John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on this topic that affects every town and village throughout the country. I compliment Deputies Phil Hogan and Leo Varadkar on tabling the motion. The need to help small businesses should be a core value of any economic policy at any time. It should be a core value of any economy at any time, but particularly now during a time of recession. In the past 18 months this recession has come crashing down the tracks at unbelievable speed.

Over the years thousands of jobs were provided by small businesses. They would not grab the headlines. There would not be a Minister rolling into town with his cavalcade to announce them. There were five jobs here, ten jobs there and 15 jobs somewhere else. However, they were the businesses that paid their charges. They were able to absorb the increasing charges during the good years. They paid their taxes. They did not get millions of euro in grants from IDA Ireland, but they kept our economy ticking over. Many of these businesses are now in difficulty.

We all know and accept that businesses are being screwed by the banks. I met a small businessman in Claremorris a few weeks ago. He told me he looked for a loan of €50,000 a few years ago to expand his business and was offered €300,000 by the banks, which could not stop giving money out to him. However, he was cautious and wanted to see if his figures held up. As they held up, he went back a few weeks ago looking for the same €50,000, but now the banks will not lend it to him. That is the real situation facing businesses at the moment. If he had got that €50,000, he would have provided two or three new jobs. That is not earth shattering and would not make news headlines. However, repeated over thousands of small businesses around the country it would bring taxes into the economy and we would not have the major deficit of billions of euro we hear about every morning in the Chamber.

Another hammer blow for many of the small businesses has been the hiking of VAT rates with the effect in the lead-up to Christmas in recent years of traffic jams heading out of the State to buy groceries and other goods. We all know the effect it had on the motor industry. The Minister of State, Deputy Dara Calleary, will be very aware of the 15 jobs lost in the Casey motor company in Ballina last week. That company has been providing jobs in Mayo for the past 40 years, including coming through the difficult times of the 1980s.

The motion effectively suggests solutions to the problems of small businesses that are evident in every city, town and village in the country. On a walkabout in a few towns in my constituency of Mayo last week, I lost count of the number of small shops and businesses that have closed down and been boarded up in recent months. The Government amendment refers to a focus on training and up-skilling, looking forward to future export growth. It was not too concerned about export growth during the property bubble when billions of pounds were being given to developers to build hotels left, right and centre that are now closing down. The reality is that small businesses cannot get money from the banks. Their charges from local authorities and Government are going through the roof. Their customers are disappearing and those who are left have no money to spend because of the levies imposed on them.

Acceptance of the motion would send out a clear message that somebody cares and is willing to help in their hour of need. It has long gone beyond time to get real on all these matters that would make a difference. Earlier, I referred to all the boarded-up shops and businesses in the towns throughout the country. Could new businesses not be given a derogation from the need to pay some rates for an initial period so that the business could get up and running? These are not ordinary times and they need extraordinary solutions to get us out of this mess. If we keep doing the same things that we have always done, we will end up with the same results. Today's problems need different solutions from what would have been acceptable five years ago. The upward-only rent reviews represent one example of legislation that is not sufficiently flexible.

The Government amendment refers to a strong focus on training and up-skilling for those who have recently been made redundant. The criteria, qualifications and availability of these courses need to be made much more flexible than they were in the past particularly at this stage. I want to ask a serious question. If the Minister of State took this Government amendment into the small shops and businesses in his own constituency of Mayo tomorrow morning, what would those businesspeople say to him about the support they are getting? I think he and I know the answer.

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