Finance Bill 2013

 

It is my view that the annual Finance Bill is a piece of legislation that reflects the focus of the Government of the day.

 

At the forefront to this government’s agenda is job creation.  It is the only means by which we can lead this country to recovery, and it is at the core of every decision made in this chamber.

 

Creating an environment for sustainable job growth while also bringing our deficit closer to the mark year on year is by no means an easy task. But it what we said we would do, and it is what we were elected to do.  

 

This Bill introduces innovative means of supporting Irish business, while retaining our foreign direct investment, and targeting investment in areas that have the capacity to create good sustainable jobs.    In this regard the Bill has been welcomed by the financial and business industries nationwide, and I think it is a major achievement for the Minister and for this country.

 

In my own constituency of Dublin Fingal, there is always a particular interest in developments in the aviation sector as result of Dublin Airport.  I very much welcome the allowances introduced in this Bill to introduce industrial building allowances for the sector and the provision of an accelerated capital allowance scheme, both of which will encourage expansion and growth for the industry.

 

While I have singled out my own constituency, it is of course true that the success of this sector is of national importance and I will attempt to put this into perspective.

 

Ireland is the premier global location for aircraft leasing. The Irish aviation sector now manages over half of the world’s Aviation fleet. According to the Federation of Aerospace Enterprises in Ireland, these assets are worth almost €83 billion euro.  

 

In the last two years, passenger numbers have been recovering at a rate of up to 2% per year. This is expected to increase in 2013 with the announcement of new routes at the end of 2012.            

 

 

 

According to the 2011 Oxford Economics report, the aviation sector contributes 4.6 billion to our GDP, and an extra €5.3 billion in related benefits through tourism.

 

It supports 54,000 Irish jobs, 16,000 directly and the remainder indirectly. To put it into a local perspective for Fingal, Dublin Airport makes up the largest concentration of employees in and around my constituency. The most recent figures that are available suggest that there are just over 10,000 jobs directly located at Dublin Airport.  Indirectly however, there are up to 4 times this amount is created as a result of this employment in my region.  

 

So that’s 4 jobs for every 1 job that is created in Dublin Airport alone.  These stats don’t even reflect the impact that the sector contributes to exports, business expansion, world market accessibility and overall business transport costs.  

 

This sector must be carefully guarded and I very much commend the Minister for the contribution to the industry in this respect. This measure will attract more aviation sector businesses and jobs to Ireland, it will encourage businesses to expand, and it will create an opportunity for increased growth in aircraft maintenance and repair.

 

There is another specific point I would like to make in relation to tourism and transport, and that is the auto-diesel excise duty relief for hauliers and private coach companies which has been widely welcomed nationwide.

 

This is a genuine relief in particular for the haulage industry, who had been struggling in terms of competitiveness due to the price of fuel. I hope that this measure will contribute largely to protecting the jobs in this sector, and in time to grow the industry to create further expansion and employment.

 

I would also like to welcome the recent move to include coach operators in this relief to provide some shield from the price of diesel. Our coach operators are at the forefront of our tourism industry. Reducing their costs will mean value for money for the tourists that we welcome to our country, particularly in 2013, and this will increase spending opportunity and thus job creation.

 

I would like also to recognise the very welcome provision in the Bill for a pilot scheme for urban regeneration.  

 

If this is scheme is a success, it will lead the way for the restoration of our historical buildings in our cities, some of which are of intrinsic architectural value, and will allow the public to once again not only take pride in the appearance of our streets and city heritage but there is enormous potential to get people back into the cities to live and work.

 

The opportunity to restore and to bring a new lease of life back into streets and areas that may have been forgotten and allowed to deteriorate is a very exciting prospect and I hope that it will get the investment and interest that it deserves.    I know this initiative is very much in its first stages and there is a long way to go, but it is a worthwhile project.

 

Finally my last point is regarding our position as one of the strongest performers in terms of foreign direct investment and recognising that any savings made in this Bill does not impact on this in any way.      

 

This position is key to how we succeed in the future and this government has steered us successfully from a period of uncertainty on the international stage, to a position where we are working toward being one of the best countries in the world to do business.

 

As a small country we were ranked at no.1 for investment incentives to attract FDI in 2012 and this doesn’t happen by accident. It is a result of the determination of our government to ensure that our attractive position is guarded through retaining the current level on income tax, retaining our corporate tax, and continuously reforming the ease at which we do business.

 

US multinationals alone employ well over 100,000 people in Ireland. While some would be very quick to question the incentives offered to companies in Ireland, it would be difficult to question the value of 100,000 workers in sustainable jobs, paying taxes, spending money and contributing to the economy.  

 

There were 16,000 new jobs created through Foreign Direct Investment last year and I commend the Minister for putting Ireland at the top of this competitive stage and protecting these jobs by securing in this Bill the means by which we can continue to welcome more jobs and grow our economy.