Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil le gach duine. It is wonderful to hear the Gaeilge. It is popular in this Seanad because Senator Ó Céidigh uses it on so many occasions he baffles me, but I am getting there.

I jotted some notes that occurred to me but they might not necessarily be in order. My first question is for the representatives of Enterprise Ireland and Dr. Tom Healy of the Nevin Economic Research Institute. It is about succession plans. A PwC survey in 2016 found that only one in seven Irish small and medium businesses had robust succession plans and half of those surveyed had no such plans. We are approaching the demographic challenges arising from the retirement of the 1950s baby boomers. Succession is an issue the EU has raised as a concern. It will impact on 600,000 people per year. France, Italy and Scotland have moved to introduce what is known as the worker co-operative buyout. Dr. Healy has spoken about this a little with regard to different types of enterprises. Has Enterprise Ireland carried out research on that to find out if it is possible to introduce that or strengthen it in Ireland? What are Enterprise Ireland's views on a co-operative buyout model as a viable solution to succession issues? I say that in a context where we are experiencing a cultural shift that will come to the fore in the next generation. The cultural shift is towards being more socially aware of injustices and seeking social justice. The co-operative model would dovetail with that. Could it dovetail with small and medium enterprises as well?

Brexit is the biggest and messiest divorce around. The news flash is that there is a text of a deal between the UK and Europe and apparently it has been agreed. However, it is a media leak. We have been in this position previously so we will not hold our breath. The issue is the growth in exports. According to the Enterprise Ireland global market report for 2017, just 1% of Irish exports go to Latin America and 9% go to southern Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India, despite those locations representing approximately half of the global population. Some 34% go to Britain but that will be extremely uncertain. It is important to diversify. Enterprise Ireland teamed up with Google and brought Google's digital garage of free online tools to the regions. It is a positive initiative. Has it yielded results or is it too early to say? Is it captivating small and medium businesses?

Returning to the cultural shift, our planet is deteriorating rapidly. The environmental impact is bringing forward climate change as well. If we have fewer skilled people chasing the many jobs being offered and if there is a dearth of a skill, people will have more choices and value will have to be added. Are small and medium enterprises involved in reducing the carbon footprint, reducing emissions and opting for microgeneration of its electricity and selling the excess to the grid? That is the added value the next generation in the cultural shift will be seeking. Climate disaster is probably ahead of Brexit. How clued in, aware and active are small and medium-sized businesses in trying to address the carbon footprint and the destruction of the planet by humans?

On the recent general data protection regulation, GDPR, I hope the witnesses have had a nightmare with it because we certainly have. What costs has that incurred in terms of the cost of closing business deals and the extensions and delays to contracts? How difficult has it been for businesses? It is difficult for us to get responses now because everybody is hiding behind it, and "hiding" is sometimes the term as opposed to being compliant with the legislation.

I have more to say but I will conclude with that.