Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on this Bill. Sinn Féin supports this Bill on Second Stage. The Bill underwent prelegislative scrutiny during which the Minister and officials in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment were exceptionally forthcoming and helpful to the committee. As Chair of the Committee on Enterprise Trade and Employment, I express my thanks to them.

The purpose of the Bill is to provide a statutory basis for the transfer of Microfinance Ireland into State ownership within the remit of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and to bring MFI fully within the State body governing structure of the Department. Such a move will allow for speedier allocation of State funds to MFI and greater departmental oversight and will ensure that board members are appointed via the public appointments process. Such a move, I am sure, will be roundly welcomed by businesses across the State.

It is essential that Irish businesses have access to the necessary credit through lending institutions. Microfinance Ireland’s work is essential, particularly for those individuals or businesses who do not meet the conventional risk criteria applied by commercial lenders, such as sole traders, entrepreneurs, start-ups and microbusinesses. It is essential that the Government expand current access to credit initiatives for microbusinesses, SMEs and family businesses, particularly to segments of the enterprise population with the greatest access to financing challenges. This means the Minister for enterprise and Minister for Finance must scale up credit access programmes for micros, SMEs and family businesses, as well as giving better access to microfinance.

In this regard, the changes to MFI will allow for better access to microfinance but this must be underpinned with available funds for MFI to work with. Furthermore, the Government must do a better job in encouraging micro, SME and family business trust in the banking and lending system. Borrowing is often necessary for growth, rather than saving to grow.

The 2020 programme for Government included a commitment to scale up MFI in order that it can support greater numbers of the small businesses and start-ups in accessing finance. As a first step towards this, the Department conducted a further review of MFI to assess whether its governance arrangements were consistent with the Government’s ambition to scale up MFI. The review recommended the transfer of ownership of MFI from the Social Finance Foundation to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. This would provide better alignment between the ownership and funding arrangements for MFI.

SFF participated in this review and agrees, notwithstanding the positive operational synergies between SFF and MFI, that it will relinquish its parentage to the State. The existing governance structure in place for MFI already contains many of the aspects of governance applicable to State bodies. However, legislation is required to give effect to the transfer of ownership of MFI to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment on behalf of the State and to implement a more appropriate and up-to-date governance structure. This will underpin the expanding level of MFI activity in the provision of microfinance throughout Ireland as unbankable microenterprises seek to start up, survive and flourish.

As an addition to this debate, I will speak to the recently produced Government report on policy-driven increased business costs. Sinn Féin believes the data in that report makes the case for reforming business supports to ensure they benefit the most impacted economic sectors. The Department of Enterprise, Trade, and Employment report, "An Assessment of the Cumulative Impact of Proposed Measures to Improve Working Conditions in Ireland”, has provided detailed analysis of the impact of Government policy interventions on business costs. The report includes analysis of the impact of statutory changes such as the right to request remote work, statutory sick pay, pension auto-enrolment, parent’s leave and parent’s benefit, the additional public holiday, and the transition to a living wage. These are all measures which Sinn Féin supports and has campaigned for over many years and we welcome the Government’s adoption and implementation of Sinn Féin policy.

However, there is no doubt but that for some businesses, the impact of these changes is significant in terms of additional costs. The Department of enterprise report reinforces this and outlines what many businesses have been saying for almost a year now, which is that impacted sectors need due consideration from the Government. The paper is particularly revelatory as to the impact of increased business costs on the domestic demand-driven services economy, namely, retail and hospitality.

Given the importance of these sectors to the economy, to employment and to society, Sinn Féin believes they deserve considered attention. Based on the data contained in the paper, it is clear the once-off increased cost-of-business scheme is not the medium-term solution for businesses. The paper reinforces the need for the Government to engage with industry and design a bespoke but time-limited support for those sectors most impacted by public policy interventions.

As I said in my opening comments, Sinn Féin supports the Bill on Second Stage.

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