Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Indeed, or even of the committees on which the Deputy sits. He sought to suggest that while some other countries did not have this type of system, many did. He compared country with country rather than the basket of costs small businesses encounter, which is something one must do when looking at this kind of issue. The situation is similar when we try to compare personal taxes for different countries. It is not possible to make such comparisons unless they are done on a line by line basis.

We are all aware that the most important statistic at this time is that almost 15% of our people are unemployed. This is the significant figure, not anything else. Successive Governments have made it clear that they believe tax on work was a disincentive to work. The corollary of that is that if we increase the cost of providing jobs, jobs will be lost or will certainly not be created. Taking on board the fact there is almost 15% unemployment, we see the real constraints within the economy, particularly the domestic economy where the retail sector - usually a great generator of employment - is on its knees. If we accept this, we must recognise there is a crisis in employment and tread very carefully with regard to increasing the burden on any business seeking to retain what it has, let alone expecting it to create new jobs.

It is clear the SME sector is of vital importance, with approximately 200,000 small businesses in the country and 650,000 people employed in them. Significantly more were employed in the sector, but because of the current situation these enterprises are now under enormous pressure. Deputy Collins spoke at length about the rates situation. Until such time as we can figure out an appropriate rate, based on turnover rather than floor space, we can do nothing. There are a number of furniture shops in the town I know best, but product movement is relatively slow in the current climate. These businesses have large warehouse type showrooms, necessary to display the product they seek to sell, but they are being crippled by rates. There is no reference in the application of rates to the scale of activity or turnover. I do not suggest that chip shops or mobile phone shops or whatever are profitable, but they have a much higher turnover in a relatively small amount of space. Until we try to get this balance right, we are not acting in a way that demonstrates we have regard for and wish to support enterprise.

We have had the debate on upward-only rent in the House. If Deputy Nash was here or if anybody else wanted to see how disingenuous the Labour Party was in opposition and in the run into the last election, this was typified by what it did with regard to the so-called upward-only rent reviews for historical leases. It produced legal opinion, but when the time came, it accepted the opinion of the previous Government.

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