Margaret Cox (Fianna Fail)

I am delighted to see the Minister of State here and welcome the opportunity to speak on the amendment to this motion. It is important to speak and put forward the view which reflects the feelings of many small and medium-sized enterprises throughout the country. As the Government knows, indigenous industry is the lifeblood of our economy. The entrepreneurial spirit throughout the country has pulled our economy up by its bootstraps over the past number of years. This has been achieved by the men and women around the country who started small businesses in the service industry and manufacturing sub-supply industry to large multinationals. This all ties in well to the continued growth in employment and in the economy and continued prosperity through which we can provide social welfare services, schemes, training and health services, etc.

The creation of an economy and the sustenance and management of that economy to ensure it maintains the environment necessary to allow our prosperity to continue and survive is one of the key challenges facing the Government. In the context of the forthcoming partnership talks, it is important — not to take away from anybody else's view — to bring an element of reality to our world as it is, a small island country operating in a global economy. This means we have many small and medium-sized organisations, or even a small section of a multinational organisation, that on a daily basis face the competitive challenges of other suppliers providing the same type of service or goods throughout the world.

I think of one in particular based in the north-western region. It is part of a worldwide multi-billion industry. It provides a service to its global corporation and is singularly the most expensive plant when looked at on a cost per product basis. On a daily basis it is fighting to survive by providing greater added value. Sometimes it does this by reducing costs without reducing the quality of its product and sometimes by taking in people on the minimum wage. In this regard we have introduced a minimum wage we have decided is acceptable. Throughout the country this type of company daily faces the global challenge of lower cost economies in China, India, the Philippines and around the world. Anything we do in terms of ensuring continued employment must include smaller companies. Not only must we look after the large added-value Microsoft and Intel industries, where people do great research and development work for which they get well paid, but we must look after smaller companies, ones that do not have this added value.

We also have the challenge of ensuring we do not exploit lower paid workers. Whether these workers are from new European Union countries or from outside and working on a permit, we must give them the protection of Irish legislation. We must also ensure that all Departments involved in the management of this issue be given adequate resources so those standards are upheld.

The main idea I want to put on the record is that we can go too far in one direction and therefore need to be careful. If, as a country, we cannot afford what we are trying to provide, we will not be able to survive. Anybody who runs a small business will note, on a daily basis from January onwards, the increasing number of letters from suppliers stating their costs have increased, including the costs of insurance, advertising and wages, such that they will have to charge more. Owners of companies who receive such letters must then send similar letters to the companies to which they are connected stating their costs have increased also and that they cannot employ the people they want at the rates they would like to pay. The global competitiveness of companies in this position is being eroded. It is also being eroded in the national economy because it is possible to buy many of the services we buy locally or nationally.

Members will have read the recent analyses of our economic growth in recent years and the reasons for it. Let me refer to the lack of growth in the export industry. If we do not export more and more product to the extent we were exporting previously, given that we are now exporting less, we will become entirely dependent on the infrastructural projects under way at present. I refer to the many housing developments, the Dublin Port tunnel and the roads to Galway and Cork. If our economy is dependent on this type of growth, we will not be able to sustain our prosperity beyond the next ten to 15 years. Beyond that point we will have a more elderly population and our tax base will decrease. We will have to consider those on social welfare and provide them with pension cover — this is a separate challenge. We need to ensure that the country is in a position to survive.

Although there is a significant difference in opinion on both sides of the House we must look after people and ensure they are properly protected and paid for the work they do. The challenge is to prevent our creation of an Ireland in which nobody can afford to do business. This is a real challenge for us, including small business owners. I am sure the Minister of State meets the latter on a daily basis. I meet them quite often throughout the country and they say circumstances are becoming increasingly difficult. They refer to increased regulation, erosion of competitiveness and cost increases. They claim these detract from the objective of sustaining our prosperity and economy and ensuring we can live in the type of Ireland in which we want to live — the type of Ireland that looks after the sick, disabled and those who, for whatever reason, need help in looking after themselves. We must create a society of which we are proud, in which we can bring up our children and which we can hand on to the next generation.

I welcome the amendment. It is good to have these debates in the Seanad. For some reason we do not have them often. I would like to see the Minister of State coming to the House more frequently because one of the challenges we face is deciding on the future direction of the country. We should focus on this as one of the key aspects of sustaining our prosperity.