Working Together
The Green Party recognises that Ireland's future economic success lies in the ability of our small, local businesses to grow and compete on a national and international level.
We believe that Ireland's enterprise strategy must focus on investing in and encouraging small and medium business ventures. All of the major reports on enterprise strategy over the past three decades support this conviction: we need to move away from an over-reliance on foreign direct investment and increase the development of our own indigenous enterprises.
The goal of the Green Party's business policy is to provide Irish industry with the means to establish itself as a world-class market player. The confidence, innovation and ambition of Irish entrepreneurs must be harnessed so that Irish companies become world leaders in new emerging markets.
The Green Party knows what factors are essential for the success of businesses: equitable taxation, proper insurance and banking facilities, reliable infrastructure and an adequate supply of skilled labour. Below are details of the measures the Green Party will take in government to provide Ireland's Small and Medium Employers (SMEs) with the ingredients for success.
TAXATION
The Green Party is committed to getting value-for-money and to creating an environment in which strong indigenous small and medium enterprises can develop. In order to achieve this significant tax reforms are necessary. The Green Party will:
1. Replace Commercial Rates with Site Value Taxation
In 2005, commercial rates cost businesses ?1bn per annum compared with ?580m in 2000. Commercial rates provide local authorities with 25% of their funding, and they are variously levied in different local authority areas. The replacement of commercial rates with site value taxation will encourage the efficient and productive use of land, give increased funding for local service provision, and ensure that developers pay proportionately for their gains. The Green Party welcomes the existence of a similar policy from the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland.
2. Reduce taxes on employment, including employers' PRSI
The Green Party is committed to reducing taxes on employment and replacing them with a carbon levy, which would encourage greater efficiency. The ESRI has shown that if the proceeds of such a carbon levy were equally divided between reductions in Employer's PRSI and VAT and an increase in Social Welfare contributions to cover fuel poverty concerns, it would have a net positive effect on our economic growth.
3. Reduce VAT and Increase Audit Exemption Limit
Over-regulation is one of the biggest challenges facing small businesses. The Green Party is committed to reducing VAT and increasing the audit exemption limit.
4. The Green Party will not raise corporate tax rates or income taxes.
The Green Party is committed to maintaining present corporate and income tax rates. However, we will remove current tax breaks that have a particular distorting effect in promoting certain property developments and allowing very wealthy individuals avoid making any tax contribution whatsoever.
INSURANCE AND BANKING FACILITIES
The Green Party will adopt a more active approach to the regulation of the Irish banking and insurance sector:
Insurance
Irish Small and Medium Enterprises (ISME) cites increases in insurance costs as the greatest threat to the survival of SMEs. Although premiums have fallen in recent years, insurance costs remain volatile and wholly unpredictable, and the profits of the five largest insurance companies rose from ?518 million in 2003 to ?755 million in 2004. This Government has persistently failed to implement recommendations of best practice in the insurance and banking sector. The Green Party in government will:
- Implement the outstanding Oireachtas recommendations for reform in the Irish insurance market, including actions to reduce the number of fatalities in the workplace, the level of awards in personal injury cases and the costs of legal actions.
- Fully support and advance the work of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board
Banking
As documented by ISME, the Financial Services Regulator and the National Competitiveness Council, Ireland has one of the highest interest rates in the Eurozone and the Irish market for SME banking services is particularly concentrated. A 2003 ISME survey revealed that the two largest banks accounted for as much as 77% of the SME banking market.
The Green Party will implement the recommendations of the Competition Authority to ensure that small businesses are given accurate, reliable and understandable information on alternative banking products. We will:
- Establish a specific Financial Advice Agency for SMEs.
- Reform legislation to make the Financial Regulator and the Competition Authority more accountable
- Grant greater powers to investigate, regulate prices, lift entry barriers and penalise malpractices affecting the SME sector. Appoint a Registrar of Credit Unions as an independent officer with a view to increasing credit union penetration of the financial services market
- Reintroduce a 5% levy on banks
TRANSPORT
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This Government's persistent delay in tackling poor transport planning is adversely affecting businesses efficiency. The Green Party will provide local business with a first-class public transport system. We will:
Introduce incentives to encourage employees to change their means of commuting to work including low-interest loans for public transport tickets, promotion of car-pooling, company shuttle bus services. - Replace current Benefit-In-Kind (BIK) grants for sustainable travel-to-work costs with tax-deductible incentives
- Promote LUTS (Local Urban Transport Plans), which bring together local strategic stakeholders (Local Authority, IDA, ESB etc.) to negotiate workable solutions.
- Provide for a significant increase in public transport investment including the advanced delivers of new rail projects to improve commuting conditions in our major cities.
WASTE DISPOSAL
When it comes to waste disposal SMEs have the choice between local authority waste and recycling facilities and an approved waste contractor. Many local businesses find the current situation difficult to operate in and expensive. Indeed Irish businesses pay the highest waste charges in the EU.
The Green Party believes that a number of practical and legislative measures would significantly improve the waste services available to local businesses. The Green Party will:
- Ensure that offices are provided with depositories for easy storage, collection and recycling of paper
- Provide businesses with access to regular and free cardboard collection
- Encourage more players into the waste disposal market
- Establish a National Waste Agency, which will issue grants/start-up loans to businesses to implement systems that directly contribute to waste reduction
Publish Cleaner Production Guidelines for businesses and establish a Cleaner Production Partnership Programme between the National Waste Agency and different sectors to encourage firms to switch to recyclable materials
RECRUITMENT
One of the significant difficulties facing SMEs is the sourcing and retention of qualified personnel. The Green Party is committed to supporting the following state-supported human resources services:
1. FAS Employment Services
General Recruitment:
Employers can advertise job vacancies on FAS's internet site and in FAS offices. The local FAS office can provide employers with a list of candidates from their register. The European Commission's EURES system is an international recruitment service linked with FAS that can assist in sourcing workers from other European countries.
Disability Recruitment:
The FAS Wage Subsidy Scheme provides financial incentives to employers to recruit disabled people for over 20 hours a week. Subsidies of up to ?9,500 are available per worker per annum, as well as Workplace Equipment Adaptation Grant (WEAG) grants to accommodate an employee with a disability.
Upskilling Service:
The Fas ''Competency Development Programme' subsidises the cost of a range of training courses for employees, covering such areas as management, IT skills, construction, engineering and electronics, and retail services.
[www.fas.ie / tel. 1800 611116]
2. Local Employment Services Network
These local partnership networks offer a recruitment service and help employers to access State recruitment subsidies.
[www.southsideles.com / tel. 2841977]
3. Skillnets
Skillnets is an enterprise-led partnership that helps private businesses to acquire flexible, cost-effective training programmes by either forming or joining a Training Network or 'Skillnet'. To date over 5,000 companies have improved business competitiveness by upskilling over 30,000 trainees through Skillnets. There are also anumber further-learning provisions available for the upskillling of employees, including. part-time courses in Institutes of Technology and universities.
[www.skillnets.com / tel. 01-2079630]
