Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I am pleased the Minister is here this morning to listen to what we have to say. I agree with the previous speaker that the delay in publishing this Bill and the use of the guillotine is a very unfair way to do business. I know the Minister and the Department are very busy and under pressure but this issue stands out like a sore thumb. Small businesses are not being looked after. They are the backbone of our communities and I include the small shopkeepers, small farmers, farriers and many other service industries which are often family businesses for generations. Such businesses have been good employers in their community and they are struggling. They have been good and compliant taxpayers. However they must also deal with a plethora of regulations on health and safety and insurance and they are being strangled. To cap it all, the banks have abandoned them. I am not a member of the finance committee but Deputy Donnelly referred to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, saying that only 44 people had applied to Mr. John Trethowen of the Credit Review Office. He has only three staff. I heard him say about three weeks ago that the banks were not living up to their promises. The two main banks promised the late Minister, Brian Lenihan - God rest him - that they would provide the funding for the sector. I know for a fact they are not providing funding to small businesses. Many of these businesses have a small overdraft earned with their sweat and blood over the years and the overdraft may amount to €25,000. The banks are calling in those overdrafts. Businesses cannot buy stock because cash payment in advance is required as a result of wholesalers being caught out. They cannot pay cash without an overdraft facility and they cannot pay for a delivery of fuel or goods. Agricultural contractors are unable to pay for plastic and diesel. The banks call in their clients to inform them they are removing overdraft facilities but they offer a term loan instead. I wonder why they cannot be stopped and this practice exposed.

I can explain why Mr. Trethowen and the Credit Review Office have only received 44 claims. I have been in business for 30 years since last February. I have a good relationship with my bank which may be fraught from time to time but the bank knows me. I know that nobody will want to report a bank to the Credit Review Office because they are conscious of the reputation of the informer in past times. They will not complain about a bank because they do not want their relationship with a bank to turn sour overnight and then they would be up the river without a canoe. It is not the case that people do not want to go to the Credit Review Office but we must understand why they do not complain. In any case, business people do not have time to make a complaint. They are trying with might and main to stay in business and they do not want to spend time filling in forms and more important, they do not wish to get a black mark against their name in the bank.

There is also the issue of rates. We all know rates are crippling people. I was a member of the county council and I know why rates must be levied, but people are getting no value for the rates. The county councils are stretched, as we have seen today. They do not have local workers on the ground any more. As I said recently about my local council, it is all chiefs and no Indians. They do not have workmen carrying out maintenance to stop places being flooded. Again, we are getting bad value for money in that area. This must be examined. We must deal with rates and review the rates system. Currently, one must appeal to the body that assesses the rates in the first instance, which will cost €250 or €300 for the privilege, and it takes six or eight months to complete the process. It is totally unwieldy and absurd. We must also re-examine the legislation on upward only rent reviews, which are crippling bigger towns and cities.

I do not know why a new group must be set up for this fund. The county enterprise boards were doing a tremendous job for the sole trader and businesses with up to five or six employees. They are ready, willing and able to do this job, so they should be used. Enterprise Ireland does good work too, but the business must have 200 employees. There was nothing for the businesses in between. That is where the money is needed. I welcome the €6 million and the €10 million. It is a start. Tosach maith, leath na hoibre. However, it is only a drop in the ocean, although I understand the economic climate in which we are living. I am delighted with the shift in thinking in the Department and I congratulate the Minister on that. Department officials need to get out, get down and dirty and understand what makes small business tick. If the 400,000 businesses in the country employ a single extra person each, consider the impact that would have on the dole queues. They could do it, instead of being driven out of business.

There is another big issue which I consider to be totally unfair. It has affected many self-employed people since the crash took place. They paid all their taxes, PRSI and so forth, and rightly so. That is as it should be. They were under a great deal of pressure to pay but they did so. They wanted to be good, law abiding and tax compliant citizens, with honour, respect and dignity, unlike the cowboys that surfaced during the Celtic tiger economy who went off and left everybody unpaid. They had no intention of paying anybody. They wanted to get rich fast so they could go off in their yachts and whatever else. The self-employed people, unfortunately, had to let their employees go. It broke their hearts to let their employees go because they were good employees with whom they had a good relationship for years. However, at least the employees got social welfare, despite how bad the situation was.

The employer, however, who drove the business and who will help this country to recover, got nothing. They were left penniless, with just bills from the Revenue Commissioners. Now, they have the sheriff knocking at their doors. It is happening in my county in a village near Tipperary. A man rang me last Sunday because the sheriff was due to come to his house again this week. It is despicable. The sheriff's charges and the Revenue Commissioners' interest are piling up, but one cannot get blood from a stone. This person does not have enough to eat. I appeal to the Minister to call off the hounds. The use of sheriffs is an outdated practice but they are terrorising ordinary people. These are people who were in business, gave employment, spent money and invested, housed themselves and looked after their families. Now they are penniless and hungry. The community welfare service will not help them because they have so-called assets. In fact, they have no assets because they are worthless. The last thing they need is a sheriff threatening and intimidating them.

There is a sheriff for Tipperary and part of Offaly who should be retired or otherwise dealt with. I will not name a person, but the system of a sheriff coming to somebody's door is like something one would read in an outdated book. It must be changed. There must be an understanding of the difficulties of self-employed people. They are proud people who did not ask for anything from anybody. They worked hard and now they are destroyed. Their energy and any future investment and ideas will be buried with them.

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