Mary White (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise a question and look for answers from the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton. On 20 October, the Enterprise Ireland chief executive, Ms Julie Sinnamon, presented her annual report for 2014.She advised us that indigenous companies now employ 180,000 people, comprising 156,000 full-time and 23,000 part-time employees. The total expenditure of indigenous companies on payroll, goods and services reached almost €23 billion last year. We need an urgent debate on this.

We are delighted to have multinationals. God only knows where poor old Ireland would be without them but, in these days and years, they want to set up only in Dublin, Cork and Limerick. Therefore, we need to develop indigenous companies on a more regional basis. As stated previously, I know from experience - and anything that is written by people in business - that those in the Departments of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Finance have not got a clue what it is like to run a business. The only people who create jobs in this country are those who set up new businesses.

I asked for the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to be invited before us to discuss female entrepreneurs. Female and male entrepreneurs require the same things; they need a supportive environment and incentives, particularly those relating to tax, to encourage them to start businesses. We are no longer competing with Britain. It is now more attractive for Irish people to set up in Britain.

Mr. Brian Caulfield, chairman of the Irish Venture Capital Association, has dismissed as irrelevant the cut in capital gains tax from 33% to 20% on selling a business because it is limited to the first €1 million. He argued that the Government should have moved to make the capital gains tax regime much more competitive and pointed to the United Kingdom. We are absolutely not on an even playing field with the United Kingdom. There is a need for an urgent discussion in the House with the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, on the encouragement of indigenous companies and entrepreneurs. How are we to deal with a possible British exit from the European Union and the issue of corporation tax? I am delighted to have been part of the group pushing for a corporation tax rate of 12.5% for the North. My friend who died two years ago, Sir George Quigley, was the key driver of the campaign to have the same rate in both the North and the South. I am positive it would be good for business throughout the whole island.

It is all about the multinationals. They are fêted, honoured and glorified such that the indigenous companies do not get to play on a level playing field. We cannot be dependent on the multinationals in the way we were previously. That is the bottom line.