Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Clendennen for his kind comments. Absolutely it is important that we support the enterprise sector. I was very much aware when I came into the job that two thirds of all employment in our communities are in our SME sector. Small family businesses drive much of our economic activity. It is critical that we ensure we reduce the regulatory burden placed on them over a number of years and that we give them supports to change the model they operate.

Deputy Clendennen is right to point out that ICOB and the power up grants are once-off interventions. How we make businesses sustainable over a short- to medium-term horizon is the challenge for the Government. In terms of digitalisation and sustainability, we have done a large amount of work to provide supports and to reduce conditions attached to them for smaller businesses.

For a deli attached to a shop, it could reduce its power bill by €1,500 a year if they upgrade their lighting, refrigeration, kitchens and so on under an energy efficiency grant. It is important that we give significant support there, as well as for digitalisation. There is also a huge amount of work going on in the area of defamation law and retail crime on the part of my other colleagues in the Government. I want to acknowledge that.

On the short-term letting Bill, the register will have to be implemented by 20 May 2026. That is the target deadline we are referring to. Fáilte Ireland will be the competent authority which will maintain the register. My job as Minister with responsibility for tourism is to develop the register on which all the entities will be placed. They will be given their unique number and that is how enforcement will take place. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy James Browne, will come forward with a national planning statement which will govern the rules the Deputy is referring to. I am advised that he will do that approximately by September. That will go through the legislative process here with the short-term letting Bill, and give people a chance to bring in witnesses and form part of and add value to the legislation. At the moment it has been cited that 10,000 is the population value that initially went through Cabinet for the threshold for planning permission but there is a lot of work to continue on that. What I would say to the committee members is to stay part of the process. We will work through it together. We are trying to find a balance between one of the very significant challenges of our generation, housing, and ensuring that we maintain a vibrant tourism sector. It is important that we work together to get that balance.