Pádraig Ó Céidigh (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The area of SMEs and the challenges of doing business in Ireland is something for which I have huge passion. I can associate entirely with what Mr. Duggan said about his children and whether he would let them consider going into business.

What I have learned since becoming a Senator is that in Leinster House we talk the talk but the rubber does not hit the road. I would welcome a comment from the witnesses on those issues. I apologise in advance if they have already responded on them.

Following on from research on the small and medium enterprise sector, which is being conducted at my behalf, what I am hearing from the SME sector is that the key issues for it is the cost of doing business, insurance, rates and access to finance, which as already mentioned is a huge issue. It is not true to say that the finance is available: it is not. The terms and conditions to access finance are practically impossible to meet such that a person would have to sell his or her soul to get it. In the Celtic tiger era the banks were making a margin of about 1.5% over prime. Now, that margin is between 3% and 4%, which means it has more than doubled. There is little or no talk about this. I would welcome the witnesses' comments on the issue and also on staff recruitment.

Mr. Connolly mentioned that pharmacists are going elsewhere, as is the case with every industry in the SME sector. As the larger companies can offer better terms and conditions they are cherry-picking graduates in advance of their going into small businesses. According to the statistics, there are 248,344 SMEs in Ireland, which between them employ approximately 1 million people, which is a lot of small business and a lot of employees but we are still behind the curve from an EU perspective. The EU Commission strongly supports SMEs. In Ireland, we have been behind the curve in this regard.

At a meeting last week with the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation the officials set out what they are doing, particularly in regard to Brexit, and two or three weeks ago they sent documentation in this regard to all Deputies and Senators. The Department is being very proactive but we need a lot more of it. I am very concerned about the future of the pharmacy industry in Ireland, for a couple of reasons. Owing to consolidation, small pharmacies are being squeezed out. A couple of weeks ago a large Dublin pharmacy announced its plans to further consolidate. It is becoming tougher for small operators to do business. They cannot buy in bulk and get the same discounts as the large operators. Many of the UK pharmacies are setting up here. I would welcome a comment on whether Brexit will impact on the large UK pharmacies based in Ireland remaining here, if the cost of doing business will increase and if it will affect smaller operators. I think it will have an effect on small operators. The online pharmacy sector is also making it difficult for smaller operators to do business. I would welcome the witnesses' thoughts on this issue.

As the witnesses will have noted, I am very passionate about this area. We regularly introduce legislation in the Dáil and Seanad which has serious unintended negative consequences for SMEs. I ask that this committee do some work on the effects of that legislation on small and medium-sized businesses. I have been a Senator for two years and as far as I am aware there has been no discussion on the effects of various pieces of legislation on SMEs. I am involved in this space and my business has been hit many times with an tsunami that has screwed it up. If some my of questions have been already answered the witnesses need not respond again if they do not want to.