Mr. Cormac Kennedy:

To revert to the issue of shopping centres, Charleville was mentioned. The issues facing a retailer in the town centre would be different from those faced by a retailer in a shopping centre. The latter does not have to deal with planning issues regarding his or her shopfront. For town centre retailers, even minor works on their shopfronts present a greater issue. Tackling these small matters at Government level would assist such retailers.

In contrast to other sectors, it is funny that retailers have never been grant aided to open new stores in towns. If an IDA-backed company was considering creating 300 or 400 jobs in a town centre, a great deal of money and assistance would go towards that aim. Generally, however, such assistance is not available to retailers in large towns. If we want to restore towns and bring big retailers to them, we should consider encouragement through grant aid, as this would create jobs.