We are designating the areas running from the Custom House northwards to Mountjoy Square and along the quays from approximately Grattan Bridge to Guinness. We will be making available the following range of incentives in respect of these designated areas:
—a 50 per cent capital allowance for commercial development;
—a new 5 per cent tax allowance on the purchase price of private dwellings which will apply annually for ten years;
—double rent allowance offset against tax.
—full rates relief for ten years.
Third, we will also designate specific areas in Cork and Limerick to attract incentives designed to meet the needs of those cities.
Fourth, a new scheme of home improvement grants will be established, providing for grants up to £2,000, to enable householders to carry out improvements to their homes. There will be grants of up to £5,000 to facilitate the rehabilitation of older houses. All these grants will be available to be used in the employment of registered building contractors.
Fifth, a programme of improved community and leisure facilities and other general amenities is being introduced. Five million pounds is being made available to develop these much needed facilities and it is intended that this money will be spent principally in urban areas. Specific proposals in this regard will be brought forward in the very near future by the Ministers for the Environment and Labour.
Sixth, in furtherance of the objectives set in the Government's recent White Paper on Tourism, to lengthen the season and attract young tourists, special new grants are being given to develop better facilities at hotels and guesthouses. Grants will be made available up to a maximum of £30,000, and the investment that these grants totalling £2 million will generate will yield a substantial number of jobs.
Seventh, the development of the natural gas grid will be accelerated. The Government have decided in particular to extend the grid to Limerick and Waterford, bringing the benefits of gas, together with a substantial number of construction jobs to a number of cities, towns and industries that do not enjoy them at present.
Eight, the number of new employees eligible for aid under the employment incentive scheme will be doubled.
Nine, in order to stimulate new employment a scheme of exemption from PRSI contributions by employers will be introduced for the tax year 1986-87. The exemption will apply to additional new full time employees taken on by any private employer between now and 31 March, who have been on the live register for at least six months.
Ten, the Government also have in mind further proposals, in particular
—to modify employer PRSI contributions in order to favour the labour intensive industries, and
—to overhaul the disability benefit scheme with a view to reducing the costs of absenteeism
and we will be consulting with the NESC in relation to these and other issues which I will be raising later.
Responsible Ministers will be giving full details of these employment measures over the next few days. As the House will see, the measures involve the encouragement of private spending by means of tax incentives and by grant assistance. These grants will be financed by reductions in less essential spending. Existing schemes are also being improved in the light of experience; and some aspects of social insurance are being overhauled.
These proposals should be looked at in the context of the Government's overall strategic approach — an approach which has resulted in much progress in correcting the factors that have inhibited growth and that have slowed the prospects for recovery. These proposals are a coherent development of existing policies.
When I met, at the end of July last, the representatives of the trade unions and employer and farming organisations, I indicated to them that the Government intended to discuss, initially with NESC and subsequently with the social partners separately, the proposals emerging from an assessment they had just made of the current economic situation. We also intend to discuss with them the opportunity and need the Government see to accelerate and intensify the employment thrust of the national plan by means that do not impinge unfavourably on the over-strained public finances.
I am sending a copy of this statement to the members of the National Economic and Social Council with a request to meet them on Friday, 1 November to discuss and consult with them on the proposals in the way I have just outlined.
Those who would question our commitment to the unemployed might care to contrast it with the commitment of the Opposition. That commitment was very succinctly summed up, as recently as Sunday last, by the Leader of the Opposition, who blithely announced that if returned to office he would repeal a Bill which, judging by his comments, he does not seem to have read, and in so doing would abolish the NDC, the largest single commitment made by any Government to job creation since the establishment of the IDA, which was also opposed by Fianna Fáil.