Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

First, I would robustly challenge the premise that big businesses in the economy are not good. They employ people. Many franchises provide huge employment in many rural parts of our economy. Let us focus on what we are doing as a Government in the sector the Deputy referenced. First, we increased the PRSI threshold for those on the living wage. We brought forward moderations to the living wage and additional sick pay. We introduced an energy efficiency grant under which businesses get a 75% rebate. We have also extended the 9% VAT rate for gas and electricity to support those businesses the Deputy referenced. We have doubled the innovation voucher to €10,000, again supporting small businesses. We have increased the microfinance liquidity loan threshold to €50,000 for small businesses which will be very important for them. We are also working on an additional loan scheme to provide low-cost finance right into the heart of our SMEs. We have brought forward a change to our research and development regime which benefits small businesses. We also have our SME test which is very much about thinking small first in the context of how changes to statutory instruments and primary legislation affect the smallest businesses in our economy. Those are the areas we want to continue working on as well as on a heap of digitalisation grants supporting businesses to grow more revenue. The Government is very much focused on all of our SMEs and the reflection of that is the growth in our job numbers in our economy.

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