Aubrey McCarthy (Independent)

I thank the Minister for being here. I am a new Senator here, but I am certainly not new to business. I employ just over 40 people across the transport, hospitality and service industries. When we are talking about competitiveness, certainly, I have felt the weight, but I have also felt the potential of running companies in Ireland.

We hear much about Ireland being a hub for foreign multinationals and we are always talking about foreign direct investment. That is so important to Ireland, and it has transformed our country. We talk about the Apple millions and things like that. However, I will ask whether we are doing enough for Irish business and SMEs that were born here, have stayed here and are investing their profits here.

I believe strongly that SMEs are the backbone of the Irish economy, employing more than 1 million people. Yet few of them get a chance, and I know this personally, to scale beyond local or regional success. I feel it is because the playing field is not level because we have not put in place the right supports, scaffolding grants or investment pathways for the small Irish business to grow globally. We have done a fantastic job when it comes to larger multinationals.

Regarding the transport sector, I literally just had a meeting - we had them in the Gallery a while ago - with the Euromovers group, which is having a conference in Dublin this weekend. I have also just returned from the FIDI, BAR and IAM conferences, all of which are in the transport sector. Without exception, they are saying that insurance premiums, rising fuel costs, outdated grant systems and difficulties in trying to find operators for their business are creating serious obstacles. In my own hospitality business - I have a restaurant in Naas - we are battling soaring insurance claims again, energy prices and really chronic staff shortages. Even in that, there are little strategic supports. There were wonderful supports during Covid. There are wonderful supports for start-ups, but for SMEs that are consistently operating, there are not the same supports. In my service business, our people are working tremendously hard, but they are competing in a sort of outdated industry where increasingly the digital global economy is what it is all about and they do not have the digital tools or training to do so.

The SMEs are the real economy. If we want real competitiveness in this area, we need to make sure we have real supports. I compliment Enterprise Ireland, for example, with the competitive start-up fund, but that needs to be increased, especially regarding small and medium enterprises. Even the innovation vouchers that are given to tech start-ups could be given to SMEs. We should simplify the grant access for small and medium enterprises, which can take nearly one person's dedicated job in order to fill out all the forms. We need targeted grants, not just for businesses that are starting off or first-time exporters, but for businesses that have proven their time, kept their employees in jobs and need help in crossing a few borders. Therefore, let us cut the red tape when it comes to SMEs.

As I mentioned, Enterprise Ireland and the Department of enterprise do a fantastic job with trade missions, but they need to include ordinary businesses and SMEs, not just the tech giants. It was mentioned here recently about exporting Irish whiskey to markets such as Taiwan. We need to build bridges to Asia, the gulf and Africa and not just rely on the likes of the US, which this week threatened the 50% tariffs. The next set of tariff threats could knock us off the perch and really affect agrifood and farm exports. Therefore, while I welcome multinationals, I do not welcome our reliance on them. If Intel, for example, was to leave the likes of Celbridge or Leixlip tomorrow, it is the local businesses in the local community that will keep the economy going there. Our future competitiveness will not be founded solely on multinationals, but on the local delivery driver, the cafe owner, the removals firm and basically those who are trying to build something that is lasting. Therefore, let us help and fund them and let us believe in them. If we want resilience and competitiveness, we must empower our homegrown SME business with capital, capacity and confidence.