Mr. Fergal O'Brien:

Again, there are very similar themes. If asked, business people are generally pretty uniform in their response that the biggest challenge is demand in the domestic economy. To cut to the specifics of the budget, there has been much discussion regarding what we are doing for the hospitality sector and what it is costing the Exchequer and how we will have to find the money. It is very important that we get a whole-economy analysis of the situation and that we look not at the cost of a measure but at the benefits it has brought to the economy - the extra spending it has brought in and the extra jobs it has sustained. We cannot just come at that by looking at gross cost on budget day. We must add up the benefits, because it is working and making a difference. There is also the wider issue of confidence in the economy to consider.

I will touch on some of the specific issues of cost as raised by colleagues. For the first time in four or five years, electricity costs have been heading to the wrong side of the EU average. These costs are registering with businesses again as a big concern. Back in 2008, we had particular problems regarding electricity costs and those pressures eased back after that somewhat. However, we are now back in danger territory where we risk losing investment and sustainability is threatened for any reasonable energy users because of our high electricity costs. Some type of emergency measure must be found to deal with this.

Another issue that arises a lot for larger-scale companies is health insurance costs. Over two-thirds of our members are paying the health insurance costs of their employees as part of their employee package. Those costs have increased substantially over the past couple of years. Householders take those costs also, but it is generally not understood that for many businesses these costs are an employment cost. When those costs are added on to health insurance costs, they become prohibitive.