Dara Calleary
Question:578. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his policy on reducing costs for businesses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37417/12]
View answerTuesday, 18 September 2012
Questions (578)
Written answers
A key objective of the Government is to create a supportive enterprise environment so businesses can start up, grow and generate employment. To do this, we need to keep costs for business as low as possible, reduce unnecessary administrative burdens and provide supports to enterprises where appropriate. Some operating costs for business are largely outside the control of Government. For example, fuel and energy prices are primarily driven by external factors such as global fossil fuel prices. The Government’s approach has been to identify those areas of policy it can influence to bring about cost reductions or provide supports to business.
The Action Plan for Jobs includes a series of measures for delivery across Government to reduce business costs and improve competitiveness. These include, for example: providing supports to businesses to reduce their costs through energy efficiency measures and the Accelerated Capital Allowance scheme; reforming the statutory wage setting mechanism and making it more appropriate to our modern economy. The legislation to give effect to this has now been enacted through the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2012; improving access to finance, including through the temporary Partial Loan Guarantee scheme and the Microfinance Fund. Legislation to underpin these schemes has now been enacted; reducing the administrative burden on business across seven key Departments and the Revenue Commissioners, with a view to achieving a 25% reduction by the end of the year. Administrative burdens within own Department’s area of responsibility has been reduced by over 24% so far, yielding potential savings of €206 million per annum for business; encouraging Local Authorities to freeze or reduce commercial rates. All but one Local Authority has frozen or reduced their rates for this year. The remaining Local Authority increased its Annual Rate of Valuation due to a legal requirement following the extension of a town boundary; simplifying and extending the Employer’s PRSI Incentive scheme, making it easier for employers to hire someone from the Live Register and reduce their payroll costs.
The implementation of these and many other measures in the Action Plan for Jobs will help to further improve our international competitiveness and reduce costs for business.
The Government’s progress in improving Ireland’s competitiveness is reflected in the international competitiveness rankings. The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2012, which was published last May, saw Ireland improving four places in the overall rankings to 20th overall. The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index 2012-2013 which was published earlier this month also showed Ireland improving two places in the overall rankings, to 27th place.