Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of the State and wish him well on his appointment as SME envoy. On going through the list of appointments across the SME envoy network, I found it rather interesting that Ireland, by way of its having appointed Minister of State, Deputy Perry, is the only state, with the exception of Malta, to have appointed an individual from a business background. All the other appointees are civil servants attached to their relevant Ministries. That is not a good start, to put it bluntly. With all due respect to the permanent governments in the various countries, if one does not have a business background or experience of running a business in the hope people will spend money in it so it can continue to pay its bills and staff and remain in operation, one is at a significant loss when trying to frame solutions or proposals that will help SMEs. As the Minister of State pointed out, more than 90% of businesses across Europe have fewer than 250 employees. It is appalling that member states have seen fit to stay within the political establishment in making appointments. In that regard, I applaud the appointment of Minister of State by the Government as he comes from a strong business background and has a full understanding of the importance of the SME sector.

The other reason I am linking it is because in this country we do not have a strong entrepreneurial culture. However, I am pleased to note that the report of the entrepreneurship forum entitled, Entrepreneurship in Ireland: Strengthening the Startup Community, published in early January, contains several recommendations which I am confident the Minister of State will take on board. The ones I wish to single out include those under the heading of "Innovative 'Can-Do' Culture" in section two. I will single out three of ten points which caught my attention. First, "success is not begrudged and failure is not denigrated". If there is any failing in the Irish psyche it is begrudgery. An old story is told about the difference between the American attitude to entrepreneurship and the Irish attitude. In America, when a person drives by in a big car, the immediate reaction of observers is to ask how can they get a car like that. The Irish reaction is to question where did the person get the money to buy that car. That is the difference and that is what is meant by begrudgery. The sooner that begrudgery is eliminated from the Irish psyche, the better for small business enterprises and for this economy in general.

Another aspect is that "the media plays its part in highlighting the importance of entrepreneurial endeavours". I propose that begrudgery reigns supreme across much of the Irish media, that when somebody gets into trouble in a business context, the first reaction is to hound him or her, rather than to analyse the contribution made by that person to the local, regional or national economy. Again, the difference in America is stark where one is not deemed to be a success unless one has had two or three business failures. In this country a business failure is regarded as showing inadequacy. I commend the Government on its proposals to ensure that those who are declared bankrupt will not be prevented from standing for the Dáil or Seanad elections in the future. God knows, we need more, not less, business acumen and business expertise in these Houses. If that initiative results in those who have gone through the fire of redundancies and of bankruptcy still wishing to make a contribution to the Irish nation, then they are to be applauded rather than denigrated.