Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The Minister for Finance introduced significant measures in the budget, on foot of the work that was done in co-operation with the Small Business Forum, to reduce the burden on businesses. He amended the VAT thresholds, for example, to help small and medium sized enterprises. The work that has been done to date illustrates the fact that regulation affects small businesses more than large businesses and has a disproportionate impact on small and medium sized enterprises.

The work of the Business Regulation Forum indicates that regulation constitutes a significant burden for businesses in Ireland. The five areas on which we will concentrate are taxation, health and safety, the environment, statistical returns and employment and company law. There is evidence from international organisations to suggest that Ireland is in a better competitive position than other countries. The World Bank's 2006 Doing Business report ranked Ireland tenth of 175 countries in terms of the ease with which businesses can be started and run here. The World Economic Forum's 2006-07 Global Competitiveness Report showed that Ireland compares favourably with other countries in terms of a number of regulatory indicators. The International Institute for Management Development's 2006 world competitiveness scoreboard showed that Ireland compares favourably in areas like ease of doing business.

See this speech in context