Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I differ with the Senator in that I believe we should consider increasing tax on wine. The Minister has missed an opportunity to pursue Tesco, Dunnes, Aldi, Lidl and other multiples for additional revenues from alcohol sales. Nothing was done in the budget to address the issue of large retailers wiping out small off-licences.

There has been much hype about the forthcoming exit from the troika programme. While the country exits the programme, almost 450,000 people are out of work and between 70,000 and 80,000 young people have emigrated, with more leaving every week.

The Department of Social Protection is advocating that young Irish people should go to Canada to find employment instead of finding it in Cork, Dublin, Galway or Donegal. That shows a lack of joined-up thinking in tackling the jobs issue. Until jobs are created and the promises made before the last election are achieved, including in the five-point plan, to create 100,000 jobs in the first three years in office, no one can take solace.

I am not laying the blame at the feet of the Government because it cannot create jobs in the private sector. It can create the environment to allow jobs to be created in the private sector. It can be done by regulation or enforcement of the banking sector. It pains me to see the manner in which our banks, some of which have been bailed out, are treating the SME sector. Government policy is focused, through the IDA, on foreign direct investment but very often our SME sector is left on the hind tit and there is very little support available to it. When SMEs seek co-financing on small grants from the county enterprise boards or other State agencies, they are unable to find it. Officials from BIM appearing at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine confirmed this yesterday. I am not making a political point, State officials say there is no co-financing available even for small grant aided projects of €5,000 or €6,000 where a job is being created. Until that is tackled, we will not see jobs being created in many parts of the country. The alternative, even when Fianna Fáil was in government, is that the State should intervene to create a banking system similar to the ACC system in the 1980s, where at least there is some control over the leveraging of finance and the availability of finance for SMEs.

Some 100,000 people are facing into Christmas in mortgage arrears and the problem has not been tackled. Under this Government's watch, the banks have been given additional power to write to customers and to deem customers unco-operative. As a result of the letter, the customer's rights are diluted. The manner in which banks are reacting is disgraceful. I know of cases where banks telephoned customers but did not leave messages and because the customer did not pick up on messages from a blocked number, the banks wrote to the customers and told them they were unco-operative. The banks need to get a life but it can only happen if the Government is determined to deal with them in a appropriate manner.

The measure dealing with the one-parent family is a retrograde step. It penalises families and parents who are not living together through no fault of their own. People will lose up to €2,500 per year and this will typically affect men. I welcome the retention of the 9% VAT rate. I lobbied for it and it is a good idea for the tourism industry.

I do not share the ambition of the home improvement tax credit. It is a complicated, cumbersome scheme and the threshold, at €5,000, is too high. If someone wants to replace the garage door or house door, a small piece of work is precluded. The situation where contractors must subscribe and make returns will create difficulty, particularly for elderly people trying to avail of the scheme. A simpler system could have been worked out, using grant aid or a tax rebate. The system should be examined, even at this late stage, to make it as user-friendly as possible. It does not come across that way.

I refer to the physiotherapy issue. The Minister for Finance recently said at the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, that if self-referrals for physiotherapy were allowed, the estimate of the additional cost to the Exchequer is unquantifiable but that it would undoubtedly increase the cost of the relief. The statement has been vigorously rejected by the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists. The body has provided the Minister and the departmental officials with international evidence of the cost effectiveness of allowing direct access to physiotherapy. The case made by the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists, that self-referral will cut the cost, has been fully supported by the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly. The process is referred to in section 9 of the legislation and it should be extended to physiotherapy. I ask the Minister of State to examine this point and we may table an amendment on Committee Stage. People should be allowed to self-refer in physiotherapy. It makes perfect sense if we are trying to keep people out of hospitals through primary care. Why should we need another medical practitioner to refer people to physiotherapists if people know they have sore backs, knees that do not function properly, strains or injuries from falling down stairs?