John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator Eamonn Coghlan's welcome for Rory McIlroy's decision to declare for Ireland in the Olympics. This is an excellent decision for this country. We have no idea of the talent that exists here, talent like that of Rory McIlroy. A family in my town, Ballaghaderreen, has a few young lads in it and one day the father decided to bring the boys out for exercise and chose golf. After three years of playing golf, the family's 13 year old is now playing for Ireland. I have no doubt that Patrick Callaghan from Ballaghaderreen will be the Rory McIlroy of this country at some stage in the future.

I wish to raise the issue of small businesses and call for a debate on the struggle these businesses face on a daily basis. Commercial rates are a noose around their necks and county councils have failed to deal with this issue. If we are lucky, each year they just manage to keep them at the rate they are at or reduce them by 1%, which is not adequate. I know of businesses that in an effort to keep their doors open have decided to take most of their stock and move it into only half of the area from which the business operates to try to survive. These businesses are struggling against the Tescos and Aldis of this world. In particular, because of bad planning decisions made in the past, they are struggling against out-of-town developments. This is happening in most towns. People come to the outskirts of a town to do their business. They do not go into the towns and support other businesses but go home. I appreciate that the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, has tried various initiatives, such as the JobsPlus, where half of a social welfare payment can be given to a business to employ somebody. This is an excellent initiative, but the problem is that it is working to the benefit of big business, as small businesses cannot afford to match that payment and employ people. Businesses are on their knees and we should have a debate in this Chamber on that issue as a matter of urgency.