Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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355. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the measures being put in place to reduce the costs of doing business for small and medium enterprises; and the incentives in place to encourage new business set-ups. [31559/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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SMEs are at the heart of Government policy and since coming into office this Government has maintained an unrelenting focus on alleviating the difficulties being experienced by this sector. Actions to support SMEs are set out in the Action Plan for Jobs. Since the Action Plan process was launched in 2012, a significant number of initiatives have been introduced to support the SME sector. These include:

- tackling the issue of late payments by transposing the EU Late Payment Directive into Irish legislation;

- the introduction of new financing models for SMEs, such as the Microfinance Loan Fund for start-ups and the Credit Guarantee scheme;

- Corporation Tax exemption to 2014 for companies that commenced, or will commence, trading in 2012, 2013 and 2014;

- the introduction of the JobsPlus scheme that provides a subsidy to employers who recruit a person who has been unemployed for 12 months or more;

- the reform of support structures for start-ups and micro-enterprises through the establishment of the new Local Enterprise Offices;

- the provision of advice and training by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland to businesses that are looking to reduce their energy costs; and

- reductions in the administrative burden on business. To date, my own Department has achieved a 25% reduction in its administrative burden on business, amounting to a potential annual saving for business of over €207 million.

Budget 2014 also contained a number of additional initiatives to support SMEs. These include an increase in the cash receipts threshold for VAT, which will improve cash-flow for businesses, and a new subsidised Financial Training programme for SMEs. New legislation has provided for the streamlining of company law to make it easier for small and medium sized businesses to form and operate. We have also reformed the wage setting mechanisms removing inflexibilities which prevailed. Legislation to strengthen competition and consumer law, in particular, introducing the power to regulate practices in the grocery sector is currently going through the Oireachtas. We will continue to take actions to support SMEs, including by tackling costs, through the 2014 Action Plan for Jobs.

A further major source of jobs growth in the SME sector is start-ups. A key challenge we are now addressing is to create an environment where more people will choose an entrepreneurial career and start businesses, grow to scale and create employment opportunities. I shall shortly publish Ireland’s first Entrepreneurship Policy Statement. It will contain a set of cross-Governmental targeted actions to drive improvements in the overall environment for entrepreneurship, thereby demonstrating our commitment to increasing the prevalence of job creating start-ups.