Ms Annemarie Harte:

We thank the joint committee for the invitation to present to it. We come here with specific, achievable propositions that target growth in town centres and villages within a rural context. I am accompanied by Mr. Jim Copeland, not least because I only joined the association two months ago and there may well be gaps in my knowledge of certain aspects of the industry. I am also joined by two members of the association, Mr. Alex Taylor from Uppercross Enterprises Limited, a Dublin-based supplier of plumbing and heating products to the sector, and Ms Heather Graham, owner of Maurice Graham Limited, a merchant based in Monaghan town.

I do not intend to read our submission word for word but rather to summarise the main points. Following this I will ask the two members of the association to give the joint committee an insight into their experience of business growth and job creation outside of the main cities.

Approximately 50% of the membership of Hardware Association Ireland is traditional merchants and purveyors of hardware, with the remainder comprising suppliers and manufacturers, 70% of whom operate outside the Dublin city and county area. Our members are perfectly placed in the villages and town centres of Ireland to be a gauge of economic activity.

The latest survey of our members' business performance shows that while confidence is improving in Dublin and most of Leinster, staffing and profitability levels outside of these areas have a negative balance. To address this imbalance fundamentally, we are proposing rural investment, driven by implementation of the report of the Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas, CEDRA, and the Construction 2020 strategy, with specific reference to recommendation No. 8 on State agencies strengthening their collaboration to bring small and niche foreign direct investment to rural areas; recommendation No. 5 on facilitating rural economic development zones; recommendation No. 14 on the introduction of a funding mechanism, either stand-alone or in partnership with other finance instruments, to incentivise and support the early stage development of social enterprises; and recommendation No. 15 on delivering broadband of a minimum of 30 MB minimum to all rural areas by the end of 2015.

Construction 2020 contains 75 specific actions. While this is welcome, it will take some time for any benefit to accrue. The change proposed in the strategy for the National Pensions Reserve Fund to become the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, with the ability to invest in commercial activities, is welcome.

We have been calling for an extension of the home renovation incentive scheme beyond 2015. The latest Revenue information as of 15 September is that the value of the works registered to date is €171 million - clearly, it has been a success - and an average job value of €16,500. The bulk of the work registered for the scheme to date, some 77%, is focused in the Dublin-Leinster area. Hardware Association Ireland, HAI, believes that an extension of the scheme would allow time for it to be better promoted in more rural areas while also creating jobs and boosting business activity. As an association, we are more than willing and perfectly placed to support Revenue in promoting the scheme should we achieve an extension. We could combine promotion of the scheme with a drive to support the local independent merchant. This would in no way disenfranchises our wider membership, as a buoyant local economy in towns and villages will help the overall sector to recover more quickly and support job creation.

We would support the introduction of a help-to-buy scheme, which should also be thought of as a help-to-build scheme. We recommend that the threshold for an Irish scheme should be lower than its UK equivalent of £600,000 and focus first on family-type homes in areas of need and disadvantage. Nowhere has the collapse in the construction market been more obvious than on the fringes of towns and villages. Adoption of such a scheme would support housing regeneration and stimulate commercial activity in town centres.

Regarding credit guarantee schemes, obtaining working capital through credit or loan facilities is a major problem for small builders and small to medium-sized enterprises in the building-construction industry. In an effort to alleviate this problem in the UK, a pilot scheme is in operation whereby a trade customer can apply for a credit account in a builders' merchant of up to £25,000 underwritten by the Government. We appreciate that a review has been prepared for the Minister and is on his desk but we ask that consideration be given to the inclusion of this proposal on Committee Stage.

To support local entrepreneurship, the micro-enterprise loan fund scheme should be expanded and promoted. Introduced in October 2012, this scheme was originally intended to provide more than €90 million in extra lending to 5,500 businesses and create an estimated 7,700 jobs in a ten-year period. It needs to be revamped. The latest report, covering a period up to 31 March 2014 after one and a half years in operation, shows that only €3 million in loans has been approved, with 437 net jobs created in 192 businesses. Only 51% of applications were approved, with 83% of approvals for businesses employing three or fewer people. These figures are so far off the original target that a revamp is clearly required.

In terms of social policy reform, we advocate the introduction of a fuel voucher system whereby those who receive the winter fuel allowance must use a dedicated fuel voucher or smartcard to purchase a fuel product from registered and tax compliant retail fuel outlets. We also propose a revamp of the social welfare conditions to incentivise jobseekers to apply for seasonal, temporary employment.

HAI members, both suppliers and merchants, are directly affected by weaknesses in construction activity and the continued weakness in consumer demand generally.

To ensure an equitable spread of the green shoots in consumer confidence and increase in commercial activity about which we have heard in recent months, we need to target our local town centres and villages with a proactive and realistic approach. We hope our suggestions are practical and helpful and I thank the committee for its time. One of our members, Ms Heather Graham, will now tell the committee about her experience.