Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I always find it slightly amusing that when the Government says something, it must be about the local and European elections, but when the Opposition does something, it has nothing at all to do with them. I am sure Deputy Bríd Smith is hoping to get a few votes herself in the election, and I wish her well.

The Government had an important discussion today on a series of proposals for 15 actions around small and medium enterprises. Deputy Smith is correct that they are really feeling the pinch. She knows that from her constituency, as I know it from mine. Small businesses, café owners, restaurateurs, hairdressers, butchers and the businesses we all know on the main streets of towns and villages have seen a lot coming at them in a short space of time. They say to me that it may look very busy in their business, that it is hard to get a table or a seat but, when they do the books at the end of the week or month, the margin is tight. They have asked the Government to listen, and we have committed to doing that. We have listened and today we have acted. Tomorrow, the package will be announced.

Let me tell the Deputy what it will and will not do. It will look at initiatives we have had in place, such as the increased cost of business grants which have worked well for many businesses, and ask whether we can give another blast of that to some small and medium businesses and give more assistance through a direct cash injection. That is one of the things it will look at. Can we look at making sure that when the minimum wage is increased, as it was, there is a lower rate of employers’ PRSI so that employers do not feel like they are being hit twice? Can we look at things like the commitment in the programme for Government to apply an SME test? It is easy for us in here to come up with a great idea, but often we do not have to pay for it. It is the small and medium businesses that do and we need to factor that in. We do not want anyone to lose a job here because that is the most important protection you can give any worker.

I am extremely proud of this Government's record when it comes to workers and supporting hard-working people. We only have to look at the minimum wage, which is now €12.70, having been increased by €1.40 per hour just five months ago.

That is a very large single increase, an increase of 12% when the inflation rate last year was around 5.3%.

We are the Government that introduced a sick pay scheme. No one is talking about rolling back on anything. We are talking about following the evidence and having the ESRI do research about what happens next. What has the impact been? How are SMEs coping with it? How is it working in practice? That sounds sensible. We are a government that introduced parental leave. We are a government that made progress on remote working. We are a government that has reduced the cost of childcare at least twice. We are a government that reduces tax for low- and middle-income workers. We are a government that established the Low Pay Commission.

The Deputy knows well the process the Low Pay Commission goes through. It has worker representatives and business representatives. It has an independent chair. It does its work over the summer and then it generally reports to Government. Therefore, I agree with the Deputy, if this is the point she is making, that we should not pit the needs of one against the needs of others. If the Deputy is not hearing this on the hustings, she is on very different hustings from me. We should be listening to people who are saying, "You come up with your bright ideas in here but you're not considering the impact it's having on my café, my butcher's shop, my small clothes shop." That is the balance we are trying to get right. I believe with the range of packages we have in place, the details of which will be announced tomorrow, we have got that balance correct.

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