Ms Tara Buckley:

Energy is the priority because of these ginormous bills businesses are facing and because they are so much higher than the benefit scheme that is in place. We are really struggling to understand how we are going to pay those bills over the next number of months. Given that we are hearing of further increases, we would love it if the committee scrutinised the charges we are being charged and those extra charges on our energy bills, which we find extraordinary and which have also increased exponentially.

We are good employers and we understand the need for a lot of this legislation and new regulation but at the same time, it is about the cumulative impact of this on a small business that is already struggling to deal with the day-to-day costs. We know the National Competitiveness Council has said there should be an investigation into the cumulative economic impact of these factors on a small business. We really believe this committee should support that as a matter of urgency. It seems that there is lots of movement on introducing sick pay and the living wage, and we understand that, but at the same time, the cumulative impact of these on a business that is struggling to pay daily costs is creating huge stress among these employers.