Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will be very brief. I was going to call a vote on this but as time is pushing on I will not do so. I will call a voice vote instead as I know that we need to get through this. I am going to flag this now as something I may raise on Report Stage and it is something I have raised here before, but with all of this talk of small companies I feel I need to bring up the point that, when it comes to our smaller companies not growing, a far greater concern is the fact that we incentivise the sale of those companies when they reach a certain point. Our capital gains tax system gives a preferential rate for selling a company when it reaches a high point. This is separate issue that I may perhaps discuss with the Minister of State in the future but I think we need to consider whether we might be encouraging people to build companies only to then sell them. This is a key concern to look at in the future, but I will not talk on it now.

I also note that our housing costs and services are a major concern in terms of company relocation. Issues around property, housing and access to services in Dublin city have, unfortunately, been to the fore in surveys that have looked at the reason people choose not to relocate here.

We are also concerned about wealth movement in Ireland. At present 33% of wealth is held by 1% of the population. We have been talking about employees but we need to be clear that this scheme also applies to company directors. We have some concern there and I look forward to the Minister of State engaging with me on this over the next year. I am not going to press my recommendation and we can just do a voice vote on the section so as to speed matters up.