Mr. Noel Anderson:

I actually put up my hand just to speak about first-hand experiences. It is important the committee hear from working people such as me, Ms Fitzgerald Kane and Mr. McGowan. I have 70 staff. The two premises I have are Lemon & Duke in Dublin city centre and The Bridge 1859 in Ballsbridge. I had 70 staff at the start of the year, before this, and had the unenviable task of letting 70 people go three times in the past year. To put some real pictures on what is happening on the ground, I lost my head chef in The Bridge 1859 to carpentry, and the guy I replaced him with is now leaving me to become a full-time truck driver. My premises will probably have to build from a third up. The point I am trying to make is that I might retain a third of my staff and have to replace the other two-thirds with new staff and retrain them. I spoke to a good friend of mine, Gina Murphy from Hugo's restaurant, over the weekend. She said that even if she were allowed to open in the morning, she would not be able to do so because she has lost seven of her eight kitchen staff. She said all she could do was give these people a-----