Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 2 Dec 1997

Vol. 483 No. 6

Written Answers. - Tax Reliefs.

Brendan Daly

Question:

246 Mr. Daly asked the Minister for Finance if he will extend section 26 of the Finance Act, 1997 to provide that areas adjacent to marinas such as the Kilrush Creek Marina, County Clare will qualify for tax relief for enterprise areas as in the case of airports and as set out in section 35 of the Finance Act, 1995; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21012/97]

Minister for Finance (Mr. McCreevy)

Section 26 of the Finance Act, 1997, includes a provision for the designation by order of areas immediately adjacent to seven regional airports as enterprise areas. The tax reliefs for the enterprise areas are those set out in section 35 of the Finance Act, 1995.

Shortly after the announcement of these provisions in the Finance Act, the EU Commission raised queries about the State aid aspects of these enterprise areas and I subsequently issued a press release on 23 July 1997 stating that the Commission was raising such queries. There was a meeting in July in Brussels between officials from my Department and officials from the EU Commission to discuss this matter. The Commission subsequently sent a representative here on a fact-finding mission which included a visit to a number of proposed enterprise areas and an existing one. Since then, we have supplied the Commission with any supplementary information which it requested.

Nothing can proceed on the enterprise area front until the EU Commission has reached a decision on the matter. While I am very hopeful that this matter will be satisfactorily resolved in the very near future, the question of designating any new areas as enterprise areas cannot be considered at present. I should also point out that the designation of enterprise areas is generally carried out in the context of urban renewal relief and as such is a matter for the Minister for the Environment and Local Government in the first instance.