Aubrey McCarthy (Independent)

I thank the witnesses for being here. They came on the worst possible day. We are so busy with different committees, meetings and all the rest. Apologies but, as Senator Fitzpatrick said, it is not rude that we are coming in late.

I am in business. I know some of the guys here. I went for many Retail Excellence Ireland awards but never won them, so I have a problem with that. I am involved in retail and my family has been involved in retail since 1969. One of the witnesses said that a lot of those in business keep the businesses going because of pride. Their families have been involved in it for so many years that they give it their all. They do not pay themselves but make sure they keep the business running by paying staff, etc.

Insurance is a huge bugbear of mine. I have three different cases this year. You go out of your way with health and safety audits. The cost of policing all that is phenomenal. Sometimes, I admire the likes of Pat McDonagh from Supermac's, who fights. When he feels he is being wronged, he fights. I like that approach, when you feel you have been wronged. However, with anything I tried to fight, my insurance company stated that the cost of defending it would far exceed doing a settlement, so it was easier to settle. We were debating the defamation Bill. It is the same thing. I met up with ISME, which is stating that the cost of defending is too high and, therefore, the person is entitled to €10,000 or whatever. How come businesses that have a strong record of a no-claims bonus, etc., are not being rewarded? I have a number of businesses. I notice that every year, I know my insurance will go up. I do not know by how much. Is there no meaningful risk-based model we could look at? Maybe there is an international model we could emulate that works everywhere and could work in Ireland. Insurance has gone up and up. We are now nearly working to pay the insurance.

On Retail Excellence Ireland, I listened to Ms McBride and read her details on that. Out of every €100 spent in her store, how much goes to her and how much is spent on Government tax, regulation, etc.?

We talked about the knock-on effect of increasing the minimum wage. I have got the most amazing staff. One of my businesses is a restaurant. If the minimum wage is put up, it has a knock-on effect all the way. If you touch the menu again, your customers will say you are taking advantage of them. Is there a policy we could use to deal with the minimum wage where we could all work together? We want to see our workers earning a decent wage but, at the same time, we cannot squeeze it. It cannot keep going because there will be nothing left.