Pat O'Neill (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State and the representatives of the business community to the Chamber for the debate on this Labour Party motion. We all recognise that small businesses are the backbone of our economy, employing more than 650,000 people in some 200,000 enterprises. We all welcomed the new jobs announced by various multinationals in recent months, but small businesses deserve to be the centre of our focus. These enterprise are located in Dublin and other cities and in rural communities throughout the State, each employing as few as one or as many as 20 or more staff. While they are very important, they are facing many problems at present and consequently, I hope this motion will help to address some of those problems. The Government has proved it is pro-business and the Minister of State has pointed this out in respect of the micro-financing initiative, whereby money will be made available to small businesses employing up to ten people in local areas in the form of loans of €25,000 per year.

I believe credit to be the major issue affecting small and medium businesses or indeed for any business. When the banking crisis struck this country, it resulted in credit being unavailable. At the time, Fine Gael proposed the establishment of a State bank that would take charge of providing credit to small and medium-sized businesses, as well as other enterprises. Two domestic pillar banks are operating in the country at present and as part of the restructuring and recapitalisation of the banking system, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, recently imposed lending targets on them for the three calendar years up to 2013. They must lend at least €3 billion in 2011, €3.5 billion in 2012 and €4 billion in 2013 and unless these targets are met, the State bank will be back on the agenda.

I believe everyone has referred to the issue of rates and the Government is committed to a rates review. When a member of a local authority it was evident to me that the cost of water, both as an input and an output, was a major charge to any small business. I hope the establishment of Irish Water and the introduction of water metering whereby everyone must pay for water will help to lessen the burden on businesses in this regard. In other words, I hope businesses will no longer be asked to pay for everything. For years, local authorities have been relying on businesses, through business rates, to keep their services going. Nevertheless, Members of this House and the Lower House still object to paying a household charge of €100. This is a disgrace and if the tax burden is shared equally, small businesses will be able to make progress.