Ms Jean McCabe:

I thank the Chairman, who is a native of Clare, like myself. We were lucky enough to be able to trade online. We were well established online, traded throughout the lockdown and it was our saving grace. Some €6.4 billion is spent online annually by Irish consumers and 70% of that revenue is going to multinational retailers. That money is not going into the Exchequer. That is due to the lack of attention that SMEs have got over the years. Much of the grant aid that was available through Enterprise Ireland has been export driven. The focus has been consistently on that market.

The opportunity for SMEs is on our doorstep. For me, as the owner of a small business, my online presence is not about international trade. It is actually about capturing the domestic trade and giving the consumer a chance to shop local and shop small. Some 50% of our online trade is within a 30 km radius of our business. If the Deputies are looking at the future of town centres, cities and small businesses across the country, online is going to be a big piece of that in driving footfall back into towns, driving people back in the door and keeping the bricks-and-mortar stores dotted along the streetscapes of every town and village alive. Online will definitely play a big part in that, but up to this point it has been completely neglected by policy and by the way grants have been provided for SMEs. It has been too focused on multinationals and we already know we are over-dependent on FDI. During the Covid crisis, online sales saw a 200% to 400% increase and again most of that went abroad. Could the Chairman confirm the final part of his question?