Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

That is welcome if it is the case but I do not know how that compulsion would work because the scheme is founded on goodwill and the wish to improve one's business, area, village or town. I know a particular part of Athlone that the scheme is well suited for and I hope the people involved will take it up with gusto but I do not know how the compulsion element comes into it. They are compelled to pay their rates; I understand that. The only people paying rates now are business people but they can be compelled to so do. This is a quasi-voluntary bids scheme and I do not know if they can be so compelled. It would be quite a difficult task.

I note that the legislative framework is in place in the United Kingdom. That is particularly useful for the character of a person living there but I have an in-built belief that Irish people like other people to do the work. They are not that anxious to get involved yet there are many others who are imbued with the get up and go characteristic and would wish to be part of it.

The Minister of State said this is a group of businesses coming together. That is not to say that a group of communities cannot come together within an area. Can it be a group of resident associations, a tidy towns association or a community council, all of whom are evident in rural Ireland and do very good work? Are they counted as businesses for the purposes of forming a bid or must they be full businesses? I would like an answer to that question because it is an important factor.

This is a very American proposal, and there is nothing wrong with that. There are 400 of these schemes in Canada and the United States because the people there are imbued with a get-up-and-go attitude. In many cases they have to be because social services are at a minimum in the US. I was appalled to learn recently that there is no child allowance or anything like that in the US. One must get on with life, do without or make do. The scheme is redolent of that feeling. There is nothing wrong with that but I wonder if the Irish people will take to it with gusto. I can see big cities taking to it with a view to parcelling out an area in which the scheme could be applied.

The scheme will require a good deal of promotion. I told a business person on the telephone this morning that I was speaking on BIDS legislation in the House today and they asked if that was something to do with auctioneers. I said it was a business improvement districts Bill, in which the business person was very interested. The Department will have to undertake a promotional drive because local radio and newspapers would be very interested in emphasising the scheme.

This is a good, homely Bill which deserves to do well. I like the idea of public consultation to get people's views on it, setting up the board, liaising with the local authority and having both local authority members on the board and the business people. The scheme is like an offspring of a chamber of commerce; I understand that is what they were set up to do. They approve of this measure, which is welcome, but a chamber of commerce by its very nature is quite amorphous whereas this scheme is more detailed and district geared. We read about districts but we do not call them districts here. In other countries they call specific areas districts, and this measure is geared towards a particular district.

I thank the Minister of State for coming into the House to introduce the Bill. I hope he can answer my questions. I wish the Bill well in its passage through both Houses and in its further progression within the local communities.