Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is a budget for working people, for families, for vulnerable groups and for those on low and middle incomes. It marks a turning point for our people, who, after seven years of economic hardship, tough decisions and sacrifices, can finally see light at the end of the tunnel. This budget aims to cement the hard-fought recovery, but it also aims to repair our society and ensure that everybody gets to share in the new prosperity. As a result of the combined measures announced yesterday by the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, people will have a modest amount of additional money in their pockets. Increases in child benefit, the partial restoration of the Christmas bonus for social welfare recipients, changes to the universal social charge, assistance with water charge payments and targeted changes to income tax mean that people will have a little extra.

As the chair of the retail consultation forum in my Department, I am aware that shop owners in every town and village across the country welcome these measures. They mean that more money should flow through retailers to stimulate the economy and, in turn, create additional jobs in a sector which already employs 10% of our entire workforce. Retail has taken an almighty hammering since the economic collapse in 2007, as incomes crashed and consumption and demand declined dramatically.

Yesterday, the Minister, Deputy Howlin, announced that we will be establishing a low pay commission. This will take the politics out of low pay by establishing an independent body to advise the Government on the appropriate level for the national minimum wage based on the evidence it gathers. We want to ensure that people who are on the lowest wages, who have borne the brunt of this recession, share in the recovery we are now enjoying. It is critical that the jobs created provide decent employment with adequate pay and fair conditions. I intend to finalise the terms of reference for the commission's work and appoint commissioners shortly with a view to ensuring that the work can commence before the end of this year.

This Government's priority continues to be job creation. As Minister of State with responsibility for the SME sector, I am pleased with the measures announced yesterday aimed at boosting job creation and assisting SMEs, which are the lifeblood of employment in this nation. SMEs account for 99% of all businesses and they employ 70% of the workforce. They are vital to our economy. We are protecting the funding for local enterprise offices, which are the first stop for small business supports, at €18.5 million. We are also renewing our focus on creating jobs in the regions, with new funding for Enterprise Ireland. A new start-up relief for entrepreneurs, SURE, scheme will help people, including the long-term unemployed, to start their own businesses. This is in many ways a revised seed capital scheme. We are also dealing with the issue of finance for growth in order to provide non-bank funding for SMEs, including an improved employment and investment incentive scheme which will see the amount of finance that can be raised by a company rise to €5 million annually, subject to a lifetime maximum of €15 million. We will also extend the capital gains tax exemption for three years to start-ups which are employing people. In the area of access to credit for SMEs, we are improving the credit guarantee scheme and making improvements to the microfinance approach. My colleague, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, has already noted that the Government has secured an additional €3 million in funding to get an additional 1,000 small businesses trading online. Irish companies are losing fortunes because of their inadequate online trading presence. These online trading vouchers will be made available through the local enterprise offices, as was the case last year. The local enterprise offices have already developed a strong presence in this area and they are strongly committed to encouraging SMEs to trade online.

My Department has secured an increase of 2% to fund agencies such as the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland, which have a focus on increasing the number of jobs and supporting SMEs and start-ups in various sectors of the economy. More than 50,000 new jobs are expected to be supported next year as a result of our continued investment in these critical agencies. Our goal remains firmly fixed on ensuring that the economic recovery is cemented and shared by the people of this country. This budget marks a turning point for all of us. Families, older people and low and middle income earners will all benefit from the measures introduced yesterday. Businesses will remain competitive and, through shared prosperity, all Irish people will begin to feel the recovery in their everyday lives and their standards of living.

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