Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the important debate on this long overdue Bill. It is helpful to discuss these issues with the Minister and share our ideas. The proposed taxation scheme for small and medium enterprise owners is a positive development, particularly given the challenges we are facing as a consequence of Brexit. For the past six to eight months, I have repeatedly highlighted these challenges which will have to be met by the Minister, the Government, every Member of this House and, above all, by small business owners throughout the State. Schemes like these, which offer small and medium enterprises a tax incentive, are excellent. The new measure offers a means of protecting jobs and potentially adding to overall employment levels, which is badly needed throughout the country.

Irish exports are under serious threat at this time. The Central Statistics Office figures for 2016, which were published last week, show that exports to Britain were down by almost €500 million. That has a lot to do with the fluctuations in sterling and, as a result, there are many small food businesses, in particular, whose owners have found recent months extremely difficult. The Government must come on board as quickly as possible with schemes and strategies to save them. In the coming months, unfortunately, we will see many of those businesses struggling greatly to survive. The fall in exports of €500 million is all coming from the food and drink sector. What is happening in this country as a result of Brexit is akin to a green light and red light situation. There is no doubt that some banks and insurance companies may decide to relocate to Dublin, Cork, Limerick or Galway. That is the green light aspect. The red light situation is the losses business owners in the west, midlands and Border counties will suffer because of all the difficulties created by Brexit.

It is important to acknowledge in this House, as I am sure the Minister and my party colleagues will agree, the contribution made by the SME sector to employment in this country, which amounts to in excess of 900,000 jobs. In this Chamber yesterday evening, however, we had an appalling attack on small business owners by Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett. Many of those business owners employ ten people or fewer. Right through the crash and the several crashes that came before it in this country, those people had to come up with a wage packet for their employees every week and had to pay their rates, VAT and tax every year. Does Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett have any idea of the challenge small and medium-sized enterprises have faced over many years? I applaud SME owners, who have faced extremely difficult challenges at times, especially in the past six to eight years. Moreover, just as the tide seemed to be turning, we have ended up in the unfortunate situation where the United Kingdom is preparing to exit the European Union, with huge consequences for hundreds of thousands of small businesses in Ireland.

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett seemed to argue in his contribution last night that many small entrepreneurs have co-opted ideas from universities. That is simply daft. Anybody has a right to patent an idea he or she has come up with, and nobody can subsequently lay claim to it. We must be very careful in what we say about people, whether we are on the right, left or centre politically. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett, as we all know, is on the left. Most of us are personally acquainted with a small business owner and are aware that he or she has most likely struggled week after week, month after month, year after year, to survive the great challenge of recent years. It is unacceptable that those people should hear what was said about them last evening from any Dáil Member, irrespective of his or her political position. I am sure there are many small businesses in Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett's constituency, which is also the Minister's constituency. I have had people coming to my clinics in Roscommon-Galway whose food sector businesses are selling entirely into Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England. These are not big players like Glanbia or the Kerry Group and their market is confined to the British Isles.

As Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett was making his attack, I felt how wrong it was to be saying things like that in our Parliament about people who have served our country well and made huge sacrifices in their own lives. Many small business owners will talk of how they worried during the recession about how they would find wage packets for their eight, ten or 11 staff and also pay their bills to the Revenue Commissioners. Many of them ended up with very little money for themselves. In many respects, they are true heroes. As my colleague, Deputy Fiona O'Loughlin, noted, if not for them, the recession would have had a more negative effect on the country. Perhaps Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett needs to be reminded that, as I said, more than 900,000 people are employed in the small and medium enterprise sector in this country. I am a great believer in fairness for everybody. I support fair treatment of workers and everybody else in society. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett, however, seems to have a difficulty with anybody who tries to make a few bob. That is not how the system works in any country. I support all the small business owners who faced so many difficulties in recent years but always persisted. During the recession, when they could have let three or four workers go, they chose instead to keep them on because they were loyal workers who had been in their employment a long time. In many cases, they made personal sacrifices to avoid letting any of their workers go.

I understand there are 170 different supports for the SME sector. Some of them are very useful while others are less effective. Support for research and development is crucial because the world moves very quickly and products evolve all the time. If business owners cannot finance research, they will end up falling behind their competitors and may eventually go out of business. The amendment to the Patents Act 1992 is very important and offers a broadening of what may be patented. Meaningful supports for small business owners are very much welcomed on this side of the House.

We must give every support possible to that sector.

I will give an example of the enterprise boards, which were replaced by the LEOs, from the small county of Roscommon. While I acknowledge the multinationals and large firms in Ireland, the backbone of our industry is the SME sector. The enterprise board in County Roscommon existed for approximately 17 years. In that time, it created 1,700 part-time and full-time jobs. Were an employer to come to Roscommon, Galway, Longford or Westmeath and announce 1,700 full-time and part-time jobs, we would think that all of our Christmases had arrived together. It would be a fantastic announcement. I am making this point to prove how important small business has been for years. That is why I want to champion its cause. Many people employed in the sector would be supportive of what I am saying. The business is local, people do not need to travel a long way to get to work and it gives them an opportunity to work in their localities. In many respects, such workers take a greater role in the running of SMEs. Yesterday, Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett made a criticism of the SME sector, but it is crucial that Members stand up, call a spade a spade and say that his contribution was nonsense, given how many people are employed in the sector.

I welcome the Bill and those on this side of the House will support it. I hope that it will work positively for the sector, particularly as regards research and development. Let us continue to champion the SME sector. In some rural and isolated parts of the country, those eight, ten, 15 or 20 jobs are crucial, not only in terms of providing employment, but for the local economy.

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