to section 15, I saw a reference to jobs – a simple, “increase funding for Enterprise Ireland”. I did not see any reference to the IDA, the organisation involved in helping us combat all of this.

I looked at the tax changes the Social Democrats proposed. I will remind Deputy O’Callaghan of them before I deal with the charges he made against us. It referred to the “Removal of the refundable element for unused R and D tax credits” – the very research and development tax credits that play a role in supporting businesses in our economy. It referred “Abolishing entrepreneur relief on capital gains tax” at exactly the time when we want our entrepreneurs to do more. It referred to phasing out the special assignee relief programme which many of the decision-makers who lead the companies based here are on. That is the political commitment of the Social Democrats. That is what it indicated.

On what I, my party said and the parties that make up this Government said, we were clear during debates and in our manifestos and crystal clear in the programme for Government that Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Independent politicians negotiated. It is laid out in black and white. We outlined what we would do in the event that we could avoid exceptional economic difficulties but we were honest in indicating what could happen. We went on to say that in this context – this was made crystal clear in a number of debates – the State and the Government would act to protect public services and our tax base and look at how we could support jobs in our economy. We showed honesty in answering that question. I wish the Deputy could show the same in putting his question to me.

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