Mr. Declan Hughes:

There were losses in productivity from the networking and collaboration side. Businesses are getting significant time efficiencies and savings due to people not travelling and not being stuck in queues, but one does lose on the other side. We can come back on that.

Some of this also relates to an earlier question Deputy Stanton asked about trading online vouchers. Businesses that have gone online have increased their sales and increased their employment, but their sales increased faster than their employment increased, so they are getting productivity increases by making better use of their facilities. I referred to the chemist who now has three shops but the capital investment is only in two.

I will make two points about the agri-food sector. That is a continuing focus for both Enterprise Ireland and Bord Bia. As the Senator is aware, Bord Bia is the national food promotion agency and works with businesses, in particular in the retail sector, to ensure that small start-ups, which Deputy Bruton talked about, have access to supply chains and into the large retailers. Many of those are working very successfully. Members will have heard of initiatives such as Food Works, which is operated in conjunction with Teagasc, Bord Bia and Enterprise Ireland. That has helped about 50 small businesses by teaming them up with retailers to give them access. Some of the brands we have seen in the past five or ten years, for example in the soup area, started on that journey through that type of import substitution route.

There is further potential for that, in particular in the context of Brexit, where we have gone through a very detailed assessment of products and commodities that are imported. In some cases they are major brands and they are manufactured in either Great Britain or on the Continent and we substitute them. There was a time when nearly all, between 90% and 95%, of our biscuits were imported. East Coast Bakehouse in Drogheda was established just before Brexit came on the horizon in 2015 or 2016. The business was supported by Bord Bia and Enterprise Ireland and it identified an opportunity to bring a premium product to the market and it is trading very successfully not just in Ireland but internationally as well. There is a focus on start-ups and early-stage food companies and giving them reference sites in Ireland with a quality product that has good provenance, and then it has a foothold to bring it to the European market as well. I am happy to follow up with any other points the Senator wishes.

In terms of vouchers, we are very open to a range of such initiatives. I think there is an exemption from benefit-in-kind, but I will come back to the Senator on that, for companies that reward their employees with vouchers, etc. Perhaps coming up to Christmas there is an opportunity to do that again.

I will come back to Senator Garvey on the members of the task force. It is on our website. There was an open call for submissions but that closed last Friday.