Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

They have both been involved in the examinership process for many years and have dealt with over 50% of the examinerships that have come before the courts. There was a lot of expertise involved in the drafting of Deputy Donnelly's Bill and it would have made more sense if the Government had taken on board what Deputy Donnelly has said and embraced his willingness to work with the Government to try to improve the Bill. It is not a case of trying to improve the Bill to give Deputy Donnelly any kudos; it is about trying to improve a Bill which he and I believe has the potential to make the examinership process easier and cheaper for businesses to access. It is in the interests of the Government and of SMEs in particular to allow this Bill to go to Committee Stage and be debated openly to see if we can further improve on what the Minister introduced in December.

It is a fact of life that businesses get into financial trouble. Viable businesses, because of legacy debt, are being faced with the option of closing because they cannot deal with those debts and with other difficulties from the past. They are viable companies but they just need a little bit of a leg up. They need a little bit of help and we all have a responsibility to try to bring forward legislation to deal with that. Deputy Donnelly's Bill has the potential to do that, which is why it is disappointing that the Government has decided not to allow it to progress to Committee Stage. The challenge, now that the Minister has made the decision not to accept this Bill, is for him to bring forward legislation himself to try to do what Deputy Donnelly has set out to do in this legislation. We cannot just leave it with what was passed in December. We have to continually review and improve policy in this area because if we do not, more and more companies will go to the wall and more and more jobs will be lost.

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