Vol. 460 No. 3
507 Mr. L. Fitzgerald asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment if he has studied a report entitled Small Enterprise - Clearing the Path to Growth, by the Dublin Chamber of Commerce which outlines two ways of easing the bureaucracy on small business; the decisions, if any, he has made arising out of this report; his views on the merits of the report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19263/95]
I have recently received the Dublin Chamber of Commerce report entitled "Small Enterprise — Clearing the Path for Growth". The chamber of commerce in its report makes two proposals on ways to ease the bureaucracy on small business. The chamber proposes, first, a simplified form of corporate entity, the close corporation, and secondly, the adoption of a procedure to identify in advance the cost to business of complying with proposed legislation, compliance cost assessment.
The close corporation proposal is based on a South African model which came into effect in 1984. In Ireland, the Company Law Review Group looked at the question of a new category of limited liability company, but decided that this issue would require detailed consideration. It recommended that "the application of company law to small companies be considered in a future phase of the Company Law Review Group's work or by some other specially constituted advisory group". Phase II of the review group's work will commence when current initiatives to implement the recommendations in phase I have been progressed.
The proposal on "compliance cost assessment" is currently being considered by the small business and services division of my Department in its work to reduce the administrative burden on firms. This Government is committed to a policy of assisting small business and I have arranged to meet with the Dublin Chamber of Commerce shortly to discuss its report in greater detail.
