Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent)

News has just broken that An Bord Pleanála has turned down the Children's hospital. What can be more important than the care of sick children? Once again, listening to "Today with Pat Kenny" I heard Phillip Lynch say that we have wasted €25 million and now €35 million on the process and consultation on the new children's hospital. I ask the Leader to ask the Minister for Health and others in charge of planning to move on and not spend another four years and another €35 million fighting about whether the hospital should move to a site on the M50 area, which I think it should, because there are 26 counties in this country and the middle of Dublin was never the right location.

Yesterday I held a very successful and productive session with a number of the country's leading business women, focusing on the challenges of doing business in Ireland today. One of the strands that came up repeatedly in the discussion was the cost associated with administrative compliance. Many of the ladies suggested that these costs often prevent small business owners from expanding their business and creating new jobs. I now identify one very simple step to lower administrative costs on small businesses, which has presented itself. It comes in the form of an optional directive, agreed earlier this week at a meeting of Finance Ministers at the European Union. The directive would allow small companies to be exempted from publishing annual accounts in a bid to lessen their bureaucratic costs and to encourage small firms to take on more staff. The rules will apply to companies which have an average of ten employees or fewer over the course of an accounting year, with a balance sheet of under €350,000 and a net turnover of €700.000. To qualify for the exemption, companies must satisfy at least two of these criteria, Germany and France are in favour of this directive. The new rule will not overrule national obligations to keep records showing businesses' transactions but should lessen the administrative costs of setting up a small business. Could the Leader seek clarity on the Government's position on this directive and use influence to encourage the Government to sign up for this worthwhile proposal, which will make a major difference to business owners who are the life, soul and blood of this economy?