Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House and wish her well. This is a very comprehensive Bill containing 92 sections which will have a major impact. I try to simplify everything I do - it is my style and the way I operate. I took this Bill, gave it to three micro business people and asked them to comment on it. I had to chase one of them last Sunday for feedback. I want to share with the Minister the feedback I received from three people who are at the coalface of business, one of whom runs a very small shop employing only eight people. They made three comments regarding the Bill. They said it is encouraging responsible business, facilitating entrepreneurship and attempting to cut red tape, particularly for small to medium-sized enterprises. The comments were as simple as that, which is quite impressive. It is important for the Minister to hear that feedback. Despite all of the jargon contained in a lot of legislation, business people get on with doing their business and they want support. I know of the Minister's commitment to local businesses in her own constituency. I am regularly contacted by the 31 councils all over the country who have told me that small issues can have a big impact on business.

Having consulted with business people, it is clear that one of the main objectives of the Bill is to reduce the administrative burden and enhance simplification of accounting requirements, targeting mainly small companies. The second objective is to increase the clarity and comparability of financial statements targeting company categories for which these considerations are important. The Minister has outlined very well today the designation of a new type of company, namely, the micro or very small company, which is very important. The Bill aims to relieve the administrative burden on new micro companies and existing smaller companies by making accounting disclosure requirements less onerous. The Bill puts in place new thresholds and criteria to determine a company's classification and disclosure requirements based on company size. In simple terms, that is my take on the legislation and it is important to keep the messages terribly simple.

I welcome section 84 in particular, which deals with improved transparency of payments to governments by those engaged in the extraction industries or the logging of primary forests. This is important because large and multinational companies that are active in the mining, extraction and logging industries will now be required to prepare and file annual reports on payments to governments with the Companies Registration Office.

I also particularly welcome section 92 of the Bill. I wish the Minister well with this very comprehensive legislation. Anything that allows entrepreneurs to get out, make profits and not have to apologise for it is a good thing. The Minister deserves support for that and I am happy to give it.