Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Government has the opportunity to direct some of the €16 billion spend to small and medium-sized enterprises. However, we see that the contrary is the case, and many SMEs are ruled out of bidding as a result of the archaic rules that apply to that type of procurement.

Our Putting SMEs First policy document contains ten proposals the Government could implement. I could compare the title of that document with the Government's initiative on SMEs, which might be called "SMEs - an Afterthought". Where is the Government plan to allow everyone to have an e-business platform, for example? We know how much businesses are losing as a result of them not being e-mobile. The Government motion is remarkably lacklustre in even pretending it is acting to help our SME sector. It consists only of references to documents and statements without any supporting evidence. It is an insult to that sector. We need to step up to the mark and to prioritise this sector as it has 70% of the jobs in this State. We need to do it with a full analysis of the figures and with a full understanding of the taxation models that apply for the SME sector and the PAYE sectors.

As Fianna Fáil Deputies said earlier, there is no harm in somebody earning over €100,000. People who take risks should be rewarded. However, we must ask ourselves in these straitened times whether we want to give tax cuts to those individuals, to lift more people out of poverty or to help those self-employed people - the chippies, the plumbers and the people who provide services in rural communities and who are hardly making a bob, never mind €100,000 a year - by taking away some of the punitive measures that same party introduced, such as the household levy and its plan for water charges. Our focus is clear. It is about putting more money into people's pockets and ensuring that money is put into the pockets of those people who are hard-pressed in society, the people who will spend every penny they have in the economy. When they do that, it ensures that the self-employed and small and medium enterprises can continue to employ themselves, make a living for themselves and continue to ensure they have a role in rebuilding society from the ground up.

Some of the remarks I have heard today are lacking in ambition and in vision for the sector, but I welcome the fact that the focus on this sector has been brought to the Dáil Chamber tonight as a result of Fianna Fáil's motion. It is badly needed. We have discussed time and again, at the finance committee and in the Dáil, the importance of FDI and the 12.5% rate, but there is no due regard for the thousands of people who have become self-employed, who do not have the safety net of the social welfare system, who have been promised that for many years and who still have to rely on idle words from the Government in the twilight of its time in power. As I said, I agree with the spirit of the motion, although I do not agree with everything Fianna Fáil has said tonight. Some of it is misguided in terms of the facts, but there is a fundamental need to ensure that supports and safety nets are there for the self-employed and SMEs, that public procurement is opened up to SMEs, that Government assists the self-employed and SMEs to get online so that we can compete in an international market, and to ensure that money goes back into the pockets of those who need the money, so that they can spend it in the economy, which will be a boost to the self-employed and to the SME sector.

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