Ms Jean McCabe:

Retail Excellence Ireland is represented on the cost of business advisory forum within the Department of enterprise. The forum's primary remit is to examine regulation. The regulatory bodies are also involved in these conversations. It is about a cultural shift. I hate to refer to Donald Trump here but we do need a bit of a Donald Trump approach to this because we are over-regulating. There are so many regulations not adding value and only adding costs. We need a common-sense approach in how we deal with this. Every regulator believes every regulation is essential. That is the world they live in. It is like asking an accountant to think outside the box. They live within the world of that box. We certainly need a different mindset and a cultural shift from the Government in how regulation is viewed and a shift among the regulators to realise we can still achieve what needs to be achieved and that Ireland does not have to be the A1 student in Europe. We tend to gold-plate everything and to be overzealous in how we implement, interpret and enforce regulations. We need to take a step back. It is perfectly fine to be the B2 student in Europe. We also need to work with businesses to ensure regulation is still enforced and adhered to, but let us do it in a common-sense way. We need a common-sense approach from people involved in the forum and also the Government. It is about a cultural shift that must go from the top to the very bottom, because we have a tendency to box-tick and over-regulate, adding to cost.