Mr. Sean Collender:

I will speak about the margins for the restaurant side of things. We are going 25 years. Traditionally, the restaurant sector in general has been looking for between 5% and 10% of a profit margin. That has totally gone out the window over the past number of years. Many are flat-lining at 0%. Some of the others might be around 3%. Some people are carrying losses and trying to find a way out of where they are at. When I spoke earlier about the different cost sectors in terms of our labour rates, I said that our restaurants have unsustainable wage-to-turnover rates of 41%, 39% and 50%. Traditionally, they should be around 33%. We have increased our prices. These are net prices after VAT. Those types of percentage rates are damaging to my business. I also spoke about the need to look after our staff. It is a double-edged sword. We are trying to look after our staff with the rent pressures they are encountering. The Government has imposed a multifaceted number of increases on us in the past four years in too short a space of time. Those increases are having a detrimental impact.

Mr. Cummins spoke about the list of input costs in terms of food. We are seeing those dramatically rise. My businesses look after locals. My real concern is how far we can go. We are trying to absorb as much as we can. Where is that danger point where we start to lose our customer base? I am concerned about that. Where is that margin? We need the Government to step in here to look not at short-term supports but at long-term viable supports so that I can run my business without one-off supports. I want to run my business viably. They are some of the basic things.