Business Opinion

Selected business people give their reaction to yesterday's Budget.

• Matt Gallagher, managing director, Ravenshill Developments:

"I am glad that he has taken measures to help first-time buyers, as, particularly in city areas, there is an affordability issue coming forward," says Matt Gallagher, builder and vice-chairman of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF).

"I think the fact that he has given €175 million to Enterprise Ireland to fund start-ups and also extended the life of the Business Expansion Scheme (BES) is also good.

"Enterprise Ireland has done extremely well in helping companies and this will benefit that. He has brought up the limit on the BES schemes, and that is going to be good for entrepreneurs. That is a measure that's going to create jobs.

"I see he has given €10 million to fund water services. I would like to see more resources directed into that, as this comes back to the issue of affordability of housing.

"The more land that's serviced, the more land becomes available and the more affordable the sites become. This means that the houses will be more affordable as well, so buyers will benefit indirectly from this measure.

"I heard the Greens criticising him for providing funding for roads, and I have to disagree with that, as surely it's better for the environment to have cars travelling on good roads rather than sitting stuck in traffic jams."

• Diarmuid Hegarty, chief executive, Griffith College:

"I think there are a lot of areas where a bold initiative was needed, and he didn't take the bold initiative, even though he has the money to do it," says Diarmuid Hegarty, chief executive of Griffith College, one of the Republic's biggest private-sector educators.

"The R&D credits will be helpful, but I think he could have done more in this area. There was nothing in it for education. We would like to see part-time students fully tax relieved, they're getting a 20 per cent relief, but they should be fully relieved.

"In terms of education buildings, public-sector colleges, which are not paying tax as they're not for profit, get tax relief, but private-sector colleges, which are paying tax, get no relief. That's a crazy situation.

"It means that the banks who finance the public-sector buildings are the only ones who benefit. There's no logic to that.

"I think the BES measure will benefit small business, but the problem is that if you've already been involved in a BES in one company, the Revenue won't let you do another with a different company, as they say that the companies are under common control. That needs to be changed."

• Ian Laurie, managing director, Liberty Asset Management:

"It's a tough Budget if you're in Opposition, he seems to have done everything right," says Ian Laurie, managing director of investment management and advisers, Liberty Asset Management.

"He's taken 1 per cent off the top rate of income tax, but he's taken half it back in the health levy.

"It would have been silly to go ahead with dropping stamp duty for first-time buyers, so instead he addressed the issue through the reliefs and handed the money back to the people who are paying the bills.

"That will be worth an extra €600 a year to people, and I hope the banks take that extra affordability into account.

"He's raised the BES limit for companies to €2 million from €1 million and increased the allowance for individual investors to €150,000 from €31,700. That means you can get tax reliefs of €70,000.

"It means that businesses can look again at BES as a means of raising money and raising the amount for individual investors will encourage more of them to look at it as well.

"The amounts available before weren't much if you were a company looking to invest. A lot of them were just borrowing the money because interest rates were so low, but that's changing now. Obviously, that will be very good for our business as well.

"It's hard to find anything negative, but I do think he might have done something on the pension fund side for people with maturing SSIAs."

• Stephen Mackarel, chief executive, Carphone Warehouse, Ireland:

"I think that he's done the right thing for first-time buyers because if he had taken off the stamp duty, it would have gone straight into the pockets of the developers and the sellers," says Stephen Mackarel, chief executive of phone retailer and network operator, Carphone Warehouse.

"Infrastructure and the environment are very much linked and I think that he has not done enough here.

"He needs to invest money in making public transport an acceptable customer experience from end to end, that will help to reduce traffic by encouraging people to change and to leave their cars at home.

"That would address traffic congestion and have a positive impact on the environment.

"Also, we have third-world broadband penetration rates and I'd like to know what he's going to do to address that, as it's vital to the development of the country.

"We have fantastic frontline people, doctors and nurses, in our health service, but we really need a more efficient management system. I would have liked to have seen him invest something in how the service is managed."