Colm Burke (Fine Gael)

We need some realism in this House. Last year we spent €13.4 billion on health care, including on medical cards, elderly care and hospital care, and we brought in €13.317 billion in income tax. Every cent paid in income tax last year was spent on health care.

I refer to the payment of commercial rates. If one is a member of a local authority, one is not entitled to hold one's seat if one has not paid one's rates by 31 December. I was a rate payer and member of Cork City Council. This year I had to pay €7,000 for 1,500 sq. ft. of office space for my business. I do not receive income from that business. A hotel in Cork is paying €500,000 per year in commercial rates, which amounts to €10,000 per week and is the equivalent of paying €100 for 1,000 houses in one week. That is the reality of the payments being paid by the commercial sector. Even if one does not make one cent in profit, one must pay the commercial rates in order to maintain services from which the public benefits.

We need to get real in regard to widening the tax base. A huge mistake was made in 1977 when we abolished domestic rates. We to widen the tax base and this is just the first step in this regard.

I refer to transition year. As a Member of the European Parliament, I followed the Minister, Deputy Coveney, in working on one of the projects in our schools called Understanding Europe. Each year the winners and runners up won a trip to Brussels. It was a great project and more than 50 or 60 schools from around Munster entered it. It was a considerable educational process and there are plenty of others like it. The debate we are having is about looking at new projects like that. There is a great need at this stage for people to start understanding Europe and what it contributes to this country, in the supports in place for agriculture and many other areas. Abolishing the transition year is not the way forward. It is about growing and developing it and ensuring it gets the necessary support. I would welcome a debate in that area.