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

I will take about five minutes and then I will pass over to my colleague, Deputy Troy, if that is in order.

I echo the point that the business sector is very worried and the July stimulus will have to have a real and meaningful impact to allow the business sector to plan with confidence. We have to ensure that is enshrined in the July stimulus.

Businesses have opened in recent weeks and this week in particular. I want to mention the temporary wage subsidy scheme, which has been a huge help. Businesses in Limerick and the mid-west are saying to me that they want to see it continue for as long as possible. They realise it cannot go on forever and are saying that when a decision is taken in a number of months' time, which I am sure it will be, the scheme should be tapered off and not just come to a shuddering end. There has been mention of the warehousing of tax liabilities, which is an imperative measure that is going to have to be made available to the business sector. Going forward, we will have to ensure that all businesses have the ability under tax code and legislation to carry back the losses they incurred in the financial year of 2020 against last year's tax liability and possibly against the previous year's tax liability, rather than just allowing them to carry forward losses.

For some businesses, only the carry forward of losses is permitted, and the Minister for Finance will have to look at that.

I am particularly keen for the Tánaiste to take an interest in how the insurance industry has been conducting itself, particularly in the wake of the issues surrounding business interruption insurance and the declining of valid, legitimate claims, by FBD particularly, across the hospitality sector. We know that our insurance industry has been operating in a cartel-like environment and manner in recent years. Some measures have been and are being brought to bear in the programme for Government to deal with these issues, to try to lessen the cost of insurance premia to businesses and to bring more regulation and transparency to the industry. It is vital, however, that a strong message is sent from every Minister and from Government that the conduct of FBD in particular simply cannot be countenanced.

Regarding business restart grants, the issues which have been brought to the fore, particularly in the context of businesses having to be ratepayers, need to be addressed in the July stimulus. Many businesses, new-start enterprises and operations are operated by sole traders and new micro startups that do not have commercial rate numbers or rate accounts. Every measure has to be carried out to ensure that such businesses are fundamentally incorporated into the July stimulus.

It has long been a bugbear of many businesses that, given what people pay for their commercial rates, they do not feel they get a good enough service from our local authorities. Despite all the chaos the pandemic has brought upon us, there is now a great opportunity to carry out a fundamental root-and-branch reform of our commercial rates system. The Government should seize this opportunity. Many ratepayers have had their rates liability suspended during the pandemic and will have it suspended for another indefinite period, I presume, but the opportunity now exists to look at our whole commercial rates structure sector by sector. In some sectors there could be, for example, a turnover-based system. The old valuation-based system we have is simply archaic, punitive and arbitrary and adopts a one-size-fits-all approach which is simply not fit for purpose.

Finally, access to finance in this country for small and medium-sized businesses is so difficult. It is shrouded in red tape. The hoops businesses have to go through to avail of finance are onerous. As for the cost of finance, we can get finance at 0% cost from the European Union and the other funders providing finance to the State. By the time this gets through the pillar banks to SMEs in the form of an overdraft facility or a loan, the charge of 4.5% or 5% is simply price-gouging. We need to call it out for what it is. We have to find a way to get that finance, which we are getting at zero cost, to our SMEs at zero cost. That is a very important point. There is also an opportunity now for our main pillar banks to refinance a large portion of our mortgage loan books and commercial loan books at a lower rate. We have had a huge issue with the variable mortgage interest rates charged in this country. They are a couple of percentage points above comparable charges right across Europe. There is an opportunity now for our banks to refinance entirely their loan books at this 0% charge, take their small margin - and they are entitled to take some margin - and refinance mortgage and commercial loan books up and down the country to help business.

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