Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is because small businesses cannot survive. The SMEs the Minister says are the lifeblood of the economy cannot survive as they are under immense pressure. Small businesses are closing, young people are leaving rural areas and job opportunities are few and far between. We are developing a very lop-sided country with population and employment being pulled into the Dublin area with each passing day. That is not good for people living in Dublin as it creates pressures in property prices, the cost of renting and other issues. It is killing rural Ireland. The imbalance between the greater Dublin area and the rest of the country must be discussed and acted on. That is the kind of issue I highlight in relation to vision which the Minister should be articulating but we are not hearing.

Supporting small business has always been a core value of our party, which is why we have proposed a number of innovative measures to make a real difference, including a special 15% CGT rate for entrepreneurs, enhancing the employment and investment scheme to make it more attractive and allowing the new Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland to lend directly to SMEs. We propose to reform the local authority rates system to link it with the current performance of business, provide the self-employed with a voluntary opt-in scheme to provide them with greater PRSI benefits, tackle the excessive bureaucracy and red tape with which businesses have to deal, make the procurement system more user-friendly and accessible to SMEs and reform the tax system to make self-employment more attractive, especially for those at lower levels of income.

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