Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

I thank all Senators for their contributions and I hope to answer the questions of other Senators once I have made my initial response. There are many questions but some Members went over the same ground. I will give a quick run through and if I leave anything out, they can remind me and I will come back to it.

The jobs initiative was funded by and large, as Senator O'Brien said, by a levy of 0.6% on pensions. Nobody likes tax but the initiative had to be paid for. There is no money under the mattress anymore and there are no untapped sources of income around. If we decide that unemployment is the greatest problem we have and we want it addressed, initiatives such as this have to be paid for. If we will the ends, we have to will the means. We decided to pay for the jobs initiative in this way rather than taxing work. Anything directed towards income tax and so on would be a straight tax on work. This is a minor provision. There is a great deal of money in pension funds but 41% of funds are built up because of tax relief given at the marginal rate to people who subscribe to pensions. Of every €1,000 in a pension fund, €410 is supplied by the taxpayer and we are taking €6 back a year for four years. That is reasonable, especially when the money is being dedicated to the creation of jobs.

There are always lobbies and the industry is lobbying hard but the industry is taking far more in charges than 0.6% and if the industry wanted to absorb some of this it had the discretion to do so. The problem with a lot of politics in this country is that as soon as a lobby group gears up and starts e-mailing Senators and TDs, the Senators and the TDs run around to the front of the lobby group and lead the charge without realising-----