Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, on his appointment and wish him well. It is unusual to congratulate somebody on what could be seen as a demotion but, nonetheless, we wish him well because if he does a good job, that is good for the country.

I will vote for the Estimates today. The Tánaiste knows I have spoken across the floor with him on many occasions about the huge challenges our SME sector is facing. According to IBEC, the average debt for an SME due to the Covid crisis is €50,000, which is a substantial sum and has done significant damage to balance sheets. I think everybody agrees that more Government support is needed.

The last time I spoke to the Tánaiste in Dáil Éireann, I pointed to the €50 billion fund that Germany had put in place. He asked me to send him information, which I did. That sum has now increased to €130 billion, a significant amount of which is grant aid. For example, companies with fewer than five employees are getting a down payment of €10,000, and if they have up to ten employees, it is up to €15,000 to cover fixed costs. The position is similar in the UK, including Northern Ireland. Just a couple of kilometres from where I live, across the Border, the average grant aid to companies is around €10,000 and is higher if they are in retail or leisure.

We need to be ambitious. We need to look at the real needs of SMEs because many business owners are looking around and wondering whether they are going to open up, given the mountain of debt that has been building up over recent weeks and months. They will look at that and ask, "When am I going to be able to pay this back?". As they are not going to be in a position to make a profit for a period of time, unless the State is willing to step in many of those businesses will seriously consider whether they will open again. I do not need to tell the Tánaiste the hugely negative of implications of that.

This is what I have said from day one. Businesses need hope. They need to believe that in three and six months time, they will have an opportunity to break even or even just keep going, because that is what drives many businesses and entrepreneurs. They will keep going if they can see a future. We look forward to the July stimulus. I ask the Tánaiste to look at two things: scale and speed. It needs to be large enough to make a difference and we need to efficiently and effectively get that money to SMEs.

I have two brief further comments with regard to giving hope. I remember when the Tánaiste, in his then role as Taoiseach, came to Sligo to launch the 2040 plan. On that day, he designated Sligo as a growth centre. I looked carefully at the regional development part of the programme for Government, which sets out the Government's intention to "Develop the cities of Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway as viable alternatives to Dublin, and .... help regional towns prosper.” If we in the north-west knew that the Tánaiste's commitment to Sligo as a growth centre was still there, that would give people hope.

I accept that the final issue I am raising is not part of the Tánaiste's area. When there is an emergency in a constituency, it is very important to the people there. There has been a huge mudslide or bogslide on Shass mountain outside Drumkeeran in County Leitrim. People who have been there, and I have spoken to many of them, have described it as being like something we would see in a movie. They just could not believe it was happening in front of their eyes. It will fall to the county council initially to deal with this, but county councils have no revenue stream and their money is cut off. I ask that the Government would look at this emergency situation. It needs to be looked at right now and structures need to be put in place to try to alleviate the huge damage that has been caused and will continue in the event of further rainfall. I wanted to raise that issue. Perhaps the Tánaiste will reply to me in writing about the very important issue of Sligo as a growth centre.

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