Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Thank you and you are very welcome, a Chathaoirligh. I am delighted to have you on board and delighted to have you put us in our place in future - I imagine you will - as the Minister of State, Deputy English, did when he was in that place. I welcome the Minister of State back to the committee as well.

I have a concern in regard to jobs in general. There is still a belief that jobs are to be created by Government. I know the Minister, Deputy Bruton, does not say that, but there is still an underlying belief that it is the Government's job to create jobs.

I remember being in Chile some years ago when the government decided that if jobs or enterprises were to be created they had to come from start-ups. To do that, it removed all bureaucracy and red tape. I know there were criticisms that it went too far in some ways, but it was hugely successful, and when one compares the Chilean economy with that of neighbouring countries such as Argentina, one can see the difference that the attempt to remove that barrier made. We have not done nearly enough to remove the barriers of red tape and bureaucracy. Upward-only rent reviews were mentioned earlier. This is the sort of thing that Government can do to remove barriers and enable people to start businesses. I do not get the impression that enough start-ups are occurring. What can we do? The Minister said what he is doing and that is going in the right direction, but there must be an awful lot more that can be done.

The South African government asked Coca-Cola what it could do. Coca-Cola said it could not do anything itself but it could encourage people to start up businesses as distributors. I remember going into a township at Coca-Cola’s behest and meeting some of the entrepreneurs who had started and built up businesses. These were places where people would not have believed they would have any chance of building up a business. Maybe it is possible to do something to enable hand-holding by somebody much larger, such as Coca-Cola in that case. What can we do to encourage start-ups and encourage people to develop their businesses from the very beginning and see whether they can get off the ground? I believe there is enthusiasm, particularly among the young people to whom we are selling the concept, that they can succeed. If we can get that message across, as the Minister is doing, we will succeed, but we must remove the barriers. One of the barriers has to be a tax on the initial stages of a business. Anything that can be done in that area is to be encouraged.