Mr. Vincent Jennings:

When the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association was invited, we noted that the committee wanted to learn about what it takes to sustain a viable rural community. The subtext is maintaining an effective service and presence in rural communities. That is very important because we need to consider maintaining rather than seeing it go away and trying to set it up again. One never misses the water until the well runs dry. It is important to give assistance and gear ourselves to look after what is already there. It is a service. I am joined by a full-time newsagent and a full-time convenience store operator from Monasterevin, respectively, Noel Kelly, our president, and, from Mountrath, Ann Martyn. We need to understand that these people provide a service to their communities. They are very proud of that.

Within our written submission we have given more detail about the social and economic capital that revolves around these businesses. We know we are speaking with friends and we would like the committee to understand that we believe our stores are the cornerstone of the community. It is important to build on what is there. There are very considerable difficulties for a new store opening up, such as guarantees, bonds, hostile lenders, planning difficulties and so on, and there may be difficulties in obtaining a suitable premises. We welcome newcomers but it is better to look after those who are there.

Our association has 1,500 stores in membership and we give information to our members. We assist them on a macro and micro level. We represent them, ensure they are connected with each other and encourage them. We are very much to the fore in unashamedly promoting Irish products to the point that each year we identify a particular product our stores can sell, and over several years we have identified confectionery and local confectioners and give access to their products nationally without any fees or charges. It is a leg up to small indigenous businesses. Quite frequently our stores are the ones the local entrepreneur will come to with a new business thought. We will give it access. The majority of our members are affiliated to symbol groups, and if the product works, they will show it and the sales to their buyers and become the launch pad for brands that are very familiar and have moved on to bigger and better things. We are very proud that we can act in that fashion. That happens from the small store taking an interest in their neighbours.

We have asked the committee to consider several things. We know it wants to complete its report as quickly as possible, but we would like it to take cognisance of some points. Mention was made of an earthquake last night but another natural event, unfortunately, is flooding. Many of our members were affected by this in recent years and will no doubt be affected again in the next few years. It is grossly unfair for an insurance company to refuse to insure a business following the flood relief work done by the Office of Public Works with €500 million of our tax money. That is disgraceful and this committee should make representations to ensure one of the terms of contract is that insurance is granted.

The level of insurance is a massive problem for us. One cannot have a viable business, or have a business at all nowadays, if one does not have insurance in light of the position with regard to litigation. The cost of insurance is going through the roof once again and it is very important the committee makes observations on that.

Committee members will be aware, given the representations they receive, of the difficulties with crime in rural Ireland. There are gangs involved in crime and we have noted five different styles of gang. We find one issue in particular very frustrating. As an association, we would have no difficulty involving ourselves in assisting our members and others in making people aware of the presence of gangs in an area, through a neighbourhood watch-type approach. We find it very upsetting that the Data Protection Commissioner is refusing to allow the use of images of people who are known to have - and in many cases are actually convicted of having - taken part in various offences, which means we do not have the ability to provide that information to our members. In many instances, members are more than half an hour from gardaí so this would be a preventative measure.

We have also asked the committee to consider requesting from the Departments of the Taoiseach and the Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation that there should be a counterweight argument with regard to Brexit and cross-Border shopping. This is not necessarily to stop individuals going across the Border but to show, on the debit side, the cost to people societally and in terms of the real cost of travelling across the Border. Once again, unfortunately, paper in the media does not refuse ink and this is becoming an issue once again. We believe people should be made aware of the difficulties that follow from cross-Border shopping.

The submission mentions that there is to be a rural charter, which is important, and there is a promise that there will be a health check for legislation as it affects rural areas. I am of the view that it should be further defined to ensure that there is a health check for small and medium enterprises in particular and how they are affected by legislation. Unfortunately, too many items of legislation have come out of this House which work on the basis of a one-size-fits-all approach. As small retailers, we have been caught with significant compliance costs and significant unforeseen consequences due to legislation. We are not Hewlett Packard yet we have the same obligations to comply with certain parts of legislation. Surely there must be a way to modify or allow for these things for small businesses.

It is most important that retail and representative bodies are allowed the right to negotiate. It is perfectly obvious why competition law came into place and we have no difficulty with that because we live and breathe by competition. However, the tables have turned much too far and we are now precluded from negotiating in any fashion whatsoever. Our Australian retail counterparts have protection in that they are allowed to negotiate. Even this week, new Australian legislation allows for protection from unfair contracts to be extended to small businesses. These are the important matters.

In terms of what we would like the committee to do, a number of matters are pertinent today, one of them being the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill. I think it very important that the committee sees that there is an enormous distinction between, on one hand, our members, who are, if not struggling retailers, then small retailers who are the cornerstone of the community and who know their customers, and, on the other, those who take their direction from Germany, the UK or elsewhere, otherwise known as the multiples. They are the ones who have caused the difficulties in respect of the sale of alcohol. As far as we are concerned, the Government can go after them by all means and perhaps use a threshold by way of overall turnover or size. However, it should not come after the small guy because we are not the problem.