Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As an employer, I believe that we should work for the future. I am very lucky with the people I employ - the family as I call them. I have been self-employed all my life and I believe that working together, we create businesses together and we support one another's families. Businesses across all sectors are feeling the pinch. The only place not feeling the pinch is the Government coffers. We spoke about the VAT rate. To simplify it, if someone is paying €10 for a plate of food, since inflation went up, the cost went up and the VAT rate went back up and the Government's take also goes up. The people who are going out every day, trying to live, are paying more. They are earning more with the minimum wage increase, but it is costing them more to live. What does the Government do? It comes again with something else on top of it.

Every employee needs to be protected. Every business also needs to be protected so that it can protect the employee. I said it already. Since the increases came, inflation came and the VAT rate has gone up, a function such as a wedding is now costing an extra €4 per plate. It is 70 cent extra for a cup of coffee to make sure that it covers the costs. On top of this, Revenue has come in on businesses that are already struggling with high electricity costs. There are higher PRSI costs when people are earning more, so the employer has to pay more again and the person who earns more pays more.

On top of the VAT increase, there are now five sick days. All of this has to be paid somewhere. No matter what business, the business owner must put into the books how they are going to pay for it. If the business has to pay more for its employees, its products and its whole business, it needs to charge more. The person getting the minimum wage has to pay more. In other words, the minimum wage is worth nothing to them. They have got no increase and in fact they have got a decrease because of the cost of living. However, the Government's tax take is going up and up.

As for the millions it is taking in, it has no concept of small business. It is one thing for an international business to sustain a small increase but small businesses in communities that are providing a service at a very small margin are being wiped out. Many of our children work in hospitality, local shops and different businesses locally to put them through college. Their income is being wiped out because of inflation. Why does the Government not reduce the VAT rate to 9% as we have called for? It should treat international business as one sector and SMEs as another sector. It should look at them based on their turnover and see what their profits are at the end. Small businesses are on their knees. They are the same businesses that want to look after employees and their customers but the Government is treating them like international businesses as if they can make massive money to pay out; they cannot. These are the same businesses in all our areas that are putting food on our tables. Our local shops and local restaurants are all incurring massive costs and they also have the energy costs on top of that.

The World Rally Championship was to come to Ireland and the Government waited until the last minute to tell it it was not getting the funding. That required an investment of €5 million from the Government, and the hospitality sector and all the businesses across Ireland would have got €95 million in return each year. It would have brought in €300 million for a €15 million investment. The Government never looked at that; it dismissed it. All the infrastructure would have been put in place for this and it would have brought in funds to help these same businesses the Government is now trying to close down. What good is that? The Government is supposed to be working here for all communities, for the working class of all communities, but no, it is treating all businesses in this country as if they are massive international businesses and it is closing down the businesses that voted for the Government parties.

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