Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will pick up on Senator Dooley's point. The project the Senator mentioned in Lahinch has benefitted already, in terms of the previous Government, with a grant of €2.7 million but there is a deficit there of €2 million. In order to create a gold-plated facility, such a scheme would be welcome.It was funny that this week last year Lahinch in County Clare hosted the Irish Open, which was a phenomenal success and generated worldwide coverage of the village and the entire west coast of Clare. Fast-forward 12 months, we see the situation we are in now. The purpose of this legislation is to deal with the new reality, or, as it is often called, the new normal. I welcome this Bill because it will provide practical support for small and medium businesses throughout the country.

We are fortunate to have the Minister of State heading up this legislation. I do not think anybody would question or doubt his ability to get things done because we witnessed how he performed when he was a Minister of State in the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government in recent years. Some 50,000 houses have been built since 2016. Listening sometimes to the media narrative, however, one would think no houses had been built, but the reality is that 50,000 houses have been. I acknowledge the central role played in that by the Minister of State. I congratulate him on his new role in what will be a challenging and difficult but very rewarding and exciting portfolio, which he will drive with the Tánaiste.

The legislation is critical because it will provide a cash flow for businesses, which ultimately employ more than 1 million people. Looking back to 2010, 2011 and 2012, we had a different modus operandus to deal with that recession. We learned much from that and we recovered from that recession. Many of the businesses that will benefit from this legislation only found their feet in the past three or four years, started to make a few quid and began to avail of the opportunity to reinvest. Then they were subject to this hammer blow in recent months, and it is only right and proper that we pass this Bill to make liquidity and cash available to them.

One good thing we have done in this House over the years is that we have listened to and taken on board sensible amendments. I listened carefully to Senator Gavan's proposal regarding a 12-month period where people would not be expected to make repayments. I refer to trying to keep this cost neutral, in the sense that there would not be an interest rate per se, but more of a handling charge to ensure that the operating costs of the scheme are covered. I think I am correct that the Minister of State is favourably disposed to accommodating that type of proposal. The idea of the Seanad is to improve legislation and Senator Gavan's suggestion is extremely sensible. If it can be incorporated in this legislation, that would be great, but if not, it would be even better if it could be incorporated into subsequent legislation.

The Minister of State asked for suggestions regarding the July stimulus. Many practical things can be done. I have no doubt that the Minister of State is well aware of these, but one thing that would inject enormous energy into the tourism sector is if there was a 0% VAT rate for the next 12 months and certainty regarding a reduced VAT rate for five years. Hotels and restaurants would then at least know they would pay either the 9% or the 5% rate until 2025.

Those businesses could then do their financial planning and put their business plans together on the basis that they would know the VAT rate. That is only a small thing, but it is critical. Every €1 million at a VAT rate of 13% amounts to €130,000 for a business, whereas if the VAT rate was 9% then we are talking about a saving of €40,000 immediately. That saving can then be channelled into improving, developing and marketing the business. There are, therefore, many challenges and many ideasIt is something I will bring up with the Leader. We should have an ideas forum here, perhaps next week, where Members with practical suggestions on what should be included in the July stimulus would have the opportunity to articulate them. There are many ideas and it is a cocktail of all the good ideas here brought together that will work and contribute to rebooting the economy and ensuring the July stimulus will be the pathway going forward.