Sarah O'Reilly (Aontú)

Small and medium-sized businesses and enterprises are the lifeblood of our of our towns, villages and parishes and the beating heart of community life. I have been contacted, rather sadly, by a few recently. We hear great talk in here about tackling dereliction and preventing the demise of rural communities, but when it comes to supporting the very businesses that keep those communities alive, there are few attainable and tangible supports. These are the family businesses passed down from one generation to the next. They sponsor local GAA teams, school fundraisers, Christmas lights, town and drama festivals and Tidy Towns competitions. They are the employers who keep our local economy afloat, yet the weight of regulation and spiralling costs is pushing some of them out of business.

There are grants, but they are not always attainable. I know of businesses which have tried to avail of them, but have not met the eligibility criteria to be successful in drawing down grants. There is an illusion of help for many businesses which apply for grants, but when they reach for help, they find it is not there and they cannot attain it.

A Small Firms Association, SFA, survey showed that nearly a third of small businesses reported an increase in labour-related costs in the past year alone. They have been hit with new bank holidays, increases in sick days, a 65 cent rise in the minimum wage and a new auto-enrolment pension scheme. In July, the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, said on RTÉ that the lower rate of VAT was not a done deal and he favoured targeted measures. I agree with him. Imagine if those targeted measures had gone to SMEs instead of multinationals like McDonald's, which hardly need State support. If the Government keeps increasing wages without providing targeted supports, then we will see increased dereliction and desolation across rural communities.

I would like to congratulate the Knockbride team, from a small parish in Cavan, who won the Ulster championship in the intermediate section, and Cavan Gaels, who won the junior competition.