Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and the Minister for allowing me to speak.

The issues raised in this motion are ones I have been hearing from local businesses in my constituency in Meath over the past four years of the crisis. As a small business owner I understand the challenges facing SMEs. I also know how stressful an economic downturn can be for the owner or manager of a firm, with sleepless nights and stress-filled days spent trying to figure out how to keep on staff or grow the business. That is why this Government has focused on trying to fix the broken banking system we were left with by the previous Government which through its policies, or lack of policies, through its regulation, or lack of regulation, allowed the Irish banking sector to collapse, at a huge cost to the ordinary hard-pressed family.

The Minister must find it very galling to hear the Fianna Fáil Deputies who were responsible for the collapse come in here and call for "action to be taken to ensure the long-term stability of the banking sector". Their heads are all neck and no memory. If they were paying attention to what we have done over the past few years they would see that this is exactly what we have done nationally, through the setting up of the pillar banks, and internationally, through prioritising the banking union at a European level during our recent Presidency of the EU.

Our efforts are having some impact. There are signs that the economy is starting to turn around but it takes time for this growth to filter down to our local economies. People sometimes need to see signs of growth before they become confident and start to spend again. There is growth. We have seen 3,000 jobs created in each of the past few months. The live register has gone below 400,000 people for the first time in four years. Exports are continuing to grow and our GDP has been forecast to grow by 1.7% next year. We expect to leave the bailout programme by the middle of December.

Of course we need to keep close to what our businesses think. We do not have all the answers. That is why I decided during the summer to undertake a business sentiment survey in Meath. I wanted to understand more about the business climate in Meath right now and what businesses were thinking about the next few years.

Over 100 Meath businesses responded to my survey and I am very grateful to them for taking the time to do it. The survey showed that overall Meath businesses are optimistic about the future. There were some positive results from the survey including that 80% of businesses expect to maintain staff levels and 60% expect an increase in sales. There were, however, some worrying themes as well from which we need to learn. Over 75% of businesses made it clear that they did not think investing was a good idea in the current economic climate. More than half said experience with the banks was poor. Just 10% use a website for sales and many still have concerns about the stability of the economy and feel that it is too hard to get funding for investment at the moment. Some of our Government schemes need to improve, for example only 10% of Meath firms are successful when they apply to the micro-finance loan scheme, compared with a 70% success rate in Mayo. We need to ask why this is the case and to make sure that these schemes work for the businesses that need them. We need to improve confidence and get the message out that we are on the way to recovery and growth. We also need to keep on top of the banks and make sure that they are investing in new business to the level they claim to be. We need to encourage more businesses to trade on-line to sell in continental Europe and beyond because there are potential markets there.

Among the messages that businesses in Meath want the Government to hear are that the Government must reduce the red tape that exists, that our domestic economy still needs to be simulated and that banks still need to do better in terms of lending performance. I imagine these messages hold true for the rest of the country as much as for Meath. I have passed on this report to the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in order that when his Department is preparing the Action Plan for Jobs 2014 it can, hopefully, take on board some of these measures. We are seeing improvements but we need to do more especially in respect of the banks and how they are lending to businesses.

See this speech in context