Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Nash, and wish him well with his new brief. Senator Quinn has led into what I wanted to say. As I said on the Order of Business yesterday, I am very concerned. I do not know whether the Minister of State is aware that the UK trade department is coming to many roadshows in Ireland to entice Irish small and medium-sized enterprises to set up over there. It offers them six months of free rent and rates, which is incredibly attractive. Who would blame any small or medium-sized business for taking up this offer? I spoke to some businesswomen who were in the House last night. They have already set up an office in London. They are testing the market. The issue is that these businesses might eventually leave. The Minister, Deputy Bruton, and the Minister of State need to wake up to this reality so they do not sleepwalk us into a huge crisis.

Senator Quinn especially will appreciate the startling fact that Ireland is ranked 93rd in the world for lack of competitiveness due to the effective taxation on incentives to work in Ireland. The source for that is the World Economic Forum report. The UK, which is just across the water - in fact, it is just 60 miles up the road - is 33rd in the world. It was explained to me that this is happening in Northern Ireland. I ask the Minister of State to address this issue when he sums up at the end of the debate. Our high marginal income taxes are a significant barrier to labour entry. We have incredible taxes on employment. We have very high PRSI. If an employer offers €10 to a worker, that comes at a cost of €15 to him or her. If an employer offers €16 to a worker, that comes at a cost of €22 to him or her. These taxes are untenable. Why are we taxing our employers out of business? That is what we are doing.

The sad fact is that we will not need to offer access to finance to small and medium-sized enterprises in Ireland if we cannot keep them here. It is bad enough that we are leaking graduates, but it is pure stupid to be leaking small and medium-sized enterprises. I have a word to say here. When Ireland was very attractive for foreign direct investment - it remains attractive - Mr. Cameron hit the roof and pushed on it so much that we had to provide for corrective measures - the double Irish system, etc. - in our recent budget. I think we should have something to say about our nearest neighbour being able to poach our businesses. We live in a democracy. I cannot blame an export-led small or medium-sized enterprise for testing the market. This is the only point I am making today and I ask for it to be addressed. Anything else would take from what I have to say. I am really keen to hear the Minister of State's response.

I would have concerns about the local enterprise offices. Entrepreneurs have been saying to me, without the detail, that they are not attractive at all. This is for another day because I need to get the detail there. I will make a final point on the issue of tax competitiveness. Does the Minister of State know that if one sells a business in this country, one has to pay capital gains tax of 40%, whereas one pays 0% if one sells a property? What are we saying? We are actually saying we value property more than business. It is very dangerous. We need entrepreneurs and businesses to hire our people and take them off social welfare. This is necessary if the economy is to grow. If we manage that, everybody will have more money in their pockets.