Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with my colleague, Deputy Peadar Tóibín. We will have five minutes each, leith do thoil.

Ar dtús báire, ba mhaith liom fáilte a chur roimh an initiative seo atá curtha os comhair an Tí ag an Teachta Stephen Donnelly, maidir le gnóthaí beaga, go háirithe gnóthaí beaga atá i dtrioblóid, agus maidir le cuidiú a thabhairt dóibh. However, at the outset I want to refer to personal debt. I welcome the initiative announced last night, not by AIB but by RTE, in regard to the fact that the penny seems to have dropped in AIB headquarters that debt write-off must be part of the solution at the very early stage. I hope we can tease out the detail in that regard.

I welcome Deputy Donnelly's Bill. The Government has not explained why it will not allow the Bill to proceed to Committee Stage, where any deficiencies perceived can be addressed. It is disappointing the Government took such an approach. We need to accept that examinership is a part of business life. It is an important option that can save jobs and keep a business going when other options do not suffice. I welcome the progress the Government has made in making examinership a less burdensome process through revisions of the Companies Acts and other initiatives but it needs to go further. Allowing this Bill to be examined on Committee Stage would be a generous gesture given that we accept more work is required. Examinership does not always lead to a solution but it is an important step in saving businesses.

I do not think any community in this State has not been affected by job losses and the closure of businesses that could have been saved through the approach to examinership outlined by Deputy Donnelly. The Government has already provided a way of accessing examinership through the Circuit Court instead of the High Court. This process would allow smaller businesses to avail of the possibilities offered by examinership, while avoiding potentially massive legal costs. The Bill is aimed at saving jobs and protecting the SME sector, which employs more than 70% of our workers and acts as an essential engine for the Irish economy. It is the most sustainable sector of the economy, if managed correctly. Unfortunately, this Government's insistence on shrinking rather than growing the economy out of recession has hit small and medium enterprises hard. Its dismissal of the Bill is another blow to the sector.

Sinn Féin has proposed concrete measures which, if implemented, will give a shot in the arm to small and medium enterprises and job creation. Among these measures, we propose to amend section 149 of the Consumer Credit Act 1995 to put a freeze on all increases in bank charges in two years, to instruct banks to allow flexibility in overdraft facilities and sole traders and in moving overdrafts to term loans if a direct debit payment is missed. We also want to reform the national training fund to make it more available to SMEs to upskill their employees. We would examine the potential for allocating additional resources to the Competition Authority to allow full and timely investigations of abusive market positions and other anti-competitive practices that undermine businesses and consider merging the authority with the National Consumer Agency to make the savings necessary for these resources. We also believe it is important to legislate for the issue of upward only rent reviews. The Labour Party's capitulation on its commitment to legislate on this issue is appalling. Upward only rents are a major burden on SMEs, particular in Dublin and other cities. We would consider empowering the Credit Review Office so that its decisions on credit decisions can be made binding on the banks owned by the people of this State.

These are just some of the measures that would provide certainty for small and medium enterprises by helping them to compete on a level playing field. The Government has failed small and medium enterprises and it needs to change its position. Deputy Donnelly outlined the assistance he has received from experts in this area. We regard his Bill as a generous and genuine effort to support small and medium enterprises in the limited but important area of administration. We hope the Government puts the needs of SMEs first by allowing this Bill to pass Second Stage.

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