Ms Heather Graham:

I thank the Chairman for the invitation to come before the committee. I work in a family business, which has been based on the outskirts of Monaghan town since 1988. We saw the business grow and in 2008 it collapsed when the building trade and everything else in the country took a downward spiral. My family business lost more than 50% of our turnover and we had to diversify. We no longer had tradesmen coming through the door because many of them no longer had jobs and some of them were heading abroad. We had to examine from where our customers came and we diversified into decor and home furnishings. We believe the trade has hit the bottom and we are about to turn a corner. My fear, and the fear of other merchants in the country, is that as we turn this corner we must learn from the lessons of the past six or seven years.

I am very passionate about my views on credit. Tradesmen and contractors are fighting hard for jobs. Prices are still being driven through the floor because many contractors quote for one job. They no longer have the same banking facilities and neither do we. They tell home owners that they will supply the labour while the home owner pays for the goods. We now deal with two parties. To turn around our business we need to be able to facilitate credit, but we also need to be guaranteed that we will get paid or we will land back to where we were in 2007 and 2008. The culture in the economy with regard to credit is not something about which we should be proud, and our Parliament should very much try to help us change this culture. We would like to have an input into the credit guarantee scheme because if we are to grow businesses and jobs, credit will play a part in this.

Our company created new jobs recently. Many of the applicants did not want more than 20 hours work. Costs are still increasing and while companies know they need more staff, they do not have the finances to pay large wages. I am sure committee members hear about the tax system all the time. This and the universal social charge need to be tackled. I would love to see an incentive to encourage people back to work because men and women genuinely want to get back to doing a day's work. This is for financial reasons and because they want to be in the workplace, among people and doing what they are good at. People who knew nothing except work have been out of work for the past four to six years and for the sake of their mental health they should be able to return to work. I would like to see such an initiative so we do not encourage people to stay at home.

How do we reward people for going back to work? I am sure members have been reading the articles on the living wage. What I see coming down the tracks is the need to increase wages. Our trade sector is a low margin business, with very high costs. Any wage increase will be built into the price for the end user. At present I believe it is inappropriate to increase prices at a time when we should be encouraging people to start jobs, be in at their home, on the farm or business.

As we turn the corner, the issue that we see on the ground is the need for more staff in our shops and stores because our customer mix comprises DIY, the tradesman and women who do their own repairs and decorating. We see a large increase in the footfall of female shoppers in our store. This is greatly welcomed because they know what they want. We are no longer wholesalers and the merchant on the ground is effectively a retailer.

I hope members will be able to take some of these issues on board.