Mary White (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I request a debate on the joint Oireachtas committee report on key issues for female entrepreneurs in Ireland and for their participation in the tech sector - in respect of which I had the honour to act as rapporteur - and ask that the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation come before the House to engage in said debate. My presentation was unanimously accepted by the membership of the joint Oireachtas committee, including Senator Mullins who is sitting behind the Leader. There are 12 recommendations in the presentation and each of them is very important. However, I want to draw attention to one recommendation today because it is parallel to a statement made by the Irish Tax Institute this week which highlighted that Ireland is not advancing up the global rankings on entrepreneurship. Key Irish entrepreneurs and business leaders have expressed serious concern about our tax environment. As a small open economy, Ireland's export sales are necessary in order to sustain both our standard of living and existing employment and to create new employment. It is a sad fact that there is still 9.5% unemployment and that the figure for youth unemployment stands at almost 21%, which represents a loss of human capital. In July 2015, the National Competitiveness Council drew attention to the hundreds of third level graduates who have left this country.This is the key point. The Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation suggested that, in the next budget, the Government should remove the tax discrimination facing self-employed entrepreneurs, including PAYE tax credit and the lack of social welfare rights. The Government should consider an entrepreneurs' capital tax at a much lower rate than the current horrendous 33% capital tax rate.