Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein)
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I thank all of the witnesses. This has been a really helpful engagement. I acknowledge the positive comments from everybody. There are some really valuable ideas. I agree with Mr. Rogers that we must not lose faith in retail. He has shown real leadership in his comments as has his colleague, Mr. Graham. I agree entirely with the point that we need to get people back into our city centres. We need an all-of-government approach in terms of building a proper long-term strategy for retail. Therefore, I would certainly support the call for a retail stakeholders forum. It is very important that this committee endorses that call as well.

I am very conscious that we have had a lot of really good comments from Retail Excellence. I want to give my colleagues in the trade union movement an opportunity to respond.

I address my former colleague Ms Quinn in particular and invite her to comment on two aspects. First, on careers - and I also welcome comments from the employers side on this - it strikes me that there is an issue in the industry around being able to attract people. There are issues around job security and low pay. I would like Ms Quinn to give a trade union perspective on that. Will the representatives from the unions speak on the importance of collective bargaining. They cited that issue in particular. Will they tease out why it is so important in moving forward and improving the sector?