Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I do not disagree with this principle. The Department of Finance has produced a report which was brought before us just today which outlines the reductions achieved in the administrative and red-tape bureaucracy associated with the Revenue Commissioners. I understand Revenue measured up in all areas in this regard, except in the area of VAT. I have indicated that the Departments of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Public Expenditure and Reform and the Taoiseach and the Office of the Attorney General have been allocated lead responsibility in a number of the areas to which I refer in the context of starting a process of co-ordination. I recall talking to the Mayor of Chicago, Mr. Rahm Emanuel, who informed me that in order to establish any kind of an enterprise in that city one required well over 100 licences. He then stated that because of the authority invested in him, he had been able to reduce the burden in this regard by up to two thirds. In so far as businesses and retail outlets in this country are concerned, the Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy John Perry, is considering what is involved. Some of the licences which apply in Ireland have European connotations and reducing their number is not as simple as one might think. The Nice treaty stated we should reduce bureaucratic red tape by 25% and this has been an aspiration for a long time. While it is not where I would like it to be, it is taking shape. I hope that by mid-autumn we will be in a position to publish our decision in respect of having the process right for publishing all of these in order that Deputies and others involved will have that information before the Government decision is made.

See this speech in context