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

The Government has proved that it, and the Minister of State's Department, know nothing about business. Deputy Micheál Martin has said that the issues in respect of the hospitality sector need to be revisited. That is what he is saying now. Why is that the case? The Government did not cost it properly. The increase in VAT and the two increases to the minimum wage have affected businesses. With the increases in social welfare and the minimum wage that the Government is giving out, it has taken all of that back again and more. It is closing down businesses. The Minister, Deputy Peter Burke, said that more businesses have opened than have closed. He is correct, but what he did not say was that every business that has opened was funded by the Government for the first two years through Enterprise Ireland and all these different grants.

Now those businesses are closing after two years and the businesses which were there for decades cannot stay open. That is why with everything the Government puts its hands to, it wastes the money. It started with the bike shed, the children's hospital and a security hut. If the Government had to run a business like other people have to run their businesses, it would not be in business but it is wasting every bit of taxpayers' money. It is waste with no accountability for the funds which the hard-working people of this country work for. That is what is wrong as the Government does not know what it is doing.

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