Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

I am delighted to have an opportunity to speak to this important Bill, the importance of which should not be understated. I congratulate Deputy Varadkar on introducing it and the work he has done in highlighting the plight of businesses over the course of recent months, in particular.

A significant problem faces us; SMEs are the lifeblood of the economy, yet they are struggling to cope, stay alive and afloat. Those who are staying afloat are struggling to keep the one, two or three people they may have in employment. This is a major challenge which I am sure everybody in the House has had to deal with in terms of businesses in their constituencies. In my constituency for the past eight or ten months as one drives through what was a particularly vibrant urban village, Ranelagh, one sees "To let" signs on at least ten or 12 premises in the heart of the village. This is indicative and symptomatic of the fundamental problem facing us; the small businesses which are the lifeblood of our communities are going to the wall and the main problems facing them are cash flow and credit flow.

The Bill proposes to deal with this problem to an extent by enabling SMEs to use the Small Claims Court to pursue debtors, an avenue not open to them until now. The proposal to increase the threshold to €3,000 is also significant. What has become a feature for small companies and businesses is that when they are owed money, they are not in a position to pursue their debtors because the sums may be too small to merit or warrant litigation because of the costs involved. They are caught between a rock and a hard place and there is nothing they can do. This legislation will enable them an avenue of pursuit without the high costs, legal bills and overheads that apply to ordinary court procedures. This is very welcome. I am absolutely delighted that the Government has seen the light on this issue and agreed to support this tenet of the Bill. It will benefit small businesses and make life a little easier for them.

ISME is a wonderful organisation which does a huge amount of work in highlighting the plight of businesses throughout the country and the difficulties facing them. It has conducted interesting surveys and research in recent months which bring home how difficult the situation is for small businesses. The survey it conducted at the end of May shows that 70,000 SME jobs are in immediate danger. We know this is due to high labour and other costs associated with running small businesses and the real and pressing factor of credit flow. It is alarming, yet many people, particularly on the Government benches, do not seem to be fully cognisant or aware of how serious the problem is.

ISME also conducted an important survey at the start of May which showed that 58% of companies had been refused credit by banks. This is a significant increase on the figures indicated in previous surveys. Despite all of the measures adopted by the Government on the banks - the guarantee, recapitalisation and so on - credit is still not flowing to SMEs. The Government must address this as a matter of priority and I urge it to do so.

I agree with Deputy Varadkar on the urgent need to have the voice of consumers and small businesses heard around the social partnership table. Social partnership in its current form has failed and is redundant. It needs to be abolished and reconfigured with a fully representative voice because as it is constituted at present it is essentially a sham.

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