John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

I agree with some of what Deputy Michael D. Higgins said about our past, from which we can learn. If we are to make the correct decisions on policy and direction for the future, then we must reflect on what happened in the past; we must understand how we got there and be careful how we move on. To that degree, we are informed by what has happened.

Regarding the protection of the 800,000 jobs the SME sector creates, we need to focus carefully on the activities of enterprise boards. I am pleased that within my Department the funding of enterprise boards has been increased by 19% and their activities now range across funding mentoring, education, etc. They are being received quite well, both by small to medium enterprises and those about to go into business. There is an increased interest among people in becoming self-employed and I encourage them to look towards the enterprise boards.

The enterprise boards come under the remit of Enterprise Ireland and it is important that we look at our exports in that context also. For those companies looking to markets abroad, from my experience, there is a huge opportunity for us, despite what is happening at home. Different markets in countries such as Japan and the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — are interested in what we are doing here. They look on us as being an island of innovation and creativity, one that can bring new products and services to the marketplace, has connections with information through communication technologies and not only recognises the convergence of life sciences and so on with technology, but that a new space is emerging within that market. We must commercialise the creative activities with which we are involved, get them to the marketplace and move them through companies and Enterprise Ireland to be sold abroad. Only by recognising what is needed abroad can we increase our exports.

In the context of the convergence of life sciences and, for example, functional foods, Ireland must capitalise on its recognised position as a country of good food, sound origins and so on. With companies, we must bring to the marketplace opportunities to fill orders from large foreign companies. For example, some of the large companies in Japan, which we visited recently, are interested in collaborating in respect of universities, businesses and research and development. We must exploit that interest to a greater degree.

We must also consider enterprises in terms of what they are doing, namely, cutting their cloth according to their measure. Companies and their employees are examining ways to save jobs, reduce wages and costs and work with one another co-operatively to maintain their current job levels. The Government cannot do this alone. Issues of competitiveness must be addressed by, for example, Bord Gáis, the ESB and our telecommunication providers. I do not know why the ESB or Bord Gáis would be unable to reduce its costs and bills by 20%. Given our telecommunication providers' commercial activities, there is a reasonable expectation that they will deliver price changes to the market in terms of, for instance, rolling out broadband, which will be essential if we are to deliver on economic activity targets in light of the new difficulties facing us.

Another issue for the SME sector, representatives of which I meet regularly, relates to local government charges. This may be a matter of how we fund local government, but it also relates to how the councillors of every political party represented in the House operate in the imposition of those charges.

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