Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire anseo inniú. At the start of his presentation, he mentioned the "think small first" principle, which requires that legislation take SMEs' interests into account at early stages of policy making in order to make it friendlier. The Minister knows as well as anyone that small businesses that listened to his presentation are asking what practical difference will be made in their lives as a result of these ongoing works.

The Minister mentioned how the Minister of State, Deputy Perry, had been the State's small business envoy for two years. What have been the practical outputs of his role?

On this side of the table, there was frustration about the fact that there had been no consultation with SMEs on the development of LEOs until we kicked up a racket. Even still, SMEs' understanding of the development of county enterprise boards, CEBs, into LEOs is negative. Will the Minister update the committee on the status of the legislation? Is he seeking to have it completed and delivered upon in autumn? This change has been mooted since before Batt O'Keeffe was Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation. There was to be a period of six years before it would take effect on the ground. Those six years have been pivotal for small enterprise and job creation.

The procurement issue is shocking. When I met the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, I asked him why tenders were being bundled together instead of broken up. He was frank in saying that the State needed to save money. It is possible to break down tenders, make them accessible to small businesses and maintain savings, but a state can make other savings when work is kept within its SMEs. Ireland is an outlier in terms of the number of tenders leaked outside the State. We are the best child in the class for the wrong reasons, in that we engage in extra tendering. This is to the cost of small businesses in Ireland. The Small Firms Association, SFA, has asserted that new Government buying policies have the potential to eliminate small businesses from tendering processes, resulting in business closures, job losses, regional imbalances and less competition in the marketplace. Some 60% of its members have stated that there are serious obstacles with procurement tenders. Balfour Beatty has taken on a major contract with Bord Gáis, displacing many small Irish contractors. When I spoke with a contractor about photocopiers in schools, he told me that contracts were being made so large that accessing them would become impossible for existing contract holders, never mind smaller providers entering the system.

The Minister mentioned that he did not believe that banks would have a central role in providing credit for small businesses. Perhaps I am-----