Margaret Cox (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and am pleased to contribute to the debate. I will address consumer protection later, as I would like to focus on the competitiveness issue, which is creating insecurity about the future of the economy on a daily basis. According to media reports of the recent IMI conference and various other conferences over the past number of months, the greatest issue affecting businesses is competitiveness. We are facing a grim future. Ireland used to compete on the basis of lower wage costs but our wage bill is more expensive than the US. Irish companies are losing the fight on production cost per module to companies based abroad. They are also losing the battle in terms of overhead costs, including rent, insurance and training and development. They are creating the most incredible headaches for organisations who set up in Ireland because we have educated, flexible and hard working employees. While they are still willing to work hard, companies cannot compete on cost, particularly wages.

Businesses in Ireland must comply with 161 Acts, 65 of which have been enacted in the past 14 years. How are companies supposed to manage? Under the working time directive, it is the responsibility of the employer to ensure an employee does not work more than 65 hours on average every week. In addition, if an employee, unknowingly, exceeds this number of hours, the employer will be fined or face a prison sentence. It is ridiculous. The onus is on the employer and, while workers' right must be protected, their freedom must be ensured. We must not create a State where as soon as one turns a page, one must wonder if he or she is doing it right or wrong.

A raft of equality legislation has been introduced, which is important and necessary to protect people. However, is the implementation of the legislation reviewed or analysed? If people make job applications and they are turned down because they are not suitable, they bring case after case to the Equality Tribunal claiming discrimination, thereby, wasting the time of the tribunal and the companies against which they bring cases. However, no one is preventing them from bringing false claims or penalising them for doing so.

I refer to company law. I spent two and a half hours earlier this month in the presence of an auditor at a cost of €300 an hour. I was asked to outline whether the company I run in Galway had anything to fear under the Companies (Auditing and Accounting) Act 2004 and to sign a statement, as a company director, that I had done nothing wrong under this legislation. This is regulation gone mad. Mr. Ken Lay of Enron, who started it all in the United States, must be blamed for a great deal. If I had him here right now, I know what I would do; it would not be introducing more legislation. It is absolutely insane.

We spoke of competitiveness, and we must get that back on track in this country. We are a tiny nation in the global economy, and we will only stay successful, benefit and have money to spend on social welfare, education, disability and health if we have the kind of economy that generates wealth and allows us to pay tax at 20% or 40% for the top rate. That is possible because we have enough people paying tax. That our tax base is so large allows us to justify corporation tax of12.5%. We can bring in a low-tax regime because we have so many people paying tax.

I challenge those members of the Opposition who say there have been stealth taxes over the past few months and that we are paying more and more. Let us look at that in a different way. We are paying tax on services provided, but we all have more money in our pockets because we are paying less income and corporation tax. Let us focus on creating a tax regime that charges those at the lower end of the scale less in income tax and then pay tax as we spend. There may be a need to re-examine some of those charges to ensure they are not having an undue impact on the less well-off.

However, if I earn €100,000 a year, I may contribute a great deal more in tax than someone on €20,000 because I am paying a greater percentage. Ultimately it does not matter what percentage of one's income one pays in tax if one pays more tax than the other person because one is earning more. It is a simple philosophy that is neither right nor left wing but common sense. Percentages do not matter if one is paying the right amount in tax.

I will return to the issue of the minimum wage, with which I have a difficulty. We can cite statistics which suggest that only a certain percentage of people in the country are on the minimum wage, but there are relativities. Anyone in a low-skilled job at the lower end of the pay scale in a manufacturing or service industry who was on €8 an hour before the increase in the minimum wage will now seek an immediate increase in his or her pay equal to the minimum wage increase. There is a knock-on effect. We spent many years dealing with the issues of relativity in all sectors — public service, tradesmen and trade unions. We moved away from that issue and yet we are returning to it. If the minimum wage goes up to €7.65, someone who was on €8 three months before will say that he or she should now get €8.65 — or a little more if one applies a percentage increase — since the person who was on €7 is now on €7.65. What is that doing to our competitiveness?

Senator Terry was right when she spoke about infrastructure. I will not blame the Government, but if one flies into Shannon Airport, one does not know when one lands if one will reach Galway in 45 minutes, 55 minutes or two hours and 55 minutes, since the roads let one down time and time again. One gets into the car, and for the first few miles one thinks that one is in heaven, since there is a beautiful motorway as far as Dromoland Castle, and then all of a sudden it disappears from the face of the earth. Imagine Americans and Europeans arriving in our country and seeing that. They come off the motorway and get into a three or four-mile tailback into Clarecastle and remain bumper to bumper until they reach the outskirts of Ennis. What are we to do? They come to Dublin Airport and get a taxi that takes them all the way around the city before it brings them into the city centre. Buses from the airport, which I get quite regularly, are excellent. It takes them 35 minutes on a good day, to an hour and 15 minutes on a bad day in the bus lane.

We are severely hampered by our infrastructure. We need a defined, ring-fenced Government investment programme to deal with those issues, and not merely in Galway. We must redress inequalities. Development must be balanced between east and west. We must see it in the north west and all down the west coast. This is the single biggest challenge to the future of Ireland — for my children and grandchildren. We are sitting on our laurels and not dealing with it properly. I feel sorry for the Minister, given the challenges that exist. However, if we can keep that in mind, it might help frame the debate.