Mary White (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State for circulating a copy of this exceptional document with a handwritten letter. We have reams and reams of reports, some of which are boring and others very reasonable. The document before us is top notch and I am highly impressed with it. As a business person, I note it highlights the issues of importance to me.

The Minister of State drew attention to the role of small business. It does not do any harm to point out that small businesses are defined technically as companies which employ fewer than 50 people. The vast majority of small businesses employ fewer than ten people. The people who start up businesses, in particular small businesses, should become heroes in our community. These people have taken a risk and have gone out on their own. Starting up a business is very demanding. I did so myself with my colleague, Connie Doody. We worked 24 hours per day, seven days per week for 16 years. We worked Saturdays, Sundays, Christmas Day and St. Stephen's Day. It did not matter what day of the week it was. That is what it took to get the business started.

We started in Connie's kitchen and moved from there within three or four months. Now more than 200 people are employed in Lir Chocolates. It took perseverance and steel. Every day we faced a mighty challenge which could have put us out of business but the two of us had a first class relationship. We never fell out in those 16 years. When I have differences of opinion with my colleagues in the Seanad, I comfort myself by saying that we succeeded in creating a very successful business.

I take the opportunity to congratulate my colleague, Senator Mary Ann O'Brien, who also started up a chocolate business and employs a large number of people. She knows what I am talking about.

When starting up a business, one must be like an athlete training for the Olympic Games. People often ask me for advice on starting up a business and how to keep it going. I know within five minutes whether or not they will succeed. It is like people who want to be in politics; they are in love with it but they do not have the passion, the perseverance and the drive to keep going. People used to ask me if I went into Lir Chocolates every day. They thought it was like having coffee or playing golf. I know within minutes of speaking to a person who wants to start up a business whether he or she has what it takes.

I do not know where we would be if we did not have the multinationals. There is much more excitement in our local communities when a multinational comes in than when an Irish company increases its employment and yet millions of euro go into local communities from small companies. The document states that there are 200,000 small businesses in the country employing 655,000 people. People do not know that small Irish businesses employ that many. They are involved in software, medical technologies, food production, tourism, retail and professional and personal services. These small businesses are dispersed throughout the country and are keeping communities together. Small business provide a good quality of life to communities.

I refer to an important issue which has not really hit the radar and which I have noticed even in the city. I am all for multiples like the one which was owned by Senator Feargal Quinn. Senator Quinn and Tesco made our company and gave us the opportunities, in particular when Tesco took over Quinnsworth. It brought us into the UK where it had 700 stores. Practically overnight, we had access to a huge market in the UK. The population is so large in the United Kingdom that one can cope with the recession there because so many people are willing to buy one's products. There is an area of Rathgar where there are four or five small specialty shops but there is a supermarket opening right beside them. They are the businesses about which the Minister of State is talking. They are small retailers, the person providing professional services or quality food. I do not understand why the planning authorities do not look at the community where new businesses are being opened up. What will happen if the competition is so strong? There is no question that the public flock to the new facility. We cannot tell the people that they cannot go to the big multiple that will be on the corner but there is a problem with the planning permission, and I am talking about this city. When planning permission is granted for something new to be set up, they should look at the existing services.