Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)

I welcome the Minister to the House. I thank the Leas-Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on this Bill.

I welcome this debate as at last we can deal with the economic world of small businesses and jobs for our people. We hear a lot of talk about growth and jobs and now is the time for action. Now is the time for creative ideas and I am glad some of my colleagues have put forward some constructive proposals in this debate. It is also a time to examine new ideas in regard to jobs and investments. I welcome any new idea that will create jobs.

We should first consider the facts in our small business economy. I have many family friends and constituents in this sector and they often feel they are forgotten with all the talk about the big companies, the multinationals and the debate on the corporation tax. They often feel excluded and that is a matter we should address. Some 177,547 small businesses employ under ten people, 9,769 employ ten to 19 people, 5,215 employ 20 to 49 people, 2,441 employ 50 to 249, and 459 employ 250 and more. Those are the figures. Small businesses that employ between three and 12 people number 37,488. Many people employed in small businesses. This business economy covers industry, construction and services. It does not include enterprises in the public sector, health, education or agriculture sectors. There is huge potential in the small business sector and we need to help those people on the ground. That is the reality. I will deal with a number of constructive proposals later.

As we are talking about jobs, I had to laugh in recent weeks when a number of Deputies in this Dáil were criticised by certain people about using their expenses to employ people. What is wrong with that? It is a good idea. If a Deputy uses his or her expenses to take on a part-time worker or to take somebody off the dole, that is a good idea. To me, that is not an abuse of public money. That is a matter that should be carefully examined. I want to commend those people directly involved in it.

As the Minister and I now represent the new Dublin Bay North constituency north of the River Liffey, located mainly around Dublin Bay, I draw to his attention that 2014 presents great potential in regard to the celebration of the Battle of Clontarf. People are already knocking down my door, and I hope the Minister's door, to talk about developing ideas in tourism, the arts, etc., in the Clontarf-Dublin Bay area to bring in tourists from Norway, Sweden and Denmark with the idea of "Bring the Vikings, Bring them Back Home". I believe Deputy Catherine Murphy already has experiences in this respect of visiting Leixlip in Kildare. We need to be radical and creative to bring in tourists and to bring in money. The Minister should up his game on this issue. He should push that issue with the Minister, Deputy Deenihan, in regard to the celebration of the 1,000 year anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf in 2014.

Another idea I thought of during the week relates to the Garden of Remembrance and the build up to the commemoration of the Rising in 2016. Why could we not have a guard of honour at the Garden of Remembrance similar to the guard of honour in England and America? Tourists would come from all over to see the guard of honour and the change of the guard at the Garden of Remembrance. Americans, French and all nationalities would get their photographs taken in the Garden of Remembrance and we could have beautiful system of changing the guard. It could be an international historic item. Those are two sensible ideas.

The Bill provides for the establishment of a micro-enterprise loan fund and the formation of a private company to lend to micro-enterprises and to mange the fund. The fund is designed to stimulate lending to sustainable micro-enterprises and it is targeted at start-up, newly established or growing micro-enterprises across all industry sectors, employing not more than ten people. The company will be empowered to provide loans of up to €25,000 for commercially viable proposals that do not meet the conventional risk criteria applied by commercial banks. We are talking about enterprises employing up to ten people. We should zoom into those and I welcome that aspect of the legislation.

I want to commend the Minister on another aspect. The Bill will also empower the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to give €10 million of Exchequer money to the company for the purpose of lending to microenterprises to set up a scheme which will provide for various terms and conditions such as the purpose for which the loan may be given, the terms of the loan agreement, reports and information by the subsidiary to the Minister, audit and examination of accounts of the subsidiary and other matters. That is what this debate is about. It is about giving a leg up to these people. I commend that part of the legislation.

Section 3 provides that the costs associated with administering the Act will be subject to sanction from the Minister for Finance with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and will be met from moneys provided by the Oireachtas. I have a concern about that section. We have to keep an eye on the Minister, Deputy Howlin, and the Minister, Deputy Noonan. These two individuals seem to have caught the austerity bug. If we are to get out of this economic crisis, we will have to have a growth strategy as well. I urge the Minister to stand up to those two Ministers, make his mark in terms of creating jobs because that is the number one item. There are three issues of importance in this State - jobs, jobs and jobs, and that is the reality.

My colleague, Deputy Healy, mentioned the role of the semi-State sector. We should not run away from that. We should not have ideological hang-ups. If some semi-State companies are making money and they have ideas to make it, we should let them at it, roll them out and support them. We should not be against them because they are part of the semi-State sector. If they have a contribution to make, we should act on that, particularly in the context of new ideas in this area.

We have more than 455,000 people unemployed and we need to get our act together and come up with ideas. We need a proper growth and jobs plan and a strategy to ensure it is implemented. Also, people have a contribution to make themselves. It is not up to the politicians or the Government, it is also up to people. We had a good campaign a few years ago in the old Dublin North Central constitutency, which is now Dublin Bay North in regard to creating jobs. We encouraged people in our constituency to spend an €20 a week in small businesses in the locality. We targeted the campaign at people over the age of 55 who happened to have a few bob. Many young couples do not have the money because they are under stress in terms of their mortgage, employment and cuts in wages. There is a sector of the population that has money. There is money in the economy and it should not be denied that there is not. There is approximately €75 billion in savings accounts in this country. I say to the people who have money that they should spend an extra €20 a week in their local businesses and try to do something as well.

I ask the Minister to examine the VAT issue, the rates issue and the insurance issue for small business. We need to give small businesses a chance because they are the future of this country and they will help us get out of this crisis.

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