Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this. It is an important issue for him, Waterford and, indeed, all Members of the Oireachtas who live in cities which could be in line to benefit from the initiative. It was announced two years ago but it has taken some time to get European state aid approval. In fact, the passage of this Finance Bill is an important step in our application for European state aid approval because the Bill provides for a cap on the benefit that can be derived for a commercial premises. We believe this is important for the application for European state aid approval. I hope it will be received shortly and that the initiative will commence in 2015. I will try to refer back to the Senator and the House with a more specific timeframe.

It is important to introduce this initiative. There was an extensive debate on it in the other House. The attitude of the Minister for Finance is that we should get it started, see how it goes and what its impact is on cities. We can then debate further aspects after that.