Mr. Gary Morton:

Morton's is a third generation shop which will celebrate its 80th year next year. We employ 75 staff and we operate two shops, one in Dunville Avenue, Ranelagh and the other on Hatch Street. Our principal focus is on food, particularly fresh food, and wine. I am here because our business is in an area with much strong activity by clampers. Clamping is a problem for us. An inordinate level of clamping occurs in Ranelagh and the business is hugely affected. People learn a very nasty lesson when they are clamped and are very quickly dissuaded from returning. They are encouraged to go to other places where there is no clamping. Invariably this means carparks provided by other shops, in this case multinationals. It is driving business away from our shops to other businesses. I am aware of a number of personal upsetting stories of some of our customers which I can go into later. The penalty for being clamped is very harsh.

We are very proud of how we engage and are involved with many Irish suppliers, growers and artisan producers. Our involvement is greater proportionately than that of the multinationals and this warrants recognition.