Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I complement Fine Gael for tabling this important motion. There are 1.85 million people working in the State, with 350,000 in the public sector and 1.5 million outside the employment of the State. Of those, 800,000 work in the small and medium enterprise sector, which shows how crucial the sector is to the economy. Those companies and businesses are being starved of cash flow. We were told at the start of the banking crisis that there was a liquidity problem, not a problem with capitalisation, which was not correct. All small businesses, however, are now experiencing cash flow difficulties. Part of the problem is that much of the money has gone into NAMA and the wall of cash that would flow into the economy never appeared.

Those with small and medium enterprises often employ two, three or four people. When someone has a business and works 15 hours a day six or seven days a week, without taking any funds out of the business, because he wants his employees to keep their jobs, because they are often friends or family, if that business does not work out, why is that person disallowed from social welfare payments for 12 months? It is a major problem and it is particularly unfair when they put in such hours to the detriment of their families and themselves; they are told they are self-employed and will get nothing because they were sole traders. That is wrong for those who have worked so hard in so many small businesses. These firms are in all areas, from agriculture to services. Solicitors' firms and architects' firms are closing and farmers are leaving the land because they are in such straits financially. Will the Minister sit down with his counterpart in the Department of Social Protection and work that out, so those who run businesses will be entitled to a social welfare payment the same as someone who was let go? It is crucial and would show the State has some confidence in these people, who need a safety net like everyone else.

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