Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an deis labhairt ar an mBille Airgeadais 2008. Níl dabht ar bith ann nach bhfuil eacnamaíocht na tíre seo chomh láidir is a bhí sé sna blianta atá thart. Dá bhrí sin, is am oiriúnach é seo chun an díospóireacht seo a bheith againn.

I welcome the opportunity to speak about the Finance Bill. There is no doubt that we have entered a time of economic uncertainty. The slowdown in the construction sector has become even more pronounced. We have seen that the rate of unemployment rose to 5.2% in February, which represents the highest number of people signing on since August 1999. On Monday, the Central Statistics Office revealed that employment in the construction sector has fallen by more than 10% in the past year. Even the Taoiseach now accepts what many of us have known for quite some time, namely, that the economy is facing much more challenging times. We have also seen a string of job losses in recent months. These include three companies that closed down in rural Ireland, one of which, Contact 4, shed 34 jobs in my parish of Gweedore, 36 in Achill and 38 in Dingle. A total of 108 jobs were lost in rural Ireland in one day.

The economic difficulties we now face were in part avoidable. The Government failed to address the issue of declining competitiveness. Under this Government, the construction sector was allowed to become overinflated and the economy was allowed to become overly reliant on it. There has been a clear absence of intervention to retain vulnerable workers, especially in the construction sector where, according to the Higher Education Authority, 80,000 workers have only second level education.

The vulnerabilities in the economy and their implication for public finances have long been clear. There was a recognition that a likely decline in the property sector would have serious implications in terms of tax take. That is why Sinn Féin argued in the run-up to the general election that the Government could not afford to cut taxes and maintain, let alone improve, public services and provide essential infrastructure. That is why proposals from the Government parties were deeply irresponsible. Time has shown that Sinn Féin's analysis was correct, that the Government parties' analysis was wrong and that they were out of touch with the economic realities that were clear to be seen. I believe they deliberately did this to hoodwink the public in the run-up to the general election.

The Government's failure to plan for the future of the economy no doubt will have serious consequences for the Exchequer. Revenues across a range of taxes are down while the burden on the social insurance fund is set to rise as a consequence of an increased number of redundancies and a growing level of unemployment. We see that receipts for January and February, which were 8% lower than those for last year, were €516 million below the tax target set for the first two months of this year. In two months, we have already seen a deficit of €516 million so we can understand and appreciate the implications of how this will expand over the rest of the year. The consequence of all this for the ability of this State to meet public spending demands is a matter of serious concern. The social insurance fund needs to be able to cope with these increased demands. For that reason, it is crucial that there are no cuts in PRSI contributions.

There are measures in this Bill that are to be welcomed. While Sinn Féin welcomes the new measures to tax the profits of oil, gas and mineral exploration companies, we believe they do not go far enough and that we need to implement a revenue structure more in line with that which exists in countries such as Norway and other states which have benefited greatly from the exploitation of their natural mineral resources.

We are also concerned about the fact that this tax will not apply to exploration licences granted before 2007. We saw how, in the run-up to 2007, there was a significant increase in the number of licences granted to such companies. These licences will not meet this criterion to be subject to this tax measure.

Sinn Féin welcomes the overdue reduction in the rate of VAT for non-oral contraceptives from 21% to 13.5%. Such a reduction should also be applied to defibrillators. My colleague, Deputy Arthur Morgan, moved an amendment to this effect in the Dáil. This change would ensure that a life-saving piece of equipment becomes more affordable for sports clubs and organisations throughout this State.