Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)

I welcome this Bill. It is very simple, but could be very useful. I am disappointed the Government does not seem to get it. The issue is that businesses, especially small businesses, are under pressure this year. We have spoken about this issue numerous times and I am happy the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, gets it, but I am not convinced those around him do so.

Deputy after Deputy on the other side of the House has come in here tonight and congratulated us on the Bill, said it is great and that it is needed, but six months are needed to fix it. It will not take six months to re-write the Bill or make changes to the parts the Government is not happy with. It should be agreed on tonight. The changes could be made, a telephone call could be made to one of my colleagues - as often happens - and we could fix and adjust it. We have seen legislation written in a day. The Minister of State should let small businesses know he wants to help them. They have serious cash problems. For some companies, €2,000 or €3,000 could pay this week's wage bill. That is the way it is. From week to week businesses are trying to scrape together a few euro to pay bills and their employees and to keep the show on the road. That is how tight things are, but there does not seem to be any acknowledgement of that from the Government side. The enactment of the Bill is one small development that could make a difference to a few businesses.

On the night the budget was introduced I spoke at length about the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA. I said that night, irrespective of whether one agrees with NAMA, it would take too long to be of benefit to businesses this year. The banks are not giving out money. Overdrafts, credit facilities and short-term loans are all tools of business, without which they will fail. There will be many more failed businesses. I am afraid that in six months' time we will have 500,000, not 400,000, unemployed. If the Government does not take serious action it will not take until next year to reach that figure, as some have predicted. We will reach 500,000 unemployed this year. The situation cannot continue. Money must be freed up. Businesses that have been 20 or 30 years in operation are being told by their banks that they cannot have an overdraft, that it is not worth them having an overdraft or they are charged a significant amount for a short-term loan. That cannot continue. It is not on. We are bailing out the banks and giving them what they need. We have accepted that something has to be done but we should demand that they look after small businesses. It is as simple as that.

The Bill is a small attempt by this side of the House to do something constructive, to send a message to businesses that we appreciate what they do for us and the number of people they employ and that we are willing to help them. The Bill is being put to one side just because it came from Fine Gael. The Bill must be examined and tweaked and turned and it might not come back to the House for a year, like all the other Bills that we have been promised in six months time.

The Government is guilty of not paying its debts. I tabled parliamentary questions last year and the previous year to find out the number of days it takes each Department to pay its bills. I was impressed with the replies, if they can be believed. I found out that in theory each Department tries to pay its bills in ten days, 12 days or 18 days but that does not happen in reality because State agencies and other bodies in particular consistently find reasons for not paying. They introduce bits of red tape and find reasons to ask for more information and delay making payments, even when it comes to paying sports grants. Payments are delayed as much as possible rather than simply handing over the cash.

People have come to my office in the past year who are owed money by Iarnród Éireann for work carried out more than two and a half years ago, some of them even longer. When I tried to raise the matter in the House the Minister would not take the question. The Ceann Comhairle or somebody else blocked it. I got no response when I wrote to Iarnród Éireann. It is not good enough for the State to owe people hundreds of thousands of euro for work they have done, just because one or two people got mixed up or moved to a different Department, or because a question mark was put over something. That cannot continue. Those businesses employ people and they have bills to pay. It is not good enough for Ministers to reply to the effect that Departments pay everything in ten or 11 days when they know that is not the case. It is also not good enough for Ministers not to answer questions. If I were a Minister and I thought anybody under my watch was not paying his or her bills I would have serious questions to ask and I would not stand for it. It should not be allowed. It is not fair to delay payment, especially given the current situation.

That is bad enough but then there are the significant delays incurred by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in refunding redundancies. That should not be tolerated. It is not fair. That approach is crippling businesses. It will lead to more businesses closing and more job losses, yet we have inaction. We heard Members speak about how brilliant the Government was to introduce a plan last July and then to have the budget. Those problems started in January and February 2008, a year and a half ago, yet we still have not taken action.

The Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, was present when I spoke in debates about the need for labour activation schemes and to help businesses with cashflow. We need to change the way we do our business when it comes to funding enterprise. The problems emerged as early as last February yet nothing has changed. We still have problem after problem. Businesses have told me they cannot pay their wages for one of three reasons. The first is because they are owed money by a State body. The second is because they have not received back the redundancy money they have paid out already to their staff. The third is because they cannot get credit.

There are many areas in Fine Gael's plan for business on which we could work together with the Government to bring about change. People who have money do not have confidence in the system. We have one of the highest level of personal savings in Europe, yet people are afraid to spend their money because they do not have confidence in where we are going. They do not believe the Government has a two-year or three-year plan because it has nothing to show them. We must restore confidence and get that money moving. If we do not, we will have more businesses failing and more unemployment. That is preventable but we must devise a plan and take action, not just talk about doing things in six months' time. That is not good enough any more.

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