Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

A businessman who came to my clinic last week is owed €9,500 in VAT, but he cannot get it. He has been waiting and waiting, although he has been talking and ringing and doing everything else. This sole trader used to employ two people, but he had to let them go because his cashflow dried up. One might think this is not a great deal of money, but it is to him. When he owed Revenue €90 two years ago, he ended up having to pay €360 in penalties and fees. Where is the fairness in such a system? It is stark raving mad and bullying of the highest order. The same applies to the local property charge on houses. Many people who have moved abroad to work or engage in business did not receive the notice telling them that the second house charge was being applied to them in respect of a house in Ireland that they had vacated against their will. Many moneylenders would not charge the punitive rates the system is able to charge. It is morally wrong; it is totally wrong every other way.

I would like to speak about Revenue and the issue of rates.

I have been in business for a number of years and I got a rates bill for the first time ever only two weeks ago. I did not mind that as I am in business. Part of my business is agricultural related and the people came and valued me. However, we cannot get them to value businesses such as the hotel about which Deputy Fitzmaurice spoke. One has to first apply to have one's business valued by the same people who valued it in the first place. Where is the independence in that? One must then pay a fee of €200, if not more - it was €250 at one time - and wait and one might get the shock of one's life because they might up the value of one's business when they call to see it. Many of the people involved, good people in their own right and I am not blaming them, do not understand the system. They are looking at antiquated systems and values. One or two people with small businesses in my area have told me that if they have to pay a rates bill on top of all the other bills, it will be a bill too far and they will not be able to pay. The banks and the Revenue Commissioners are not giving them any leeway and there are also the health and safety requirements, which is part of modern Ireland. Health and safety regulations were badly needed in this country but they have gone over the top. It has become an industry. Some of the people involved were self-employed and they moved on as they saw they could have a better living and became health and safety inspectors and more power to them. People are telling business people what is wrong with their business when they do not know the business and do not understand the system. They are just shovelling papers and while I do not want to disparage them it has gone too far.

These small business people may have a small pub or a small shop or be a sole trader with a plant hire or other business. The Minster of State, Deputy Coffey, knows these small business people who are in every village and town better than I do. If they come up with a new idea or initiative, open a business and pay everything - the banks, rates and rent - but dare put up a sign advertising their business for a short time on a public road, they will be fined €150 for every such sign, at least that is what happens in my county. Once an inspector goes out and takes a photograph of it, the fine for putting up such a sign is €150. Candidates who display posters in elections are exempt from the imposition of such fines. Surely businesses that want to create jobs, provide a business service and give life to communities should be entitled to put up a sign to advertise their businesses provided the signs are not a traffic hazard. What is happening is madness. I know of a business that was operating from a business park in my town of Cahir. The man had to close the doors. He could not afford the advertising in the newspapers and other media as it was too high a cost and he was not benefiting from it. He put up about ten roadside signs. He sold a new kitchen the first Friday evening a person saw the sign. That person was living in a housing estate across the road from the business person but did not know about his business until they saw the sign The business grew and he employed people but he got bill after bill from the county council running to thousands of euro and he had to close his business. In fairness to the council official, whom I have often telephoned, he does his best to implement the law, but the law is an ass, excuse the pun, because one cannot advertise one's business on a roadside sign. One cannot be creative in that way. We must respect road safety at all times, which is very important.

The Minister of State read out a number of initiatives. I salute Senator Feargal Quinn and others on this and we fought for years to get the Construction Contracts Bill to save businesses. I remember the morning Pierse Contracting was closed and there were 650 small sole traders in a Dublin hotel. They had families to feed and would have got nothing from social welfare or from the community welfare officer because they were self-employed. They might have had three or four people employed and when they were let go, thankfully, they would have got some social welfare payment. However, the businessman who took the risk, had sleepless nights and whose wife and partner and family went hungry at times to pay wages would not get a shilling. The system is out of touch. All the measures the Minister of State mentioned are so-called initiatives dreamed up by civil and public servants who do not understand this area. I have been saying for years that the Construction Contracts Bill is still not implemented even though we voted it through here almost two years ago. I do not know whether the Construction Industry Federation is holding it up, and I suspect it is, but it is a downright disgrace. It took so long to work through it and get all Stages of it passed and signed off at which time we thought we were signing with that achievement. However, when the legislation to establish Uisce Éireann was voted through, without debate, last December it was signed into law on 25 December, a most unusual day for anyone to be ag obair other than the emergency services. Why the panic? When they want to do it, they can do it. The Construction Contracts Bill is still lingering where it was left. I have asked why that is the case. The other legislation was signed into law on 25 December, Lá Nollaig, a rest day other than for the emergency services. What was the panic with that legislation? Why was there such indecent haste?

I want to salute an official in South Tipperary County Council, Anthony Fitzgerald, who deals with supports for small businesses. Anytime I telephone him, and I contact him about very sad cases, he deals with them in an understanding way because he came from a business background and is able to talk and mediate. Bank of Ireland has a initiative on supporting business this week and I hope to call in to support it this evening. However, the banks, in general, are closed to businesses, they do not care about ordinary small businesses and consider that they are in the way, as it were. We cannot have a chequebook now but, thankfully, I still have one in my pocket, like many other people. Some businesses have been established for 100 years and they are familiar with e-business. Every time they go into their bank it costs them money, not to mind they having to stand at a counter to make an appointment. It was offered to me in a bank one day to go up in the lift and I asked how much it would cost me, so I walked up the stairs. That is the way it has gone. The attitude has changed. The boom came and the banks went crazy and now that the recession has come they have not adapted. They just want to get their balance sheets right and their attitude is to hell with the businesses. I do not know where we are going to go with this.

I wish the head of Revenue who is retiring and has been appointed to the Policing Authority - I had issues with her when she was in that role and I have had many issues with Revenue - well, but why do people have to be appointed in that way? That is why the people are marching on the streets. It is not all about the water charges. It is about all of this.

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