Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is good to have the witnesses present. I thank them for coming in. I have just a few short questions. Like Deputy Stanton, I would like to hear specifically about the promotion of Irish businesses in terms of whether there is a PR plan in place rather than the supports that are being given in the background. There should be something at the moment to assist Irish companies with procurement, as part of the marketing scheme. Perhaps that is a legal issue.

Has there been any movement towards sustainable indicators for enterprises? I spoke with the head of the local enterprise office and with John Moran on these issues. If there is funding, businesses are also encouraged to save money on energy, so they can save money in that way as well. In other parts of Europe when grants are given, the greener the business, the greater the grant provided. A sustainable indicator system is used. I accept we do not currently have such a system but that is something we must move towards if we are serious about climate and saving money for businesses. There should not just be grants to help businesses reduce energy but also a component that rewards them for doing so as well. Businesses can vary from those who do not give a damn to those who really care and there should be some kind of indicator in that regard.

Does Mr. Hughes have any information or statistics on productivity related to working from home? I am interested in getting some information on that and to see how the Department can support it. That is something I want to work on more as well.

Some 53% of agri-food comes from England, not just through England. The reason I was late to this meeting is that I was at a meeting with Teagasc this morning. Much of that is beverages, animal feed and what is called consumer-facing food. I do not even know what the latter is but I intend to find out. The percentage is significant. In terms of promoting enterprise in Ireland, should we promote enterprises that will reduce our dependency on importing 53% of animal feeds, beverages and consumer-facing food? Will the Department conduct research in the area to see what we can do to reduce it, especially with Brexit and the carbon footprint?

Is there a one-stop-shop for small businesses to find out about all the supports? I constantly find bits and pieces everywhere. Is it all under one Department's website or is there a one-stop-shop for small business so we can help to let them know about it?

People will be queuing now for the winter. Has the Department thought about a specific provision on awnings outside businesses where people are queuing for takeaways? The winter will be tough and we are not all great at dressing for the weather, even though we should. We see beautiful awnings in other countries in Europe that have a similar rainfall and probably worse snow than us and they got subsidised for them. That is something simple.

I wish to ask briefly about businesses which do not have products for sale online. I worked with John Moran, STRIPE and others on a Lean on Me campaign. I do not know if Mr. Hughes heard about that. We did it for businesses that do not normally have products one can sell online, such as restaurants, bars and hairdressers where one can avail of buy-it-forward vouchers to give them hope. It worked amazingly well. It was more about hope than the quantity of money they got. That is different from people who can sell clothes or earrings and other such things online. Lean on Me was done on a voluntary basis. We all invested our own time and money in it and the money did not come from the Government.

I have further questions but I will stop talking in a moment. Who is on the task force? The Department cannot focus on all 17 sustainable development goals. I think it would be better if we chose a specific few and focused on them. From working in education I know that we did not ever try to work on all 17. We would pick three or four to focus on and that may be something the Department could look at.

I want to say thanks a million for the money for the remote working hubs. It was a pre-budget submission I made. It will be life-changing for small businesses that have no Internet and can now convert old buildings into healthy Wi-Fi hubs.