Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

They are not playing ball with small and medium-sized enterprises. People are being laid off needlessly from those enterprises. I appreciate that capitalisation has come into place only recently but there is no sign yet of that credit squeeze being unplugged and capitalisation flowing out to business. It has not happened to any of the people who have been talking to me about the difficulties they are experiencing. The Government must be more proactive in ensuring the banks get the finger out and deal with this issue once and for all.

A previous speaker, perhaps Deputy Mitchell, referred to the one-stop shop in respect of assistance for indigenous enterprise and entrepreneurs. I raised this matter more than a year ago because I see a significant gap here. If a person is even considering starting a business, he or she might go to the country or city enterprise board and have a chat. Often that person is directed to FÁS, because a training element might be necessary and, by and large, is given the runaround.

Recently, I came across a businessman who employs seven people. He is an very enterprising man, has built a very solid business in a five-year period and now has the prospect of doubling his workforce. He was told by Enterprise Ireland that it could not deal with him because he has only seven employees and its threshold is ten or more. I had to intervene and point out that if a person from China or Germany turned up with seven employees, wishing to extend within that threshold in a couple of months, that person would get assistance. However, because this man happens to be Irish he does not get the golden glove treatment some others get. I am not opposed to such people getting golden glove treatment as long as they produce the goods but our indigenous entrepreneurs and business should get the same. The Government must direct significant additional focus in that area.

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