Mr. Liam Fitzgerald:

I thank the Deputy for his question and for his concern. I will give a sprinkling of statistics that might explain the position of many of our SMEs. About a month ago, we contacted a number of the SMEs that supply infrastructure to the industry. A total of 285 different companies responded to us. Two thirds of them were businesses and one third work sole traders. More than 50% of them do not pay their rates directly. They either pay via a rate-rent bundle with their landlord or they use premises that are shared tenancies. As a result, their names are not listed as ratepayers which is preventing them from getting certain local authority supports.