Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

My thanks to both gentlemen for being before us today. Small and medium-sized businesses throughout the country are haemorrhaging, especially those in rural parts but perhaps everywhere at this time. We have to try to reopen our communities in a safe manner.

I sat in at a Zoom meeting yesterday with SMEs. They were mainly hairdressers and barbers. It gave me a clear indication of the struggles they have, like so many other small and medium-sized businesses in the country at the moment. For many, trying to find information on how a simple bed and breakfast establishment in west Cork can reopen or how to open a café or restaurant is difficult. The inability to find this information is putting extraordinary pressure on these businesses. That is a simple fact. Do the representatives of ISME and IBEC believe my request to the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Humphreys, to set up a task force for small businesses is the right move?