John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill. I wish the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, every success on his appointment.

It is good that we have someone who understands business and the difficulty of transacting business in normal times, and that he has with such speed got to the point where these changes are now being introduced as part of the new Covid-19 requirements for businesses to ensure that legally they are able to operate in an efficient way covering all of the aspects of the law.

It is essential legislation because it is law and one never knows when it is going to be contested one way or another, be it board meetings, paperwork or something else. It is essential that we get it right. Equally it is essential that renewing it, according to the Bill itself, for the periods that it is required, be done carefully and in a way that can be changed should that be necessary in the future. The provision and stamping of documents is a vital part of the transaction of business and a vital part of court proceedings, should they happen. The original documents that are required, therefore, must be arrived at in an appropriate legal way. They must then be acceptable not just to the business and the board but also such that they can be tested in the courts. That is an essential part of any legal challenge that may be faced by any business.

The Minster of State mentioned that he is responding in the context of Covid-19 but in a common sense way. I ask him to examine that in the course of his work and apply the common sense that is necessary for the transaction of business in this country. He will agree that there is a need for certainty in business in these very uncertain times. The proposals the Minister of State puts forward, or the supports that are put in place for businesses, must be secure and be for the longest period he can achieve in the context of dealing not just with Covid but with the serious problem that now faces the country, namely the pandemic coupled with the Brexit negotiations. It is quite clear from the world economy that a serious problem is emerging in the context of how we trade and how we keep individual economies alive and well and trading during these times. There will be new challenges but in Ireland the basic central theme of what we need to protect is small business and family businesses and the assurance that those family businesses can trade well.

For a long number of years we have had issues with insurance companies and banks, and with regulations generally. I encourage the Minister of State, in the context of company law, to deal with the regulations that are weighing so heavily on businesses. The need to comply with regulation is an enormous cost to business and is preventing businesses from developing in the normal way they should because as a person takes the next steps in the development of his or her business, he or she must look over their shoulder to see what other regulations will be applied in his or her case and what the cost will be. My background is in the transport industry and in small business. The regulations in place now have substantially changed compared to ten years ago and they are absolutely in need of reform. I encourage the Minister of State to examine this issue just as much as I encourage him to look at the insurance industry. I appreciate it does not come under this brief, but he will understand, as someone who has developed a keen interest in not just the SME sector but beyond it, that the insurance industry needs to be reformed and needs to be responsive to the needs of a modern business community asking for extended coverage because of litigation. I understand that the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Fleming, and others are now looking at this but for five years on the finance committee and indeed before my time on it, we examined every detail and change that could be made to ensure fair play for small businesses. They were objected to and derailed by the industry itself. There is a need to find another way to solve the insurance problems in this country. If we do not do it soon, more and more businesses will close because insurance is a burden on top of everything else that they simply cannot carry and yet must carry.

I know from my own experience that family business owners go home at the end of a week. The employees will be paid in full for their work, which they deserve, but the operator of the business often goes home with nothing or far less than the employee. That is the nature of the small businesses throughout the villages and towns of the country. The Minister of State has seen it himself and I have spoken about it in his own constituency. Post offices, pubs, small grocery stores and so on have closed. These are the heartbeat of a local community and they have all been closed with no opportunity for them to reopen with no grants available to the business owners to adapt to a changing world and a changing society. Regardless of how much the world changes or how much business will change, it is central to the rural way of life in Ireland that small businesses be kept alive.

The Minister of State deals in this legislation with the co-operative societies and their general regulation under the Friendly Societies and Industrial and Provident Societies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 and so on. They also need support. The greatest example of community support through business comes in the shape of credit unions. They have significant assets and a willingness to participate in rescuing the economy through business, housing and so on. They have been prevented from doing so because Government has in the past been extremely slow to respond to the requests from credit unions for them to get involved with providing the type of credit that is needed at local level where the information is available on a business and a decision can be made on a really informed basis.

In that regard I also encourage the Minister of State to look at the Irish Credit Bureau, ICB. Why should people who suffered during the crisis and did their best to keep their doors open, but for one reason or another missed a repayment or a number or them, and is now on the ICB list be excluded? They cannot get credit. We are killing off a generation of entrepreneurs who carried this country in difficult times but were unable to make it, not because of their inefficiencies or poor business methods but because of the world crisis that was brought about. They are still just recovering from that crisis. They are still carrying personal debt and they have used up whatever inheritance or savings they may have had. They are keeping their doors open based on pride and the desire to stay in business. We have not responded the way we should have. We have not given them the grants that they need because they cannot get credit. The institutions that have been set up such as the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, SBCI, and so on have acted as nothing but a road block to providing the funding. Banks have again not performed as they should in the interests of small businesses.

As such there is an awful lot of work to be done. I am not loading all of it onto the Minister of State's shoulders. He is however a Minister of State with a vision and an understanding of what needs to be done. I encourage him not to be afraid of tackling the big issues because it is those big issues that will change circumstances in a very direct way for family businesses and those businesses that are caught up in the difficult problems that now exist in the world. It can come down to the basic need of carrying stock and not being able to sell that stock because it has now gone out of season.

There are serious issues that need to be addressed and I ask the Minister of State to take a hands-on, common sense approach. I know he will achieve the best for the small and medium enterprises in Ireland.

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