Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

I wish to share time, with seven minutes for myself and three minutes for Senator Ann Ormonde. I welcome the Minister of State to the House to take this important Bill. The Finance Bill is the most important of the year in which we make adjustments.

I put on record that I have a vested interest but I wish to make a case with regard to capital allowances and section 23 relief. A great many Irish people have invested in the past ten or 15 years for their pension funds. In one way or another, they have made major investments under the capital allowances and section 23 relief. The trust in which the State was held is relevant. Contracts were offered with attractive incentives made by the Governments of the day in good faith. However, I fear that an attempt has been made by the Oireachtas to pass legislation in retrospect. A trust existed in which capital allowances and section 23 relief were offered but the spirit of the arrangement is about to be broken in every shape and form.

There was major investment in the tourism industry, nursing homes and all the other infrastructure needed by the Government at various times. When the investments were made, some 40% of the total was received by the State, whether by way of PAYE, PRSI, income tax or VAT. The State was the first beneficiary of the investment. It continued to be the beneficiary as a result of the great number of people employed.

There are 200,000 people directly employed in the leisure industry. Eamonn McKeown, chairman of the Irish Tourism Industry Federation, expressed a hope to recoup 20,000 jobs in the near future if everything continues as it does at present. We are all aware the industry has gone back to 1997 prices. This has been detrimental to the industry. I welcome that an impact analysis will be carried out in this area but I do not believe anything is to be gained in any shape or form or with regard to monetary policy by the proposed changes.