Mr. Bob Parker:

For me, retail is about experience, be it the purchasing environment, efficiency, price, the speed with which an order is processed or, when in a store, what one touches, what one feels and how one is served. Retailers, particularly me, do not regard online retailing as a threat but as a great opportunity to add to the armoury of experience one gives the consumer. Retailers, in general, favour change.

Mr. Stephen Sealey spoke very eloquently about seeking new innovation, whether that be a product or a service. That experience must be complementary.

The Senator spoke about how filthy O'Connell Street is. It is part of an experience. When one steps off a coach or out of a hotel as a tourist or visitor, it is the first thing one sees. We are already on the back foot. The experience starts when tourists get to the city, and it includes how they get to it. It includes their experience on the bus, Luas or train right through the external environment to the internal environment in the retailer's store. Retailers can control the internal environments in our stores, which are constantly changing as we seek to provide better experiences. We rain check, sense check and conduct exit surveys on what we are doing. However, we need help, support and joined-up complementary thinking about the external environment, whether it be the blend of retailers, the environment, hardscape or softscape required to create the experience in Dublin or my home town of Nenagh. Once one is a retailer, one does not shop in other towns with a different head on. One shops as a retailer and looks at the experiences and difficulties people are having. In many ways, they are a microcosm of what we experience. It is about a joined-up approach under which we all work hard to get the right result.