Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Donnelly on his excellent work in putting the Bill together. The Government’s response is extraordinarily disappointing if not entirely unpredictable. There is a very clear pattern with the Government. It is one it shares with the previous Government, namely, that it will move hell and high water to protect big corporate and financial interests but when people come forward and attempt to suggest things that would assist, support or to use the jargon of the day, bail out, the small business – the people at the bottom of the pile - it is just not interested.

The excuses the Government puts forward for not allowing the Bill to continue to the next Stage are utterly bogus. They truly smack of political cynicism on the part of the Government because the Ministers know quite well that to say the very least there is a debate on the two main objections that have been raised, which could be had on Committee Stage and Report Stage. The Government has far from given a conclusive rebuttal to Deputy Donnelly but it will not allow the debate to happen. The Ministers just snigger away, as they always do.

When we criticise the Government we are told that all we ever do is criticise the Government and we are asked why we do not bring forward our own positive proposals. When we bring forward positive proposals the Government rubbishes them, dismisses them and ignores them. That is the cynicism of the Government. It is ironic that a socialist has to get up and attack the Government over its failure to take seriously the plight of small and medium enterprise. There is an irony. The Government bangs on about it but does absolutely nothing. The Bill is a well thought-out concrete proposal to assist small and medium enterprise and the Minister just dismisses it out of hand with entirely bogus arguments.

Deputy Donnelly explained on Leaders’ Questions this morning, as others have done tonight, why the creditors would benefit from moving to a cheaper, more streamlined and easier to access examiner process. It is because it would make it more likely that the company that owes them money would stay in business. Is it not blatantly obvious that if the company that owes one money stays in business there is a better chance one will get one’s money back? A child could work that one out yet the Minister gives a rubbish argument about how he is defending the small creditors who have been crucified, yet the Government has done virtually nothing for them. Small and medium businesses have been crushed and crucified and the Minister is not doing much to change that.

Similarly, as Deputy Joan Collins rightly said, the Minister fell back on the old chestnut of property rights, the Constitution and legal advice without even furnishing it to us. Not challenging that interpretation, as Deputy Pringle said, is laughable. It is no surprise to see the two Ministers opposite, Deputies Sherlock and Bruton, laughing now because they do not take these matters seriously. It is all a game to them.

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