Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The former BBC economics correspondent, Stephanie Flanders, has returned to the capital markets and I suspect she is making a good deal more money than she did previously. She wrote a very interesting piece in the Financial Times last week which is worth highlighting, in particular for politicians. She made the point when we entered the crisis in 2008 or 2009 politicians underestimated the scale of the rapid economic recession which emerged and also underestimated the holes in capital systems throughout the financial markets. She also made the point recently that one can frequently underestimate the scale of the rebound. This is important because it goes to the heart of confidence, to which Senator Bacik referred. The worst of this is over and we must start to concentrate on rebuilding our country from top to toe and ensuring that collectively we can produce policies which make the country more competitive and get people back to work. This country has a huge advantage because of the fact our cost competitiveness has returned to be more in line than is the case in other eurozone countries. We have reduced by approximately 8.5% and the eurozone has increased by 15%. If I were the IDA trying to attract businesses here this is a great opportunity because we have become a much more competitive economy as a result of the restructuring which has taken place over the past five years. We need to celebrate this as we go through the process.

It is also important to state the Finance Bill is only one means through which we can continue to have better economic governance and surveillance. The Government needs to constantly listen to people. We will not get everything right but we have not got everything wrong either. It is a point of genuine celebration for our people who have gone through the mill in recent years that we can come out the other end of the financial programme, get back on our feet, get money back to the country in terms of the sovereign bond market and get money back into our banks, public limited companies and semi-State companies. The real test and benchmark of economic sovereignty is whether people are prepared to invest in one's country. I contend the decisions the Government and the previous Government had to take to bring the country to a better place are paying off and our people want to see a dividend.

I very much hope this is the end of the austerity budgets. I will not pretend to the public we will find a dramatic new pot of money next year, but we are 95% of the way through the adjustment process. I will not say we need to start talking up the economy but we do need to believe again the country can get a better place as a result of the measures we all want to see put in place.

Many colleagues spoke about a single person child carer tax credit and I would like to deal with it briefly. It is fair to say we had a very extensive discussion in the other House on the issue. I am aware of the 2009 Commission on Taxation report which argued this is analogous in circumstances where it is given only to people who are not cohabiting or not married. The point was raised by colleagues this is about two individuals trying to stay close to their children. From going to my local schoolyard I know many married and cohabiting parents have two homes. I know of many fathers who leave the country to go to London on Monday and return on Friday, or who work in Donegal or Longford and return for three nights a week. No one will defend a situation whereby the credit can be given to one family type and not the other. We will examine how we have gone about it on Committee Stage. The Minister, Deputy Noonan, introduced an amendment in the Dáil which has helped to ensure the primary carer can relinquish the credit to assist a non-primary carer, particularly with regard to taking up employment. This is a labour activation issue and we are conscious of introducing it. We will have a longer debate on it. If there are undue difficulties, a point made by Senators D'Arcy, Hayden and O'Brien, we will have to examine it to ensure the replacement measure we have put in place is right.

Senator O'Brien asked me to put on the record of the House the question of AVCs given the change introduced in last year's Finance Bill. In the six months to the end of September this year 7,000 drawdowns were made which had an aggregate value of €50 million which is an average drawdown of €7,000.