Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail)

I do not believe anyone agrees with that point and the Minister of State should get his officials to provide him with the real figures in this regard.

Second, I refer to lending. While I acknowledge this also was the case under the previous Government, all Members are aware there is not a rat's chance in hell that AIB or Bank of Ireland will have hit their 2011 lending targets to the SME sector. It simply is not happening.

The other point not addressed by this motion and which is a glaringly obvious omission concerns business costs with the exception of rates. As for the latter, I am glad to hear that some of my colleagues on the Government side have realised they now are in government but I remind them that most councils are controlled by Fine Gael and the Labour Party. During the lifetime of the previous Government I proposed the reintroduction of the central government cap on rates. Such a cap should be reintroduced, there should be central government control on rates and models for rates should be considered, such as one based on turnover. In such a model, when a company is doing better it pays more but when it is not doing well, it pays less.

While simple measures can be taken, Members should not be fooled in any way by the banks about lending or by Departments claiming to pay 98% of invoices within 15 days, which is nonsensical. I will conclude by stating that one can talk about procurement until the cows come home and note that I produced a report for the Committee of Public Accounts during the lifetime of the last Dáil. However, the bottom line is there now is procurement for less, because the capital programme has been slashed in half and the schools building programmes have been slashed by €500 million over five years. One can procure all one wishes for half the amount that was available in 2010.

I genuinely wish the Minister of State well, as we all want businesses to thrive, but this cannot happen without addressing the matter of business costs. I have said before and will say again that increasing the minimum wage which those on the Government side have trumpeted and welcomed is a nonsense. It is a cost to business.