Pádraig Ó Céidigh (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. Níl a fhios agam an bhfuil mórán Gaeilge aige; tá seans go bhfuil. He is very welcome. We knew each other in a former world, that of aviation and transport. As far as I am concerned, he did a really good job there. What one sees is what one gets. I very much appreciate that.

I very much support the motion of Senators Butler and O'Reilly. Passionately as an entrepreneur, and having worked with entrepreneurs for the past 20 odd years, I believe taking some risk out of entrepreneurship is critical. This proposal is one really good step in that direction, as Senators Butler and O'Reilly already mentioned. It is not that one wants a fail-safe way to go – far from it – because it is in the nature of entrepreneurs to take risks. Although they want to take risks, they should not be left with absolutely nothing if things go wrong. A man once told me something in this regard that made a lot of sense. He said many entrepreneurs he knew lost their health, wealth or family.That was true for many people in the recent recession, from 2006 to 2011.

One of the things we need to do and which we can do under the Minister's leadership is to create a situation that reduces the risks for entrepreneurs, which would get more people involved in the system, more people willing to jump outside their comfort zone and willing to take a risk on it. One of the last things we need is where somebody has their home or whatever - personal guarantees - locked in with regard to bank loans and so on. They will go out on a limb and in this context this is the first move to give some sort of backstop to entrepreneurs and businesspeople, so that at least they can get some sort of social welfare in the event of becoming unemployed, which many people did.

There are over 200,000 SMEs in Ireland. They employ, on average, 7.3 people each. That is over 1.6 million people. There are 2 million people employed in the country altogether. That means that between everything else outside of SMEs there are about 370,000 people employed. Who is our key resource in terms of employment and in terms of funding the Exchequer? By the number of people these entrepreneurs employ, they generate over 90% of the total income to the Exchequer, between PAYE and PRSI, as well as paying the full whack of corporation tax. They do not get it reduced to 4% or anything like that. Not only that, but they are paying their own PAYE on any salary they take out, over and above the corporation tax. These people are working 60, 70, 80 and sometimes more hours a week. I would not like them to do a calculation to see how much they are getting per hour, because many of them would be well under €10 per hour.

This is a huge support from the Minister. I greatly appreciate what he has brought to the table. It is a very important day for entrepreneurship in Ireland, not only for existing entrepreneurs but for those who will decide to take off the jacket and try something new. At least there will now be some backstop for them if it does not work out.

I have done some research on this because it is an area I am passionate about. Just over 90% of SMEs that closed between 2006 and 2011 were in rural Ireland. There is something fundamental about that. Will the Government, and the Minister, start looking holistically at what can be done? They are the backstop not only to creating but to keeping wealth and employment in rural Ireland. The vast majority of businesses in rural Ireland are not the big companies, they are the small ones. They employ two to eight people. They are the real heroes of this country. They are the people who, until what Senator Butler has done now, have largely been ignored because they have had no voice. I thank him for giving them a voice.