Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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I apologise for not being present at the beginning of the meeting and I am sorry that I will have to leave again soon. However, I am rather keen to make a contribution.

I have read RGDATA's submission quickly and declare a vested interest. I am one of the small shopkeepers RGDATA represents. On a day-to-day basis for many years I have dealt with the issues on which the RGDATA delegation adequately represents its members. I applaud the work RGDATA has done during the years.

We are at a crossroads. I realise that we cannot stand up and be openly critical of the multinationals. At the same time, however, when they come here, they are like large banks which come in and take over. They refer to the jobs they create when they open in a town or city. They claim that they create 100 jobs, but there is nothing about the 150 jobs knocked out as a consequence.

Let us consider what has taken place in England, Scotland and elsewhere throughout Europe where certain large shops have entered the petrol trade, for example. I will cite one example. When a large retailer opened in Killarney town, a total of 12 petrol stations closed.

When they had them closed, this retailer continued to bring down the price of petrol to rock bottom. These were family businesses that had been run by highly respectable people and their fathers before them, who reared their families by selling petrol and doing repairs prior to the advent of convenience shops. When those 12 petrol stations and forecourts were closed, the retailer realised it would not be able to knock out the few that remained, and Killarney is now one of the most expensive places in Ireland to buy petrol because the price is artificially inflated. Now that such retailers know they are at rock bottom and that nobody else can be knocked out, they are keeping the price of petrol and diesel up. This is what big companies do. The ordinary respectable small shopkeepers and supermarket or convenience store owners are put to the pin of their collars to keep their businesses going. It is difficult. Those people are coming into this country and sucking their profits out to Europe. They do not give a damn about Ireland, the fabric of our society or the small shops that have been the backbone of our villages and small towns. I agree this will have the perverse consequence of leading to the independent sector effectively subsidising the unreasonable terms of supply extracted by the largest multiples. This is not sustainable for the grocery sector.

The witnesses spoke about glossy advertisements in our newspapers. How many of us are sick when we open our newspapers on Sundays? Of course, they do not give a damn as long as they sell their newspapers and make money. Last Sunday one national newspaper contained 12 pages telling us about how cheap bacon, beef, turnips and cabbages were in certain large shops. This is not good for the consumer because when all the small shops are gone the big players will be able to control the market in the same way they do with petrol. They did it in England and Scotland. When small shops and service stations are gone they will not be able to pull themselves up and open again in several years' time. It simply will not happen.

I am glad we have an excellent committee, with an excellent Chairman and members who will listen to what the witnesses have to say. They are speaking for the people who provide employment and who are not fly-by-nights who come in here like multinational mobile banks to take whatever chunk of the market they can find and zap their profits out of this country. The latter companies do not care about reinvesting here or what they are doing to the small shopkeepers. If I was here until tomorrow morning I could not compliment the witnesses and the people they represent enough. I appreciate the work they do in representing the backbone of Ireland. These are the people who create genuine employment and I hope they can survive. It will be extremely difficult given the number of shops and service stations that are closing, but I am sure this committee will do what it can to help. I thank the witnesses for coming before the committee today and I hope they will return to represent the smaller business people of Ireland.