Mr. Seán Murphy:

With regard to retail, sometimes we are desperately passive about stating online will win out. A cadre of communities is buying online and, for example, many travel agents were wiped out when the business migrated online. However, many travel agents now offer bespoke services to individuals at higher spend. There was a shake-out but others created jobs.

It is worth noting that consumers are the last to know we are in recession. It is when people lose their jobs that they know we are in recession. Consumers are also often the last to realise we are out of recession, and do so when they and their friends start getting jobs and pay rises. With such changes in the local dynamic, many jobs in retail can be created very quickly because consumers will always want things. People may buy some of their items online, but they will still want to parade the streets with nicely designed bags in nice shops doing nice buying. We thought long and hard before stating 50,000 jobs could be created. We are deadly serious that 50,000 jobs are a-begging in retail if we fix consumer sentiment, get a better wind in the local economy and consider issues such as the opportunity cost of the 4.25% hike in employers PRSI affecting class A grade staff. I have absolutely no doubt PRSI is an impediment this year because it was effectively doubled as it was temporarily halved during the crisis. It has a very real impact on the cost-benefit analysis retailers make on whether to hire an extra body. It is through incrementally hiring another body that more jobs will be created in the economy.