Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 7 July 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Challenges Facing the Retail Sector: Discussion

Mr. Duncan Graham:

To answer the Deputy's second question first, this came out of the code of conduct that was put in place in September. The bones of it are in that code of conduct. The issue we had was that it was not being used. We wanted to make sure the forum was being used fully and that there was an obligation to settle, to go back to the point made by the Deputy. The small companies rescue plan has since been put into place. It may be possible for those two aspects to be bolted together. It is currently very evident that there is no fully independent body to deal with issues a landlord has with a tenant and the only option is to go to court. There is no stepping stone in that regard and that is why many of these issues currently end up in court, with significant associated cost, resulting in businesses closing. We were looking for such a stepping stone to be put in place. The code of conduct is not considered strong enough or to have enough teeth to be able to bring people around a table to get a settlement in the first instance.

I ask the Deputy to remind me of his other question.