Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has said that an enterprise stabilisation fund is difficult. She has not expanded on what the difficulties are and whether they can be surmounted. Everything is surmountable if we try to address it. We have to consider our competitiveness. We have a huge deficit in terms of competitiveness in respect of the UK. We have highlighted for example the capital gains rate of tax for entrepreneurial start-ups. Have the Minister or her Cabinet colleagues discussed with their counterparts engagements on a change in the state aid rules? They should be having more of these engagements. The limit is €200,000 but previously it was €500,000. If we work hard and focus on trying to change our state aid rules by way of collaboration and engagement with our EU colleagues we would greatly help our SME sector and could then roll out an enterprise stabilisation fund.

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