Mr. Ian Talbot:

The fact that we have some small town chambers and some very large city chambers can be a challenge for us. We are well used to dealing with it. When one cuts through it most of our small towns have, for example, a big FDI multinational corporation. Most of our members across the country are in that large micro small business space and their issues are very similar. They understand that if they want a sectoral issue addressed, that is one thing, but the main thing we do for everyone is talk about infrastructure. Back to me reading out some of the things from 100 years ago, it is about education, skills, public transport and housing - all of the things that affect all businesses.

We try to get our chambers together on things like our pre-budget submission. We encourage everyone to take the bits that matter to them out of it and rebadge it. I cannot remember meeting the Deputy at our lobby day a couple of weeks ago, although maybe he was there. Approximately 30 of our 36 affiliated chambers were there. We encouraged them to bring their local TDs. We collectively delivered our message. We talk about local, national and building bridges to bring the two together.