Mr. Stephen Lynam:

On behalf of Retail Ireland members, we thank the members of the committee for the invitation to address it today. I am the director of Retail Ireland and am joined by Mr. Frank Gleeson, who is our chairman and retail director of Topaz Energy. For the information of the members, Retail Ireland is the representative body for the entire retail sector in Ireland and is affiliated to IBEC. Our members have 3,000 shops, including department stores, DIY stores, electrical retailers, fashion and footwear retailers, major supermarket groups, symbol groups and specialist and independent retailers. As a representative organisation for the retail sector, rather than a retailer itself, Retail Ireland would like to take this opportunity to contextualise the debate on the sector that the committee will have in the coming weeks.

This debate takes place against the background of depressed consumer demand and job losses in our sector. Since 2008, over 50,000 people have lost their jobs in the Irish retail sector. There has been a large fall in consumer demand and spending. Retail sales generally are down by the order of 25% and many retail businesses around Ireland have closed. Consumers, of course, are the lifeblood of the retail sector. Members will no doubt be aware that consumer sentiment is very volatile but the KBC Ireland/ESRI Consumer Sentiment Index, which is the latest measure, is down 35 points on where it stood a few years' ago. That said, retail is still the largest employer in the State, with over 250,000 people working in Irish retail. We represent 14% of the total number of people employed in the economy and account for about 10% of GDP. We are the most geographically diverse industry in the country, helping balanced regional development with about 44,000 active wholesale and retail enterprises located in every town, village and city in the country. It may surprise members to learn that 86% of Irish retail businesses have fewer than ten employees and 86% are Irish-owned.

I will hand over to Mr. Gleeson who will speak on a number of the issues pertinent to the discussion today and, hopefully, we can have an exchange.