Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State gave an overview of supports. Again, it focuses on export, development and businesses. I am talking about small businesses located in all the rural towns and villages right across Donegal and the whole country. I recently carried out a survey of those businesses to ask them how they felt they were doing. These were small businesses with between one and five employees. I wanted to focus on them because they fall outside the remit of Enterprise Ireland and other bodies. The type of businesses that took part in the survey were coffee shops, hairdressers, furniture shops and newsagents. The results were quite stark. I received over 100 responses that showed that the sector is struggling and that there are barriers facing small businesses across the country across the board. Small businesses are emerging from the recession but the problem they face is the lack of Government policies that actually support them. An overwhelming majority of respondents were not aware of any Government initiative to help improve local enterprises and are concerned about the impact of rural depopulation and the closure of services for which the Government has direct responsibility through closing post offices and Garda stations. This all has a knock-on effect on small businesses and their confidence.

There is the question of rates, but also networking and the ability of those businesses to work together. That is something the Government could actually do that would make a real difference.

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