Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I concur with Senator Keogan's comments on the announcement yesterday, which was very welcome. The media is not covering the fact that there are a lot of severe EU constraints on taxation policy and that the Government went as far as it could go. We do need to go further, however, in particular with the haulage industry, the bus industry and agricultural contractors. We need to look at expanding the rebate scheme already in place, extending it to agricultural contractors. We are looking to the farming community to plant more tillage because of what has happened in Ukraine. Contractors will find it difficult to do that with, first, the lack of supply and, second, the cost. We should therefore look at allowing agricultural contractors to use the rebate scheme. As for the bus companies and tour operators, the reality, as I have said here before, is that they cannot claim VAT yet the bus companies in Northern Ireland can and are now outbidding the bus companies here for a lot of the contracts down here.

I also welcome the announcement by the Minister for Education on additional DEIS schools, in particular two secondary schools in Longford town that were added, St. Mel's College and Meán Scoil Mhuire. Huge additional resources come with that designation, but a lot of those resources should be available to all schools. Why in some parts of the county can one school be a DEIS school while another school in the same town, pulling in pupils from the same geographical area, is not? It just does not make sense to me. That is happening in the area of Granard and Cnoc Mhuire.

The housing aid for older people grant is very welcome, and significant investment was put in by every local authority and the Government, but the maximum amount under the grant is €8,000. It was increased to that amount in 2020. The reality now is that the maximum grant is being allowed for a lot of that work but what elderly people are being quoted is significantly more than that maximum. We therefore need to give a little more flexibility to the local authorities to increase that spend to allow elderly people who might be in financial difficulty to get work done.