Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I want to return to my original questions, which could only be partially answered. There seems to be a consensus between both sides that we need a strategy and that the five pillars of this revolve around transition problems, pay, conditions, education and training, location, planning, flexibility and support from councils, digital transformation and the circular economy. Those five pillars seem to be agreed. Can the committee simply articulate that as a way forward or are there institutional or structural barriers that either side see to our articulating that or seeking to address those with the Minister of State, Deputy English, who is taking the lead on this?

I do not understand how this mandatory proposal will operate. Is it mandatory for landlords before they go to court to engage in a mediation process or does it seek to oblige them to settle on some particular outcome that an arbitrator other than a court feels should be the 50% or whatever? They are in two very different categories. One, under existing law, has to be done through the small companies rescue plan where there is some recourse to the courts where someone does an assessment of viability etc. as precursors to a cramping down of the rent or whatever. That seems to me to be the only way we can do that. That is why we have been treating this small companies rescue as an emergency piece of legislation. This committee did not undertake any scrutiny of it because we felt it was sufficiently important. What exactly is Retail Excellence looking for in this context? The advice seems to be that the Government cannot just declare 50% rents, and off you go.