Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Does the Minister of State realise how many small business are going? I am so grateful to the big businesses and the tech companies that come here and create massive wealth. We saw what was recently got from Apple, even though the Government was not looking for it. It got it, and I am glad that it has it. It will spend it well, I hope. I hope it will not go on a bike shed, or a second bike shed. Some leaders were looking for a second bike shed. I have been trying to get that message out there over recent days. The media do not seem to want to hear about it, but yes, there were people who wanted a second bike shed. They are all day today talking about the cost of the first one, but there was a party leader who wanted a second one built. I will get up on the roof someday and shout about it to see if somebody will listen to me and pick up on it and ask who the party leader who wanted a second bike shed was.

Going away from that, however, and coming back to what we are talking about, which is business, I am grateful to the big tech companies - of course I am - but I am also very grateful to the man and the woman who maybe have a small company. They might have no employees. It might be themselves, one or two, or it could be the neighbour or five or six people. They are the backbone of Ireland. I and this man here on my left-hand side are up here with our shirts off, fighting for those people from County Kerry and for small business. If a message needs to go out that there are people mouthing under their breath about me or complaining about me when I am saying something about business and saying that I want business, if there are political parties that do not like business, if they think that everybody can be idling and can live off nothing, I say to them that people have to work to pay tax. That is what makes this economy turn and that is what keeps us all going. If there are representatives in here who have a problem with work, that is their own business and they can talk to the mirror if they like.

I am really upset about this because I am worried about what more pressures it will put on small businesses. Every day of the week, these people are struggling. They are dealing with every type of agency of the State. The minute you start a business, you first of all have the problem of your own finance, your microfinance, trying to borrow money, whether it is leasing, getting loans - whatever business you are at.

That issue has to be dealt with. All the governance has to be dealt with also. I am not trying to say we should not have governance. We have to have it, of course. People have to keep their books right, but there is a thing called common sense, balance and giving people a chance. There was a time when people were given a chance and there was a bit of leeway. It seems that now, the minute a person opens a door, whether it is in a small village, in a big town or in a city, he or she will have every type of person coming in the door looking for something from him or her, and I mean people looking for something down to the smallest of things. Every person and letter that comes through the door puts more penal servitude and hardship down on top of the person, trying to see what way they can screw him or her up against a wall, while, at the same time, all the person is trying to do is create a business.

How can young people be encouraged to go into business? I see young tradesmen trying to start out, who are great at their trade and gifted with their hands, but for whom, maybe, it is difficult for them to try to do the books side of it. They are doing their best. It can be a struggle. Farmers now would want to be careful when marrying. They should nearly marry a bookkeeper or an accountant to be able to keep the house order. It has gone that way. I do not wish to eat into Deputy Danny Healy-Rae’s time.

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