Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome the opportunity to speak on this. It is great to see Fianna Fáil bringing a motion forward like this. It is typical of Fianna Fáil. They have had their heads in the sand for the past four years, they have pulled their heads out and the glow of a successful economic recovery is here for everyone to see. It is amazing that 300,000 workers lost their jobs in the last three years of the previous Fianna Fáil Government, most of whom were in SMEs. It only shows how much the Fianna Fáil Government cared about SMEs that, as soon as there is the glow of economic success, they bring forward this type of motion. Some €1 billion was spent in times of full employment by the FÁS training scheme under a previous Minister, Deputy Michéal Martin.

There is a couple of things that we still need to do with regard to tax equality between the self-employed and PAYE workers. We need to allow the self-employed get the PAYE allowance that is for the PAYE workers. I would like to see other measures available so the self-employed and small and medium-sized businesses can achieve tax equality.

This Government has brought forward a number of positive schemes. I was at an expo in Kildare today. All of those in the businesses sector there were positive about such a small issue as online trading vouchers which allow small companies set up online to be able to find new access to markets. It is important that we, as a Government, continue to support them in that regard. Microfinance, even though slow starting off, has proved to be successful of late where businesses cannot access finance through the normal banks but have been able to access it through microfinance.

Governments are judged not on what they say but on what they do and what they achieve, and this Government achieves a great deal of success in aiding and assisting the small and medium-sized enterprises.

See this speech in context