I welcome the auto-enrolment scheme. It is a significant step forward for an estimated 800,000 employees across this country. There have been significant false starts and delays with the scheme. The Department must do a huge body of work in terms of advertising and communicating with people about the scheme and to ensure that people across Ireland can make an informed decision about entering into the scheme or potentially opting out. However, I have significant concerns about small businesses. Employers are facing additional obligations with this scheme. Let us be honest: there are payroll obligations, communications obligations and also the administration of the scheme. That is not to mention the additional financial contributions employers will have to make. While auto-enrolment will be an advantage to many in terms of the replacement ratio on retirement, it does come at a time of significant costs to businesses. It actually comes at a time when insolvencies in the SME sector have not been as high since 2016. Last year, there were 824 insolvencies and 98.5% of those were SMEs. They are basically being run out of business because of the cost of doing business. I refer to VAT, sky-high energy costs, sick pay, increases to PRSI and increases to the minimum wage. They are all having a huge impact on businesses. The recent SME report stated that 73% of businesses found that the high cost of materials is a significant risk to them. The ability to access finance is also an issue. The Government has let down businesses on all of these fronts. It has not done anything to reduce the cost of materials, energy and so on, yet this is the juncture at which auto-enrolment is due to start. Has the Minister done any stress testing in respect of SMEs? They are really struggling. We should be very cautious. We should engage with SMEs. We should stress test the market and so on to ensure this does not make more small and medium-sized businesses across Ireland unviable because many are struggling and they attend my clinics on a weekly basis. The elephant in the room here this evening is the self-employed. The man and woman who creates employment and who innovates needs not apply because there is no mechanism in which a self-employed person can avail of this scheme. That is an incredible situation. Self-employed people are the backbone of this economy and the country and the Government has precluded them from social welfare. I was contacted last week by a gentleman who worked for Fastway. He is a self-employed gentleman who worked there all his life, paid taxes and what has he got? When he found himself on hard times, he cannot access social welfare and now the Government is introducing a scheme which will preclude him and thousands of other people from accessing auto-enrolment. I appreciate there are complexities but I urge the Minister of State to prioritise the self-employed person and incentivise those who take on risk and create employment because this Government has been a cold place for the self-employed and businesses across the country. I also want to raise concerns around individuals in low-income employment. I believe auto-enrolment may have a significant impact on those individuals. There will be a significant reduction in their pay as a result of this, estimated between €300 and €1,200 per year. This scheme is obviously designed to assist those people but many of them are living pay cheque to pay cheque in the current cost-of-living crisis. I hope those individuals do not opt out of the scheme. In these times every euro is so valuable. What assessment has been done in relation to this? On the self-employed and businesses more broadly, I am concerned that many larger companies may be able to absorb the individual contribution for an employee and that we might see the migration of employees to larger companies as a result of this. That is the risk here. While positive in theory, this scheme has significant risks for businesses. I urge the Minister of State to consider the risks to SMEs and small businesses across the country.

Sentiment score: 0.08