Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are, of course, many challenges facing business and none greater than Brexit, which the Deputy mentioned at the outset. The Government has put in place a wide range of supports to help businesses prepare for Brexit. Businesses should be conscious that Brexit is very much on the horizon. We need to get them to prepare for the worst possible outcome, which is a hard Brexit, while we negotiate for the best possible outcome.

There are a number of supports of which businesses need to avail, through Enterprise Ireland, the local enterprise office or InterTradeIreland, to help them engage and prepare for Brexit. They need to identify the risks and mitigate for those risks. We have a €300 million Brexit working capital loan scheme, which was launched in March 2018, and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, and I recently launched a new €300 million future growth loan scheme in April to provide for long-term loans of up to ten years to SMEs for farmers and primary producers.

Insurance is another cost which I am aware businesses are incurring. It is an issue that is raised with me regularly. I know how frustrating it is for businesses when fraudulent or exaggerated claims are made because many of them feel that they are being punished for this compensation culture.

My view on this is very simple. People need to have some common sense and to be responsible for their own personal safety. If one trips or falls, one has to ask why it happened. More often than not the answer is that it is because of one's own carelessness. People need to accept that and we need to change this culture. There is a culture in this country which is that when one has an accident, it is everyone's fault except one's own. That applies to the play yard as well.

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