Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I remind Senator Cassidy that one of the reasons we are in trouble is the lack of initiatives from the Government. Fine Gael pointed out the PRSI holiday to the Government in 2008. Fine Gael proposed it in the budget of 2008 and that is over two years ago. It is only now the Government sees the benefit.

I welcome the Minister of State and wish her well. Senator Brady referred to local authorities and how they must get their act together. Local authorities are responsible for water and sewerage charges and rates but are starved of cash. There is little they can do about it. On several occasions I called for a debate on the funding of local authorities. This debate must take place. How will local authorities be funded? There is little scope for change so local authorities can get their act together. Benchmarking has taken its toll and there is a high cost base for manufacturing in this country. That is one of our problems.

I have referred to our tourism industry on numerous occasions. Only 8 million tourists came to this country, a reduction of 10% over the past number of years. This happens at a time when we never had a better product. We have never had better access through regional airports and Dublin Airport. We never had more hotels in this country, with hotels in every village. We were never better fixed for roads and a rail network. The tourist board has fallen down over the past number of years.

Thousands of young people from this country have gone to Australia in the past number of years. In order to get a visa for Australia, all a young person has to do is go to the travel agent and get the visa. Thousands of Chinese people want to come to this country to work, for tourism or for educational purposes. However, getting a visa to come from China to Ireland can take up to nine or ten months, which should be contrasted with how we operate when sending people to Australia. An unbelievable number of measures could be taken to attract people to this country. I suggest the Minister of State should examine the obstacles confronting both ordinary and educational tourism, as Ireland has a great product. It is evident from the Minister of State's contribution that one major obstacle in this regard is the cost to an employer who has to make a contribution of €3,000 to employ someone on the average industrial wage. As this constitutes a major disincentive to employing people, I welcome the Government's initiative in introducing what has been described as a PRSI holiday. At the same time, however, the figure of €3,000 that applies to all workers is a huge cost.

On foot of Senator Norris's comments that he could opt for either the motion or the amendment, I ask the Minister of State to consider seriously taking on board Fine Gael's amendment. As Senator Cassidy remarked, we all must work together because otherwise we will not get out of the mess we are in. As Senators Phelan and Coffey noted, Fine Gael came up with the idea of having a PRSI holiday two years ago but the Government has only now introduced it. Consequently, I ask that the amendment proposed by this side of the House be taken on board.