Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

With the pressure now on small businesses - and we are hearing this all the time - what type of research has been or is being done by the Department, perhaps with Revenue, to assess the state of SMEs at the moment? When you look at the returns for SMEs for 2022 or what their estimates might be for 2023, does the Department see a drop, more insolvencies and people going out of business? I know the Department advises the Department of Finance but is there anything there to say we are going to hit a crisis point unless some sort of support is put in place to help the SMEs as a matter of urgency? In what way do the Departments deal with each another in this kind of thing? The witnesses said that policy is not determined within Revenue and I agree with that but do they offer the research they have? For instance, how many small businesses availed of the warehousing of their debt and the temporary business supports? The Department would have that information. Is that not shared with the Department of Finance to see how the scheme did or did not work?