Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Moran and his colleagues for attending. I often sit in this Chamber and find myself in agreement with Deputy Boyd Barrett. In his most recent intervention, however, he spoke about a country that I do not know. I know quite a bit about the SME sector and I echo Mr. Moran’s comments to the effect that the SMEs are a mile away from what Deputy Boyd Barrett outlined.

I wish to discuss the ideology among those at senior level within the Civil Service. We have had some introductions to some of the most senior people in the Civil Service and, in that context, I intend to refer to some comments that have been made at this committee in recent few weeks. We had a comment from Mr. Jim Breslin, the Secretary General of the Department of Health, some weeks ago to the effect that the Department was mandated by Government regarding the contract it agreed with the private hospitals, which ultimately prevented full-time private practitioners carrying out certain activities. The latter has added to the caseload of elective surgeries. I asked the Secretary General whether, if a new contract was to be pursued, the Department would impose the same conditions and he replied that he was being mandated by Government. However, it is the Department that advises the politicians.

We also had one of the senior people from ISME in here some weeks ago. The individual in question told us that at a meeting with senior officials in the Department of Finance, he was informed him that those in the SME community are basically only interested in fiddling their taxes. It was stated in a long article in the Irish Independentlast week that the foreign direct investment, FDI, sector will lead the recovery in this country. This is an absolute joke, particularly if anybody knows the difference between GNI and GDP. That said, does Mr. Moran think this is one of the issues that we have where ISME, for instance, is not allowed to be represented in its own right to talk about pay bargaining or pay agreements in the wage sector? This indicates to me that the SME community has been ignored and is still partially continuing to be ignored. Can Mr. Moran provide us with some comments on those points please?