Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

The witnesses are all very welcome here today.

It has been an interesting dynamic to watch over the last few years and see how retail has been adapting. It has been adapting successfully in some cases and struggling in others, particularly in small county towns. Ms McCabe put it eloquently, in that small businesses are the heartbeat of our towns. They are the ones that support our GAA clubs. They are the ones that provide the summer jobs. They are the ones that give people that real-life experience.

My personal opinion on it is that it is becoming more difficult to be in the retail space when you are competing with transactional organisations that will have something delivered to your door the next day but I believe that there is an opportunity in that for retail as well. The reason I go into my town to buy clothes or whatever is because of the experience. I get an incredible service and a fantastic experience. That is the key differentiator. Every town that wants to succeed has to focus on the experience that it is going to provide to customers when they set foot in that town but that experience has to come from the local authority, not only inside the shop door. It has to be a case that if I land into a town, I have to be met with services that reflect the rates that ratepayers are paying. I hear it when I am around canvassing. I meet all the businesses. I come from a business background - I am an accountant myself. I am listening and what they are all asking is what are they getting for the couple of thousand euros they are paying in rates. The footpaths are cracked and falling apart, which leads to probably more insurance claims. How can a business put its best foot forward when the local government is not meeting it halfway? That is important. Obviously, there has been a huge amount of work done to invest in our towns to see transformations of town centres, etc., but more has to be done to make towns an appealing place for people to frequent and to visit. It is really important for social cohesion. If people keep ordering online and they stop going into the towns, people will become more insular, have less connection to their community and have less awareness of what is going on around them.

I guess what I would like to ask is, what does Ms McCabe see being a key determining factor in the costs for retail at present and what way has it been trending, and what practical solutions would she like to see the Government coming forward with for retail?