Ms Deirdre Drennan:

If the Vice Chairman does not mind, before we move off Deputy Tóibín's question on the rate relief scheme, we have been lobbying for this for quite some time. We have met several Senators and Deputies, some of whom are present, and we have travelled to Brussels and spoken to various MEPs. As the Vice Chairman referenced earlier, we have attended Oireachtas committee meetings. We have tried to get a level of awareness for this scheme. What we need now is for it to come into effect. We would ask the committee to consider that it come in with the budget via the finance Bill. We are conscious that new legislation can take a couple of years, if not longer, to come into effect and there are retailers closing by the day which do not have two years to wait. If we could get it brought in to the budget in October, it would be most advantageous to the sector.