Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

I do not agree with the Minister's comment that the Government has an agile perspective of the matters that come before it. The approach is reactive rather than agile. The Government has been warned about these issues as legislation proceeded through the Houses. In particular, there were warnings that the directors' compliance statement in the Companies (Auditing and Accounting) Bill 2003 would create enormous problems for inward investment in the country, with directors based in the US, for example, needing to sign off directors' statements for businesses and foreign direct investment here.

The Government and the Taoiseach in particular was warned about these issues and potential mistakes. The Minister is now attempting to disguise this with a forum report. Will the Minister comment on the small business forum that he felt obliged to set up recently? There is also a group to implement the enterprise strategy group's report. Another group is being announced today to deal with better regulation, some issues of which we are already aware and which we do not need a group to recognise. Does the Minister agree that what is needed is the implementation of the enterprise strategy group's report in a concerted proactive way? The views of people could be taken at that stage rather than now setting up another committee and waiting another year and a half to implement measures required to assist small business in the regulatory environment.

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