Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for allowing me to contribute. I thank the witnesses for participating in this meeting. It has been informative.

I will go through a few points, buried within which will be a couple of questions, so the relevant witnesses might reply to me.

I pay tribute to the retailers large and small who have come back. I will follow up on the point made by Mr. Rogers. I know workers have made a huge sacrifice throughout Covid but we cannot forget retailers, particularly smaller retailers. The fact that they were locked out of their businesses for so long must have been hugely frustrating to them. I represent Longford. I know there was a huge uplift in the community when our traders got to open their doors again. It was a psychological lift for the whole community to see those shops back open. As a community, we were at one with those retailers. It is very important to point out that in the main, all our retailers are excellent employers. There might be some issues across the sector but in the main, our retailers are excellent employers.

I was interested to hear Mr. Light's observations on retail. I would concur with him. It has plateaued. It is not without challenges. With big businesses, it is easy to scale retail but it is increasingly difficult for small and medium enterprises to get out there and get the margins they require to make it work. A huge level of investment is required.

Regarding rents, have the witnesses carried out an analysis across the sector? I know they were looking for a two-month rebate on rents. Do they have any indicative information in terms of how landlords are treating Covid? How many of them have given a rent break? Many smaller landlords have in the main been very co-operative and are working with retailers but it is probably an issue in terms of institutional landlords.

In respect of Retail Excellence's submission, the challenges in retail are much more pronounced in rural Ireland. We have our town centre first strategy. For someone in rural Ireland, it is very frustrating to hear people talking about the over the shop concept. Anybody dealing with families looking for housing on a daily basis knows that very few of those families will put their hands up and say they will live over a shop on a main street. It is probably easy for politicians to say "Town centres are hollowed out. Let's put people back living over shops" but it is not the quick fix people think it is. At the same time, I do not expect retailers to be using the first and second floors for storage either. We must be more imaginative in our town centre first approach.

Does Retail Excellence have a view on getting more involved in the circular economy? There is significant opportunity, particularly for those retailers in rural communities and provincial towns where they might need to broaden and look at niche offerings. I take on board the point that more supports are needed for the retail sector.

Mentoring is a key issue. If we look at the way retail is changing across the globe, we can see that it is very much a case of experience shopping. People like online shopping but it does not give that experience. It is about what a retailer can do to give customers a better experience when they go in. What value can it add to its business? There is also an opportunity for employees in terms of upskilling. There is probably an opportunity to look at something like a mentoring package and a re-examination of how medium-sized businesses can upskill.

I am very interested in the idea of a retail manager. It is certainly the way to go. Could Mr. Rogers give some indication of what buy back he is getting from local authorities and the Department on that? Local authorities are working on their county development plans and subsequently their retail strategies but that is something we really need to push. It would be a key appointment across all our local authorities.