Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

I support Senator Callely's call for the Leader to endeavour to determine, perhaps in conjunction with the leaders of other parties, what initiatives might be brought forward to promote indigenous business and industry. At a time of severe economic difficulty, we must get back to basics. Doing so represented one of the cornerstones of the approach in the past. We should consider what we can do in this regard.

We need to examine a number of our regulatory authorities which have a remit and certain responsibilities but whose endeavours are now very anti-business and adding to some of the difficulties small businesses face. I refer in particular to the National Employment Rights Authority, which I know from experience is approaching restaurants in my constituency and imposing regulations, which we introduced, requiring the payment of double pay on Sundays.