Mr. Duncan Graham:

I thank Deputy O'Reilly. We have been talking around this now for quite some time and it has been very evident over the last year. We have seen 2,000 retail outlets close their doors over that period. There has been much high profile retail closures that have been well pointed-out in media. The key things that we have approached Government around initially were that there needs to be some form of mediation. We are talking about something like the WRC or something that is put in place on a temporary basis whereby landlords and tenants can get around a table and where a legally-binding arrangement that enables something like a turnover-based rent to be put in place for a period of time to enable retailers to get back on their feet.

In terms of other things we have looked for, taking the last five months that we have just gone through, we do not feel it is appropriate for retailers to be saddled with 100% of the rent payment for that period. What is very evident is that some retailers are able to do deals with landlords, but this is not consistent across the piece. There are deals being done, and there are 50% off and better deals than that being done across the sector. Equally, there are landlords who have dug their heels in and are basically saying, "Read the lease; you owe us the money". That is resulting in these closures. Many of the retailers we have spoken with that have closed, the UK ones in particular, were in a difficult situation beforehand. Covid-19 and this rent crisis has put them over the edge.

In terms of the measures that we have taken, we wrote to the Tánaiste and to the Minister of State, Deputy English, during the course of last year. We have raised this regularly as part of the retail forum which ICTU is on as well. To date, the only thing that has come back from Government is a code of conduct that was introduced in September of last year. We need to see something more than that. The code of conduct really is not worth the paper it is written on in terms of the response from landlords, in particular. We need to see something that is a bit more legally-binding to prevent this rent crisis from gathering momentum.