Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Senator's point on barriers to starting up business are right, although we have put much work into this. We had the Seán O'Sullivan forum, which brought together entrepreneurs, and we are now developing a policy statement on the back of that. We have done a number of things. Recently, we announced a competition to find the best young entrepreneur at county and national level in whom we will invest. That is a very tangible way to encourage young people. We have put in place Knowledge Transfer Ireland which is essentially a central body that will look at every piece of intellectual property scattered around all of the education institutions to see how it can be sweated to encourage start-up businesses. We have the local enterprise offices at local level which are a first-stop shop to provide the very best of what the State can give in an accessible way.

The changes to company law, which are currently going to the Dáil and the select committee and will shortly go to the Seanad, will prove user-friendly for a new entrepreneur setting up a company in a way that minimises the bureaucracy. We are aiming to be the Delaware of Europe in the sense of having the best structures for companies.

Ireland and Dublin, in particular, is a start-up hub. Some of the changes have made it easier for overseas entrepreneurs to come to Ireland. We have removed some of the obstacles and Enterprise Ireland has a fund of €10 million to help to support overseas entrepreneurs who want to use Ireland as a base for start-ups. We have a pretty exciting space in many parts of the country. We can do better in this area and that is one of the reasons the first ever regional enterprise strategies will be developed. We need to spread that enthusiasm for start-ups throughout the system.

In regard to retail, we have sought to simplify the whole retail licensing portal and to have a single portal for retail licensing. That has gone out to tender and we hope to deliver that later in the year. We are doing many things we believe will make it easier for people to start a business.

I looked at the "one in, one out" concept in the UK but it almost has a whole department devoted to nothing else but that kind of work. I took a hard look at it but do not believe it could be applied here. Managing that whole process involves very considerable bureaucracy in the UK. It is a nice idea but in terms of practicality, it is difficult.

I would prefer to ask our Department how it can improve the way it interfaces with business over the next 12 months. It is doing that already. It has cut the time in which to get a work permit, it has cut the number of days in which to start up a company and it has cut the waiting times for employers and workers who are in dispute situations. We are trying to improve every interface we have with business and make it work better.

That is probably a more meaningful set of changes for businesses than the one in, one out. The high level group continues to examine regulation and where to make improvements. The Minister of State in the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Perry, chairs that group. We are not saying they are mutually exclusive.

Upward-only rent reviews are a problem. I am not a lawyer and that issue is the responsibility of the Minister for Justice and Equality. The then Minister, Deputy Shatter, took a hard look at the problem and did his very best to bring forward proposals. He submitted them for legal scrutiny but they were found not to be robust and the Government could not implement them. We wanted to do it but the view was that if the proposal went ahead, the State would have to compensate those who had lost if the upward-only rent reviews were no longer available. We could not ask taxpayers to pick up the bill. That was the stumbling block for the proposal.