Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and congratulate him on his appointment. I wish to compliment the Government on the comprehensive range of financial proposals in the Bill. They are extremely welcome for all sectors, workers and businesses. I concur with Senator O'Loughlin's comment on the local enterprise offices. I compliment my own local enterprise office in Longford, where a lot of work is being done to support businesses through these difficult times. I will concentrate on a couple of elements of the stimulus. Section 8, which was mentioned by Senator Keogan, provides for increased relief in the help-to-buy scheme, up to €30,000 or 10% of the purchase price.The reality in my county is that no houses have been built for sale in recent years. I completely agree with the comments made by previous speakers that the scheme should be available for any second-hand home purchases.

I ask that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform look at this and all of the affordable schemes which are being discussed and which form part of the programme for Government. Previously, when we went to the Department looking for affordable housing schemes we were informed that we did not meet the criteria or fit with the ratio that obtained. The reality is that we do not have new houses for sale that people can avail of under a help-to-buy or an affordable housing scheme. I asked that we look at counties in a different way. It is not all in Dublin, Galway and the cities. We have a different situation on the ground and I ask that this be examined.

Tourism, as previous speakers indicated, was the first area to be hit as a result of the pandemic and will probably be the last to recover. I am the tourism spokesman for my party and I have a couple of queries. I fully welcome the schemes, one of which is the stay-and-spend tax scheme. The explanatory memorandum states:

Firstly, the provision of holiday accommodation, including accommodation in hotels, guest houses, B&Bs, self-catering accommodation, caravan and camping parks, and holiday camps. The property must be registered with Fáilte Ireland to qualify.

Unfortunately, any business that is not registered with Fáilte Ireland will not be eligible to participate. This was also the position in the case of the restart grant whereby accommodation providers that are not registered are not eligible to apply for that grant. I fully believe that providers should be registered with Fáilte Ireland. The company introduced its Welcome Standard in recent years to incentivise new providers to join and there is a wide range of supports available, but we need to look at the fact that we are knocking out a large number of businesses that would not be eligible to apply.

I also support the calls that to look at a reduction in VAT for the hospitality sector. We only need to look back to 2011 when this rebuilt the entire sector to the point it had reached prior to the onset of Covid-19. It is a multimillion euro industry, with huge numbers of people coming to the country. I ask also that this matter be examined. I again fully welcome and support this stimulus package and will be supporting the Bill.