Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I admit there has been give and take in this budget and some of its aspects are welcome. I am not the finance spokesman on this side of the House but would like to put on record - I have stated this before publicly and in other places - that the Minister for Finance has done an admirable job since he took up the finance portfolio. There was a time when he was the cornerstone rejected by the builder. Let us give credit where credit is due, he has made a political comeback, is a very steady hand and I greatly admire him. Even though we are fast approaching Christmas it is seldom that a Minister gets credit from this side of the House or even from me.

It is not too often that any Minister will get credit on this side of the House or from me.

Will the Minister of State give me some guidance on the home renovation incentive area under section 13 of the Finance (No.2) Act 2013? I have received complaints in my neck of the woods from people who find it hard to sign up for this. A widow came to me who had put away a nest-egg, little by little because she was not well off. This year she put in a new kitchen, did some painting and internal renovations, put on a roof and other bits and pieces, using different contractors to save money. Recently, the person who put in the kitchen – let us say it cost €15,000 – had severe difficulty logging in to sign up for the income tax rebate. Should that lady have gone online before doing the renovations and signed up in advance? That would have been a problem for her because she is not very computer literate. If that is the case many a person will be caught. This person acted in good faith. She spoke to her local councillor who told her to go ahead with the work but to keep her receipts and then go online. The work had been done, some in March or April, some in the summer. It would mean a lot to her because she works three days a week. The electrician who did some wiring also went on line and ran into a brick wall. These may be practical problems that somebody in the Department could help us with. If it is the case that someone has to go online at the outset and flag the intention to do the work, a lot of people who have had the work done will be caught and that is unfair on people who did the work in good faith, with a registered builder and cannot log in. I know a couple who used one contractor to do all the work and when it was finished went online to say they had spent €35,000 and had no trouble tapping into the income tax rebate, worth approximately €50 a week, which is substantial.

Senator Hayden mentioned the reduction in capital gains tax from 40% to 20% under, I think, the former Minister for Finance,Charlie McCreevy. That was an excellent idea. I have been involved in the property sector for years and it helped to move things forward. The mistake was that it was kept for too long. It should have been done for two or three years as a maximum and then risen to 30% or back up to 40%. It worked and brought a lot of money into the economy but the trouble was that it was never-ending, which I think was never intended but it happened as a result of lobbying. It should have been capped at two or three years. It helped at a time to bring a lot of money into the Exchequer coffers. The concept was good but like many another it was abused and went on too long. That was its biggest failing. I hope the Minister of State will convey my good wishes to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan.