Malcolm Noonan (Green Party)

The Green Party will not be supporting this Bill either. On the point made by my comrade about the VAT rate for hospitality, there has been widespread criticism of this proposal. What the Green Party proposed in our pre-budget submission was a capped VAT and rates refund for small businesses. This is a blanket reduction from 13.5% to 9% that will support the big chains and do little to help the struggling high street. Our high streets are in trouble. I welcome some of the measures in this budget, especially a Bill that the cross-party group brought earlier this year around tackling vacancy and dereliction. Although the Bill was put on a timed amendment by the Government, the measures in the Bill were accepted in the sense of changing the vacant sites levy to a vacant sites tax to be collected by Revenue, which is welcomed, and the extension of the living cities initiative. Much broader brushstrokes are required to save our town centres. I certainly do not believe that the cut in the VAT rate for hospitality will do much for the smaller ones. Our proposal would have cost less than half of what Government has proposed here and been much more targeted to the businesses that actually need it.