Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for appearing before the committee. I begin with the Restaurants Association of Ireland. In Waterford, two long-established restaurants have signalled they will not reopen. They are both owned by two gentlemen not of Irish nationality who have been great supporters of business in the city for years, and it is very sad to think it is totally unviable for them to come back to the marketplace.

While I was outside watching the proceedings of the committee, I also watched our new Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, speaking about the rate of interest being applied to SME loans. He explained that the 4% interest rate is because of the default rate. In other words, the Government is not prepared to support any default. It would rather pass the charges on to the SME sector.

Deputy McGuinness and I were in the Chamber earlier today talking about the lack of engagement at the very highest levels, including with senior civil servants. Mr. Cummins stated that he experienced pretty poor engagement at the very highest levels. Could he expand on that? Are there any plans as to how this might be redressed?