Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. I am aware of all the various schemes and many of them are extremely complex. Much of the feedback I have got from small businesses is that they are inaccessible or they do not qualify for them. There are a huge number of hurdles and obstacles to accessing many of the schemes the Minister mentioned.

I am glad he mentioned the 9% rate of VAT because it has been a successful policy decision of this Government and one I have supported. The Minister will recall that in advance of last year's budget I wrote to him and lobbied him in order to retain the 9% level. It demonstrates how very focused, targeted tax measures do work. My concern is that the very focused, targeted taxation measures have been focused very much on the construction and building sector during the past three to four years rather than the SME sector. Very simple changes could be made, which would not cost the Exchequer greatly but would make the environment for self-employed people much fairer.

I know these figures never find their way into Government press releases. We always hear about the foreign direct investment company that has created 20 or 50 jobs and there is almost a rush of Ministers to be there to cut the ribbon. The figures we do not hear about, but which I am certain the Minister is well aware of, are those from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, which in August 2014 showed that the number of self-employed people who employ others in their company has decreased. That is a very worrying trend at a time when there is so much emphasis on start-up companies and the need for new companies, which is obviously very important. The fact that the small and medium-sized enterprise sector is not employing the same number of people as it was in 2011 and that the number has dropped is a huge cause for concern. It goes against the trend of our having greater levels of employment in this State to see self-employed people being reduced to one-man operations because they cannot afford to retain staff. That is a massive cause for concern. I hope we are not papering over those cracks and that the Minister will deal with that and confront that very worrying trend.

See this speech in context