Martin Conway (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I realise that budgets are a balancing act. You have to try to take all sorts of competing interests, scenarios and situations, some of which are complex and some of which are not so complex, and some of which have consequences and some of which have unintended consequences. You have to look at what the major issues of the day are. The number one issue is housing. The next most pressing issues, in my view, are healthcare and the cost of living.

Regarding housing, we have thousands upon thousands of apartments with planning permission but they are not being built. Something has to be done to ensure these apartments are built. Based on our history, I do not want any kind of incentive for developers but sometimes it is necessary. Nobody is going to build apartments unless they can make money out of them. We will wait and see but I am hopeful that this will kickstart the permissions granted to move to commencement stage. I hope that eventually, in three or four years, we will see the benefit of this budget measure coming through where people will have a roof over their head.

The 9% VAT rate has caused a bit of controversy. I remind people that the 9% rate was introduced back in 2011 or 2012. It kickstarted the hospitality industry in a significant way at that time. It was used again during and after Covid. It certainly kickstarted the hospitality industry at a time when we needed it. When I talk to the owners of small businesses, particularly little restaurants, cafés and coffee shops, they tell me they are finding it very difficult. This 9% VAT rate will assist them in some shape or form. It is a pity the minimum wage is going up in January but the 9% VAT rate is not coming in until July. I sincerely hope that in quarter 1 of next year, in particular, coffee shops and other small businesses will survive so they can drive on and benefit from the reduced VAT rate when it comes into effect in July.

I am happy that a significant contribution is to be made to Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland to support their marketing budgets. Tourism is very important for many counties in this country, including County Clare, where I am from, and the other counties along the west coast. We have seen a number of initiatives that have been very successful but tourism is evolving. We have to constantly repackage and remarket in order for tourism to continue to thrive and for Ireland to continue to stay competitive and attractive to those who put a lot more thought and consideration into their holidays. Most of them are planning and doing it themselves, which brings me to another point I would like to make. There are some industries that rely on tourism, such as the car rental business. Many people in my constituency are employed either directly or indirectly in the car rental business. An eye needs to be kept on those businesses to make sure they are facilitated to stay competitive and the Government is not doing anything to make them in any way uncompetitive. It is a known fact that people who rent a car and drive around spend more money in small shops, small pubs and small restaurants than those who hop on a bus tour in Dublin, come down to County Clare to have a look around and go to a designated place for their meal, and are then driven back. The people who come to fly into Shannon Airport, rent a car and spend the week travelling around Ireland are hugely beneficial to businesses in County Clare.

The balancing act of the budget has been a challenge but by and large, the right decisions have been made.I think we are moving to more of a German model where the budget is the culmination of weeks of debate as opposed to the beginning of the debate. In other words, the budget is the sum of all the various contributions that have been made. That is the European way that budgets are drafted and done. We need to keep moving towards that. A budget should not in any way be a surprise and there should be no surprises in it. It should be the summary and conclusion of months of work as opposed to an opening statement heading towards the Finance Act. I know that would be a significant change and it is something I would like to see happen in due course.