Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Is deas í a fheiceáil anseo. This Bill is positive. Anytime we put money into people's pockets and reduce costs, it is always welcome.

My colleague, Senator Casey, has mentioned LPG and that issue is relevant to me as well. People who live in rural areas do not tap into using natural gas. I did not even know that one could get natural gas until I saw an advertisement on television indicating that it is a thing in big urban areas. LPG is something to think about, as is having a VAT reduction.

I come from north County Clare, where tourism is massive, and I consider it to be the best place in Ireland. Therefore, extending the application of the 9% VAT rate until the end of August is welcome.

Many small business owners and operators are very worried about tourism because this is a shaky time. The cost of wages, food and packaging and the resources needed to run a business have all increased. I would love to see a long-term extension of the current VAT rate because many people continually worry that the Government will put the rate back up to 13.5% and then these business will have to close. Maybe we cannot say that the rate will remain at 9% forever but we can confirm whether the rate will return to 13.5% and how long the current rate will last. People always worry when the VAT rate will be increased so it is good that the 9% rate will be retained for this summer.

I welcome the extension of the TBESS. As much as 70% of all the jobs in County Clare stem from small businesses, which is probably true for most rural counties in Ireland. Rural areas rely much more on small businesses than on the multinationals, which employ a lot of people in Dublin and other places. The scheme is massive and its extension is welcome.

The Bill extends several measures under the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS. It introduces a new accelerated capital allowance relief for expenditure on slurry storage. Such provision is massive because there are huge issues with slurry storage in rural Ireland. When quotas ceased, cattle numbers increased. It is great that dairy farmers have done well out of that but there are huge issues with slurry storage. We need to deal with the issue because if it is not dealt with, problems will arise. Some of that slurry has ended up in places where it should not be. It is hard for farmers because they literally do not have enough space to store slurry. We are nearly forcing them to do things that they do not want to do. In saying that, I am not defending them. It is not right for anyone to do something wrong but we need to resolve the issue. Blaming people will not solve the problem but finding solutions will do so.

The young trained farmer stamp duty relief is really good. I often meet representatives of Macra na Feirme who have a lot of concerns about the future of farming for young people, so the stamp duty relief is good. I welcome the farm consolidation relief, the extension of farm restructuring relief and the registered farm partnership stock relief. I often meet farmers and officials from the Irish Farmers Association, IFA. I listen to them a lot so I know that these schemes are welcome. I also welcome the capital allowance relief for slurry storage and believe it should be extended for as long as possible.

Finally, I wish to mention VAT on solar panels because I have had some personal involvement with the issue. Last Thursday night, I held an event in an hotel in Ennis, County Clare which was attended by 150 people. Due to being oversubscribed, 100 people had to be turned away. It was an information seminar on solar power at which installers and representatives of the Clare Community Energy Agency facilitated a question-and-answer session about domestic solar power generation and solar power for farmers. Even though the event was held in the county town, the majority of people who attended were farmers. Solar power generation is brilliant but we need to do better and do more to inform people as to how energy generation can be done because it is quite daunting to figure out whom to trust. A lot of people are coming on board now saying that they can install or sell photovoltaics but the Government is missing a piece by not ensuring any information is really clear. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, is doing good work but somebody needs to organise things further. I organised the event in Ennis but we really need to get information out because people want to know what they can do. To get rid of the 13.5% VAT rate is a massive win by the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, in terms of getting the initiative through the Cabinet and into this Finance Bill.The first thing I did when I came in as a Senator was to introduce the Bill on removing the need for planning permission for the installation of solar panels, on which we have also received support from the Government. You do not need planning to put up solar panels anymore and there is no longer a limitation on the number of solar panels you can put up. There is a grant of €2,400 for domestic solar panels and of up to €60,000 for farmers to put up solar panels, and now VAT on solar panels is gone as well. This is a huge thing. So many people who have received the grant feel so good and empowered to own and create some of their energy themselves. We want to empower people to be more involved so that not all of their money is going out the door in bills to big multinationals that are making huge profits.

I welcome that VAT abolition, which is fantastic, but there is work to be done by the Government, local government, the SEAI and everybody. I will be running another three workshops on it in County Clare but there are lots of things that can be done. There are community workers in the SEAI as well and we need to get the information out there to make it clear for people and to help them to empower themselves to take advantage of all of these brilliant wins we have had like the VAT abolition on solar panels.