Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

I have been reading what the members of the Government used to do when they were in Opposition. I will see how it works. I am not doing too well, judging by the number of amendments the Cathaoirleach has ruled out of order. I hope this amendment will do the job. We are giving €1 billion to business in the form of a VAT reduction. As I keep saying, the newspaper industry is included in the reduction. It is a massive amount of taxpayers' money at a time when we do not have much tax coming in. We are having to introduce a pension levy to fund this initiative. The next Bill will provide for a €500 million tax break on employers' PRSI and an additional €41 million of expenditure on activation measures. The amount of additional capital spending will be just €13 million. I hope that is not all tied up by foreign companies. There is not much we can do about that, but it would annoy many people.

I would like to make an important point about the pension levy, which will raise €1.88 billion. At least €115 million more will be raised through the levy than will be spent on employment measures. I have gone through the various tax breaks we are providing. I understand the justification for many of them, including the reduction in the air travel tax and in the rate of VAT, but only if it is clear where the jobs are being created as a result. It is important we receive regular reports every three months or six months. That is more important than keeping these measures going for a few years. That important point needs to be addressed.

The Government is celebrating, but I am glad it is taking this issue seriously. By introducing this Bill, it is putting jobs first on its agenda. It is doing a good job of packaging stuff we did previously, such as activation measures. We spent more on the summer works programme last year and the year before than the Government is spending this year. The Government has pulled off a public relations coup by packaging it as a jobs initiative or budget. I congratulate it on what is not much more than a public relations coup. On capital spending, we managed to fix many schools last year. We got a great deal of work done in my area of Meath. We are raising taxes and providing tax breaks. I know it is not in this Bill, but the reduction in employers' PRSI is, in effect, a means of asking the taxpayer to pay for the increase in the minimum wage. We are passing the burden from the private sector to the general taxpayer. That is what we are doing in the interests of creating employment. I have illustrated why this amendment is necessary.