Mr. John Whelan:

We met officials from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in 2011 to discuss access to finance as well as other issues. It was agreed that one of the solutions to the issue of accessing additional working capital at a reasonable cost was the credit guarantee scheme. This was discussed in both Houses. It was raised in the Dáil in June and the members of the Seanad voted on it on 4 July. We were promised that funds would be released in July. When that did not happen in July, we met the Taoiseach who said it would be released in September. Now we are heading towards the end of September and yet this three year programme is not in place. We met banking staff at very senior levels, right up to the chief executives. The Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank and Allied Irish Banks were the three banking groups approved to run the scheme. They have been expressing concerns about its operability. The scheme should be at least pushed out. The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation suggested that as an option the package could be reviewed after the first 12 months, if it is not working. We have a concern that it will not deliver on the 1,300 jobs it is supposed to create and it will not assist the 1,600 small and medium sized enterprises that need extra working capital to expand. We urge the committee to try to find the roadblocks to the proposal and deal with them so that the scheme becomes operational. The sooner we test it, find the bugs and make the adjustments, the sooner it will be rolled out. There are other issues with regard to bank bonds and we have issues with export credit insurance, but the low-hanging fruit immediately available to us is to have an operational credit guarantee scheme.

I will now deal with the cost of doing business. I am sure members are aware that the universal social charge has been a significant cost across the employment front. It is paid on gross salary before one puts a penny into the pension fund. We believe the level of income tax taken together with the universal social charge is now at the tipping point. Any further increases are likely to have a damaging impact on trying to motivate the export industry to keep on driving. The Department of Finance and the IMF indicate that €3.5 billion needs to come out of the budget; however, we stress that direct income tax and the universal social charge should not be touched. We believe to do so will immediately impact on our export industry. We are very concerned on that front.

The cost of doing business, including rates, rent and waste charges, are substantial. We understand that these charges are necessary to fund local government but it is important that during recessionary times one does not increase these costs because it knocks another notch off the ability to get companies up and trading again.

We also stress the issue of energy costs. Oil prices are dipping up and down. They have come down in the past week or two; however, that has not stopped Bord Gáis from raising gas and electricity prices. The rebate for companies that are major users of electricity, which is worked back to oil or gas prices, is scheduled to come off in the autumn. In order to support a manufacturing industry that in the main exports its products, that rebate should be extended somewhat further. Manufacturing industries create employment. The food industry is part of the manufacturing industry. Getting goods to the market is very important. Transport as a percentage of the final costs of a product can be as much as 10% to 15% in the case of the food industry. It tends to be in the region of between 3% and 5% for the pharmaceutical industry. Other countries have brought in a special user rebate. We have been putting this idea to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Leo Varadkar and his team for the past 12 months. We have also been putting this idea to the Department of Finance. There are smart ways of applying it without losing income under the excise heading. We stress that cost should be tackled.

The Export Trade Council met last week. I stressed to the Ministers the importance of making early announcements of the trade missions for next year. In that way those in the export industry can start the planning process. The Irish Exporters Association is happy to row in and roll out trade missions in countries that are not being covered by trade missions. We completed a very successful trade mission to India three weeks ago as there was no official Government-led trade mission to India this year. If we are serious about competing in these fast- growing emerging markets we need as many as possible ministerial trade missions. The industry will move behind that.

My final key point refers to the export outreach programme. We have indicated that about 14,000 to 15,000 companies who each employ 50-plus employees, employing a total of 447,000 people, are not exporting. Mr. Coyle touched on some aspects of the ways to get these companies exporting. Many will not survive on trading in the home market only. These companies will not grow unless they get into the export markets. Whereas Enterprise Ireland has a start-up programme for fresh food, it is touching on a very small base. We need a wider initiative that involves many players in the various sectors, the export industry association being one to try to encourage these companies to start trading off the island. That could create a whole wave of new exporters and create new jobs.