Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to be associated with the vote of congratulations to the Houses of the Oireachtas for the way it put on stage yesterday the celebration of 100 years of the Irish Parliament. I thought it was a fantastic occasion. Everything about the whole occasion, including the colour and the decor, was magnificent. I think the Houses of the Oireachtas deserve great credit for putting it on.

I would like to ask the Leader to arrange for the Minister responsible for jobs and small business to come before the House. Small businesses like high street shops, bars and restaurants are finding it very difficult to deal with difficulties like insurance, rates, employment, PAYE and PRSI. They have to deal with 13 or 14 different agencies.They have difficult decisions to make and they are operating in difficult times. It would be appropriate that at some stage in the near future we would have a discussion here on small businesses and on how we could help them in some way as a Parliament and listen to them as well to hear about what difficulties they have on the ground.