Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Today I want to talk about the cost of business and the imminent and upgraded scheme on the cost of business and the reliefs. There is quite a onerous amount of new red tape and regulation for all businesses, particularly small businesses that are operated by two, three or four people. First there is the cost of auto-enrolment for pensions. Somebody must physically set this up and maintain it every month or whenever the pension comes out. Certain expenses must now be reported to Revenue on a monthly basis, which was never the case heretofore. A lot of the daily expenses incurred by staff will now fall into a new regulation and will have to be reported monthly. As the paperwork involved is quite sizeable, the smaller operations I am talking about will need somebody with accountancy expertise to make it happen. It will not happen by chance. These are examples of the significant additional red tape faced by operations. Apart from that, there are all of the other issues that have been mentioned here before. We have discussed them over and back. While I have no problem with the new sick leave entitlements, unfortunately the employer must foot the cost. That is where the complication arises with the increase to five days. I have no problem with the increase in the minimum wage, but evidently it is an increased cost. I do not have a problem with the rate being set where it is. The cost of power and heat has increased. All of these issues have been thrashed out here over the last while. Their cumulative effect is detrimental to small business. All of these changes are coming in at once. A lot of this new red tape has come in since 1 January, including the sick days and wages initiatives. I know the Minister, Deputy Coveney, has a new help-to-business scheme coming but I do not think it will be enough. It must be more targeted at small business.

Finally, I want to be associated with what the Cathaoirleach said about John Connor. He was a decent guy. I had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times and he was always a great character. I would like to pass on my condolences to his family.