Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are organisations other than the IFA which represent the agriculture sector and smaller farmers as well. The Minister referred to agility. Most small business people are very agile because they have to be. It is not easy to keep an SME running and to keep all the balls in the air. They, therefore, do not need that kind of a response. The money may be advertised - many schemes are advertised - but then there is the form filling, red tape and bureaucracy that has taken over our system. The Minister can roll his eyes up to heaven if he likes but those are the facts. Even for community organisations it is bucketloads and acre loads of paper. They just get weary and walk away from it. We need less of the red tape and we need the supports now.

I see the able Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Boxer Moran, is giving the Minister a bit of sound advice. He knows how to deal with it. He gets out on the ground and does it, and he does it every day of the week. We saw him all over the Christmas break looking after people. Make it easier for people to get access. Further, remember that Enterprise Ireland only supports companies that meet its threshold on the number of employees. I am talking about small SMEs with between one and ten employees, that is, those involving a person with perhaps his wife and family. Those are the people whom we need to support. Not everyone comes within the ambit of Enterprise Ireland which I think requires companies to have 200 or more employees.

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