Mr. Eamonn Gavin:

I am from Ballinagh, County Cavan, and have been in business from the mid-1970s. We had a good run over the years, building the staff from two to 42 and the shop up from 600 sq. ft. up to 7,000 sq. ft. Over the past ten years, it has all changed dramatically, however, from a high to a slide. From 2008, our business has suffered dramatically. We have had local competition, which is fair enough as we are four miles from Cavan town. We have lost about 20 staff and while we are running a profitable business, it is getting harder. I do not mind work but having to work between 70 and 80 hours a week is hard. This affects many of the small shop owners I know from around the country.

It has been ten years since I spent a penny on our business when normally I modernise my facilities every six years. Last September, I took on the first staff member since 2008. In July 2008, there was the fuel smuggling Border problem, the start of the recession and then in September, the financial crash. That year will be etched in my memory for ever. Last September, I felt we were getting stronger and were at the bottom of the bucket. On 1 January, however, even before I opened the shop, I discovered our business was down €22,000.

The previous day I contacted my bookkeeper to inquire what was wrong with the wages which were way up and was informed it was employers' PRSI. I was stuck because we had to add an extra €22,000 to our bottom line in order to survive.

I am still optimistic; I am not pessimistic. This is a small matter. I do not know how much taxes are generated by the employers' PRSI but it makes a difference in a small rural town. I do not know if all of the members of the committee are from the country but I can attest to the fact that it has been devastated and things get worse as one moves further west. In my area I am the main employer by a mile and my wage bill will be about €400,000, which has a big impact in a small community. The wage bill used to range between €600,000 and €650,000. We work very hard but I feel that the Government has not put much thought into employers' PRSI. My company puts money into a small rural area and there are hundreds of people like me. I am not on my own. However, more thought should be put into this matter.

I do not know how the Government would raise other taxation but I know it must raise taxation. The current rate of employers' PRSI is one of the biggest mistakes that has been made in recent years. I was going to carry out some renovation work this year, which I still hope to do, but I have not taken on another staff member even though I could do with one.

I had planned to do something else today but Ms Buckley telephoned me at 2 p.m. yesterday and asked me to come here today as a replacement for somebody else. I had arranged for extra staff to carry out a deep clean on refrigeration and take things apart in my shop, which is done twice of year. I started that work this morning, jumped in the car and drove up here. When this meeting is finished I will probably have a cup of coffee with Ms Buckley but then I will travel home and finish off the job in my shop tonight. I should not have to do so, and I do not mind doing so, but it is not just me who works hard. There are hundreds like me and we would like a little more thought put into this matter.

I suggest one simple way to raise taxation. We have a pile of customs people sitting on their backsides around the Border yet we have a black market for cigarettes. It is a drug dealers' market and they are going house to house to sell their wares. The reason I mention this matter is because I was shocked by the following instance. About 18 months ago a lady came to me whom I had not seen for a while and I said to her, "Kathleen, I have not seen you for a while. Did we do anything wrong to you?" She said she was in hospital with a respiratory problem and said I would never believe how she got it. She had visited her sister-in-law for a Christmas dinner. There were only two smokers present, this lady and her sister-in-law, and they went outside to have a smoke. That was when her sister-in-law told her about great value cigarettes where she got a man to call to her twice a month with her supply of cigarettes that cost half nothing. The person to whom I refer is not from a housing estate but holds a senior position in a company. However, she ended up in hospital due to a respiratory problem caused by smoking. That is neither here nor there but the long and short of it is that there is a rampant sale of cigarettes. I know that we heard good news about this problem today but that was today. The sale of illegal cigarettes is rampant around the country. I suggest that customs officers are utilised more, and asked to work seven days a week, if necessary, or use more scanners at the ports. Such initiatives would generate the same amount of money for Revenue as we must pay in employers' PRSI. If that was done we would have more money to employ more people and those savings add up.