Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. We soldiered together for a few years on housing and he was a very formidable Minister of State. I am delighted that he has been reappointed a Minister of State, particularly in this area as I know he has a strong record in enterprise. As a rural man who represents part of the constituency of Meath, he would be very aware of the difficulties that are faced by small enterprises.

I want to concentrate on the significance and importance of the microenterprises that employ fewer than ten people. We all know that Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on small businesses, which have struggled for a long time. As somebody else said earlier, many of these small business entrepreneurs are enthusiastic, buoyed over and committed. Many of the businesses in Ireland, particularly small businesses, are family-run businesses and many of them are run in line with other businesses. Earlier I spoke about agriculture and farm incomes and there has been a great growth in artisan enterprises, foods and markets. These are small businesses, that started at kitchen tables, which grew and expanded. I wish to acknowledge the work of SuperValu, particularly in the agrifood sector. SuperValu has a very strong record in promoting artisan enterprises, which should be acknowledged.

Let us talk about microfinance but use simple language. We have talked about the importance of liquidity to support small businesses. Let us start with small enterprises because that is the focus of this legislation.However, we also need to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in every aspect and I see people around me here who have a strong record in entrepreneurship. It is fabulous to see these people taking their places in Seanad Éireann and I hope they bring those skills and their enthusiasm for business to the job at hand because unless one is enthusiastic, has belief and is hungry to succeed, one will not succeed at business. That is the reality of it and that is important.

It is interesting when one looks at statistics, and I want to acknowledge the work of the Oireachtas Library and Research Service before I go into the matter of the local enterprise offices, LEOs, because as the Minister of State knows, and as many of us in this House should know, this Bill was not subject to pre-legislative scrutiny so therefore it was critically important that we had an independent assessment of it. The Oireachtas Library and Research Service did this by producing a paper on it and I acknowledge the enormous amount of work it put in to assist us in our parliamentary work and duties in scrutinising legislation. It is an important facet of the organisation that is the Houses of the Oireachtas and I want to acknowledge that.

I want to go back to the LEOs because one of the things we have noted about this Bill is that the highest percentage of introductions for this microfinance is coming from the LEOs. We need to look at the LEOs again and see how can we empower them and give them more support, as well as giving them more discretion in building out relationships with local people. There is no one better to develop relationships in local communities than local councils and local authorities. They have functions in planning and in a range of issues, including rates, which are an important factor for enterprise and for the survival of businesses at this point in time. We can talk about telling local authorities nationally to cut the rates and that is all fine but how will they survive? We have to think all of this through, and while I would encourage rates being dropped and waived in certain circumstances, the Government or someone else has to step up to the plate to substitute that income to all 31 local authorities and I am keen on supporting local authorities in their work. When we talk about small enterprises, we are talking about the small shop, the hairdresser and the small garage in a little village or at a crossroads. That is important. Earlier, the issue of sustaining small villages and communities was mentioned because this is how it will happen. It is about sustaining our small villages, families and farms and looking at everywhere we can sustain enterprise and give people access to credit and support to do that.

I have a particular interest in the agriculture sector and I will talk about that in a second. I want to see the growth of the Irish horticulture sector when it comes to enterprise. I repeat what I said earlier this morning, that there are only two sentences and one short paragraph on horticulture in the programme for Government. I took the time, as did my secretary, to do a word check on it when I left the Chamber this morning. I repeat for the record of this House that there are two sentences and one paragraph on horticulture in the entire programme for Government, that should have and rightly does have a strong green tinge to its make-up and policy. I want everyone in here who is involved in government, including those in the Opposition, to look again and see how we can beef that up. How can we support the agrifood and horticultural sectors in this matter?

I want to go back to the document that was prepared for the Bill digest because it makes for interesting reading. It states: "It is expected that more measures will be introduced such as a €2bn credit guarantee scheme and the €2bn tax deferrals but these measures will need further legislation." The Minister of State might touch on that. I do not expect him to go into detail. I found it interesting that in this qualitative work and research that was presented to us this week, there was a summary given on the performance of Microfinance Ireland since its establishment, which was in 2012 as the Minister of State knows, and this brings us up to 31 December 2019. I will not go into this at great length but I have plenty of time on my hands. We can see that 5,557 applications were received. We know that loans to a value of €34 million were approved. We know that 6,000 net jobs supporting 2,403 microenterprises were sustained from that. There was a 44% approval rate. Alarm bells should be ringing at that. Why was there only a 44% approval rate and how can we improve that?It is important to examine how we can assist people to get the approval rate higher. The value of the loans drawn down was only €29 million, which is interesting given that €34 million was approved. There is, again, a weakness in that regard and we need to focus on it. The average loan size was €14,000, which is not a lot in the bigger enterprise picture. Some 83% of approvals were granted to businesses employing three people or fewer and 54% of approvals were granted to start-ups. As other speakers stated, there is a good, wide geographic coverage, with 21% of loans granted in Dublin and 79% in the rest of Ireland. Agriculture, forestry and fisheries at 4% are at the bottom of the league table of successful applicants by sector just below information, science and technology. They are two sectors we should expand.

I encourage every Member to go on the microfinance.iewebsite and see first hand the personal testimony of so many people who received financial assistance and read how it changed their lives and their incomes. This is a success story and the Bill has my full support.