Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I will not go into details. However, the position is similar in respect of accountants in that the Revenue Commissioners will take them at their word. While there are some excellent accountants and solicitors, every profession has its rogues. Although checks and balances are required, the Law Society does not appear to have had many, given the manner in which an individual could run off with so much money.

While the Finance Bill is under discussion, the law does not appear to operate in Ireland any more. I refer to a man who is running around the world against whom, to date, no prosecutions have been brought. Moreover, there does not appear to be a plan to have him extradited back to Ireland. I cannot understand how a man could do this given the existence of professional bodies such as the Law Society. Innocent people, some of whom had small accounts arising from the Government's saving scheme have been affected and will never see their money again,

The Finance Bill is the subject of today's debate. People accept that a major downturn has taken place in the economy. As I remarked earlier, while the economy was doing well, all Ministers got the credit for the wonderful economy. Even civil servants received praise for the great job they were doing. However, as soon as problems arose in the economy, the problem lay not with the Minister but with the civil servants and everyone else. Ministers do not take responsibility for the manner in which they have led in the past ten years.

I was disappointed by the recent budget and the Finance Bill because I had expected to see major initiatives to try to revitalise the economy and restore Ireland to its former competitive state. Ireland is no longer competitive. The Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Michael Ahern, is present in the Chamber and has responsibility for small business. Small businesses will state that they are being crucified by inspectors of all kinds, be they tax, VAT or health inspectors. As soon as a downturn occurs in the economy, everyone is inspected. Mayo County Council has just adopted water rates in a move that will put people out of business. The day is over when one can expect local authorities or the public to be able to pay for benchmarking or to keep such people in jobs.

I will provide an example. I recently visited a premises in a town in County Mayo. I do not wish to identify the person concerned because he is a small business man. He showed a letter to me that was left by two health inspectors. It was deemed necessary to send out two inspectors rather than one. The businessman asked me whether I could discern any problems with his premises and I replied that it was so clean that one could eat one's dinner from the floor. However, the inspector stood on a chair, checked underneath a container for hot water and found some dust. Were anyone who wished to find dust to enter my house, or those of the Minister of State or Cathaoirleach, he or she would do so. However, the problem is that we are paying for this. The problem is that the inspectors annoyed that man for two weeks and sent him letters threatening legal action. Small businesses are over-regulated and if this does not stop, the Minister of State and the Government will see more people going out of business. Who does the Government blame?

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