The wishlists were long as Fine Gael's economic team began its national business forum tour, writes LAURA SLATTERY
DON’T WORRY about the cameramen, George Lee joked to the assembled guests at Fine Gael’s business forum in Dublin’s Hilton hotel yesterday. “They’re only taking wide shots in case anyone is afraid of being caught on camera.”
But as Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and his economic team gave their pitch for power, the time for staying in the closet was over. Many of the business managers who took up the party’s offer of a QA had adopted political pragmatism.
“I don’t care who’s in power as long as they do not behave criminally,” said Garrett Stokes, director of corporate branding company Catalysto. He wanted to see some Obama-style, fire-in-the-belly “emotional engagement” from Fine Gael: “You can’t just sleepwalk into government.”
It seemed like there would be little chance of dozing off for Kenny’s team, which comprised finance spokesman Richard Bruton; deputy finance spokesman Kieran O’Donnell (before he nipped back to the Dáil for the Nama debate); enterprise, trade and employment spokesman Leo Varadkar; and communications, energy and natural resources spokesman Simon Coveney.
“It’s not like the country has stepped on a landmine; it’s like the country has stepped on three landmines, one on top of another,” said Lee.
“We have to say never again,” said Bruton.
The most naked election appeal came from Varadkar: “If you are a business, if you are an employer, then help is on the way in the form of a Fine Gael government. But we need your help to get there too.”
The wishlists were long. Dara O’Mahony, who runs Dome Telecom, wanted the next government to introduce a “have a go” tax relief for entrepreneurs.
“When people stick their head above the parapet now, all they see is Nama, banks, property, billions, squillions,” O’Mahony said. There was precious little microfinance available. He also wanted Fine Gael to incentivise big companies to work with smaller ones when competing for public tenders.
“At the moment, what we have is a traditional confrontation: the small guy has to fight to get a little piece of the big guy’s lunch.”
John McCormack, sales director at an ICT company, wanted better electronic record management in the public sector: the “one-stop shop” had never materialised “because it’s not in the interest of the public sector to have an efficient system”.
Varadkar, a doctor before he was a politician, agreed that information systems were poor. He could never understand why every Domino’s in Dublin knew his favourite pizza order, but he couldn’t summon up blood test results from another hospital in a prompt fashion.
Eddie Carty, whose company Captiva coincidentally provides the online ordering system to Domino’s, gave a “hear, hear” to Fine Gael’s promise to freeze local authority rates. But he wanted the party to show more “courage” by lowering rates and “getting rid” of the minimum wage.
“I think there’s a threshold of decency here,” responded Varadkar.
Meanwhile, Anna Gethings, who runs a publishing company in Dún Laoghaire, wanted to know how Fine Gael would get credit flowing again for small businesses. “We still believe that a national recovery bank is core,” Bruton answered.
But there was good news for Gethings, said Lee. He had just been passed a note from a Dún Laoghaire councillor to say that the council was reducing commercial rates by 30 per cent next year.
“Three per cent!” shouted the councillor, as quickly as she could.
The Fine Gael economic team now plans to tour the country, with venues including Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.
What are Fine Gael’s proposals for business?
*The creation of an new industrial holding company, NewERA, overseeing five commercial companies: Smart Grid (a spun-off ESB Networks), Broadband 21, Irish Water, BioEnergy Ireland (a merger of Coillte and Bord na Móna) and Greener Home Bank.
*An additional investment of €11 billion in technology and infrastructure from 2010 to 2013, with the new companies funded through a combination of loans from the European Investment Bank (EIB), pension fund investment and asset sales.
*A 1 per cent reduction in employers' PRSI and either an exemption from employers' PRSI in relation to new staff taken on by businesses or a wage subsidy system.
*The setting up of a National Recovery Bank, a new wholesale investment bank or "good bank" that will buy good debt from the guaranteed banks, rather than the "bad bank" Nama system.
*A freeze on local authority rates for three years, reductions in VAT and excise duty, the abolition of the travel tax, an end to upward-only rent reviews and the introduction of partial State loan guarantees to small businesses.
*No proposal to cut the minimum wage, but it can't be ruled out in the future if it can be proved that the rate costs jobs.
*Pay cuts in the public sector but they can be structured in a way in which there are "dividends" paid when managers reach certain benchmarks.
