Time to put begging bowl away - McDowell

The day of the handout is gone and it is time for Ireland to "put away the begging bowl and start to pull our own weight", the Government was told last night. The Labour Party's finance spokesman, Mr Derek McDowell, said this required a "fundamental change in our approach to the European Union".

He was speaking during the adjournment debate on the EU Commission's apparent blocking of proposed tax incentives for new urban and rural renewal schemes including the Dublin Docklands Area Scheme.

The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, rejected Fine Gael allegations that the Government had "bungled" the development plan for the Docklands development scheme.

He said it was not new that there were difficulties in securing EU approval for various tax incentive schemes. He had been dealing with this in the Dail for some time.

Fine Gael's environment spokesman, Mr Alan Dukes, claimed Government "bungling" had endangered the master plan for the development of Dublin's dock-land area.

Mr Dukes claimed it was only in June that the Government admitted it had not covered all the necessary angles either for the Dublin docklands plan or for the urban and rural renewal schemes. "The Government admitted that the EU Commission would not accept certain aspects of the schemes and amended them accordingly. It now appears, however, the Government did not get it right even then, and that there are still some aspects of the schemes about which the EU Commission has reservations."

The result now "is that a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the docklands plan and the urban and rural renewal schemes - the ones that could deal with unemployment black spots outside Objective 1 areas".

Giving the background to detailed negotiations with Brussels during the year, Mr McCreevy said the Commission was formally notified in January of proposals to give tax reliefs in the Customs House Docks Area.

The first indication of a problem was in April. The Commission was concerned that double rent relief and rates remission were "operating aids", that they reduced the annual profits of the enterprise for 10 years. The Government amended legislation to deal with these concerns.

Mr McCreevy said it was a shock to the Irish authorities when the Commission changed its view on the double rent reliefs and rates remission given that it had approved them in December.