Ms Michelle Quinn:

On career paths, it is vitally important that we attract and retain people both across retail and distribution. Employers are struggling to retain people due to the precarity of work in the industry. We do need a career path, sustainable jobs, decent pay and conditions. The only way we can address those issues is together. That would be best done initially by the retail stakeholder group. We have strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in reshaping the industry into the future. The sooner we begin to have honest and open conversations in relation to how we best address those challenges and opportunities the better. I entirely agree with Mr. Rogers that we cannot lose faith in the sector. There are good people there. There are people who wish to remain within the sector. We need to support and encourage them. We need mechanisms whereby the employer and the worker both have supports. One of the manifestations of supports for workers would be the re-establishment of the JLCs across retail. Collective bargaining would play an essential part in establishing a level playing field for workers in Ireland, not only in the retail sector but across the board. I am struck by the contributions today that we have more in common than not. We need to begin that discussion at the earliest opportunity.

Deputy Bruton asked a very profound question in his opening remarks, namely what do we need the Government to do. The resolution of this issue, which is complex and multifaceted, requires a robust acknowledgement that the only solution will be arrived at by working together. There is no longer a place for a silo mentality, if there ever was one. If the pandemic did anything, it levelled the playing field for us all whether we liked it or not. If you stand back and look, whether from the point of view of employer groupings or the worker representative bodies, you can see we are all in the same boat. How we got in the boat is academic. We need to shape a future where we are all part of the solution. I know our members - and I am sure that Mandate and Unite are no different - have a real desire for us to forge with all stakeholders a sustainable future for retail and distribution. They will play a part, I am sure, but we need to demonstrate that we have the collective will to put in place mechanisms that support retail and distribution into the future, given the change in nature of retail, including the rise in online shopping, which is here to stay because the way the public shops has changed for ever. Yes, there is a significant place for bricks and mortar traditional retail but we need to look at a mix of how we address the rise of online shopping and how we retain traditional retail.

Mr. Rogers observed that the public has flocked back to retail and supported it. It is one of Ireland's pastimes and we need to ensure we sustain that. Part of sustaining that is building careers where people see they have secure jobs with decent pay and conditions and a career pathway that takes them from the door to something more meaningful along the way. Many may not choose to have a career path within the industry, they may be quite happy in their current environment, but we owe them the potential to have a career path should they choose to do so. One of the great challenges now is the retention of employees generally. Covid-19 has caused many people to reflect on their lives as they are and reimagine what the future looks like for them. People in retail have great interpersonal skills from dealing with the public. I imagine that, as time goes by and the economy reopens, those skills will be highly sought after by other employers and we run the risk of losing people from retail. Rather than risk that wash out of people from within retail with that skill set to other employers, we need to demonstrate that there is a career path and a meaningful way of earning a living within the industry. That will be enhanced by the initial step of restoring the JLCs.

It will be further enhanced by the long-sought-after collective bargaining mechanism. It behoves us all to embrace that thorny issue in our deliberations within the retail stakeholder group. Mr. Graham stated that if we are going to reimagine retail and distribution, we have an obligation, collectively, to get it right. There are a number of things we need to put in place in order to ensure that the journey is as important as the destination. The only way we can do that is by working together. The employer groups are aware of the challenges, as we are , but may have different perspectives on those challenges because they may manifest themselves in a different way. That does not stop us from having meaningful and robust conversations that lead us to a joint destination. I am more than anxious to have that discussion.