Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It has been very interesting to listen to the gentlemen. I have been in business for a long time and many of the issues we concern ourselves about now are not unlike those we were concerned about 50 years ago. We complained about newcomers coming in. When I first started there was Lipton's Home and Colonial, Leverett & Frye and a half dozen others in Ireland yet there were Irish companies that succeeded, and such companies did not always succeed.

I believe the resolution to this problem will not come from on high or from the Government doing anything in particular. It will be individuals doing exactly what Mr. Parker spoke about, namely, concentrating on the personality, or what Mr. Sealey mentioned. I am very disappointed in Brown Thomas because I went into the store the other day and my wife fell head over heels for it. It will cost me a great deal of money if Mr. Sealey continues doing what he is doing. It seems to me that the results will be exactly what the two representatives spoke about.

I travelled around the country a good deal recently with a television show and one sees individual shops doing very well in towns that are not doing very well. The answer will depend on the individuals but what they can do in the towns is get together with their competitors. Some towns are dying a death. One can see the number of empty shops but one can also see that the town has not got together to do something to attract more business.

I was in Glasthule recently. Glasthule is a small area but it did not have one empty shop. There were no big international shops. They were all individual traders but as we left Glasthule and drove into Dún Laoghaire, we saw empty shop after empty shop.

It seems the people in Glasthule did something like the people in Malahide and Howth - the places I know - because they seem to have been able to work together and make something of their location so people would shop there. The solution will rest in the hands of the individual retailers to a very large extent but that does not mean Retail Ireland cannot do a great deal. I am appreciative of the supports of Retail Ireland and the 12 associations that have got together to say the upward-only rent issue can be solved.

I am convinced that the huge problem Mr. Stephen Lynam mentioned regarding upward-only rent reviews can be solved. Even if the Government is doubtful about whether the legislation will work, the answer is to get it through the Dáil. The President will say he will not sign it until he gets the answer from the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court will say either "Yes" or "No” and then we will know where we stand. The answer involves doing something like that.

Many more people will be shopping online in the future. A couple of years ago in Estonia I went into a comparatively small shop with two or three employees on the floor. I was taken upstairs by the boss where there were 11 people working on Internet sales. I suppose they were selling to everywhere but certainly to eastern Europe. I mention this because the owner of the small shop discovered he would not do sufficient business over the counter in his shop and that he could do something about it. The matter is in our own hands. It is in our hands to do a great job at exporting. If we are complaining that Irish consumers are importing from abroad without having to pay the taxes they might otherwise have to pay, we must realise it is an advantage for us in that we can do exactly the same thing by selling abroad. That is what we have got to do.

There are some very interesting smaller companies that are succeeding very well. I am thinking mainly of Dublin, which has Donnybrook Fair, Fallon and Byrne, Morton's and Avoca. These retailers are thriving, succeeding and doing very well. Therefore, let us not talk ourselves into saying all would be well if the Government or local authority did something; let us make sure we do it ourselves. That is the main message we can get out.