Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

In an effort to give the other side of the story on tax relief schemes, as outlined, the State is the beneficiary by up to 40% even before the schemes are completed. That they are costing the State so much money is not actually true. There are urgently needed PAYE, PRSI, income tax and VAT returns through the provision of nursing homes, leisure facilities and so on which provide opportunities for people to find employment in their locality. The Government correctly recognised this. It indicated to the people who wanted to invest in their parishes and communities that these tax relief schemes were put in place as an incentive. The Irish people responded like never before because we had become members of the Economic and Monetary Union, EMU, we had low interest rates and people invested in their local areas.

The current difficulty is that a myth has been created that this measure has cost the Irish Exchequer. Before the doors of a nursing home or a hotel have even opened, the Exchequer has already received 40% of the total investment. If an investment of €10 million is put into a scheme, our Exchequer receives €4 million in hard cash up front before the doors open on the scheme. That must be taken into account.

If an investor, families or other people invest in schemes and give the Irish State 40% of that, it is unfair for the Irish State to break its word, its trust and the contract in which all these proposals came forward and which were passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas at that time and for the myth to be created, in our name as Members of the Oireachtas, that these schemes are costing the taxpayer an absolute fortune. They are doing no such thing.

The review that is taking place, as correctly stated by Senator Alex White earlier, if of the huge number of people employed in all of these areas. It is a high service sector area which is providing sustainable jobs across the Twenty-six Counties, not just on the east coast. It is providing sustainable jobs in Athlone, Ballinasloe and every part of our country that urgently needs jobs, particularly when we all know that 70% of our jobs currently are in the services sector.

I make the case in the first few hours of this Committee Stage debate on the Finance Bill the Minister and his officials must consider striking a balance regarding their schemes and the investment Irish people have made in the interest of keeping investment in their own local areas in particular.