Mr. Declan Hughes:

On the work permits, in the last 18 months we have given huge priority to health sector workers. We have prioritised them since March 2020 and have issued over 9,000 employment permits for medical personnel, including 4,700 for doctors, 4,000 for nurses and 168 for radiographers. However, while this was not necessarily an issue in the first six months of the year, since reopening we have been trying to synchronise employers taking their employees off the PUP and taking on new employees and so on. These things do not always work perfectly and there is quite a dynamic there.

Up to the end of October this year we had nearly 20,000 applications for work permits. That is a 50% increase over 2020, when we had 13,000 applications, and a 30% increase on 2019 when we had 15,000. It is a very significant increase. As the committee will be aware, the Minister of State, Deputy English, who has responsibility for retail and business, recently issued the latest review on this matter. Every couple of months or two or three times a year we look at where the shortages are and where there are needs. He issued the latest review on 27 October. Most construction sector jobs are now eligible for the general employment permit. We have also removed the quota for HGV driver work permits and 350 general employment permits are being provided for hospitality managers, bringing skills and expertise into the sector. Social workers are now eligible for the critical skills permit and dispensing opticians were removed from the ineligible occupations list. We have also increased the quotas for horticultural operatives by 1,000, meat deboners by 500, meat processing operatives by 1,500 and dairy farm assistants by 100. We are working with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on that. The team dealing with work permits is actively engaged in working both with trusted partners and general applicants to try to speed up the approval process. There is a range of initiatives to which the Department and the Secretary General have agreed in order to clear the backlog quickly and we would expect to see progress over the coming weeks on that.

We do not handle visa appointments but we would be happy to follow up on that matter with the Deputy if we can.

A huge amount of work is going on to ensure that SCARP can be commenced at the end of November. I again thank the committee for its own work on this issue. As the committee will be aware, the small company administrative process is aimed at helping companies that are undergoing temporary difficulties. ISME used to call it "examinership light". It will be based on the existing rescue framework and mirrors many of those key elements but there is limited court involvement where creditors are engaged in the process. It is intended to be simplified and effective. As to making sure it can commence and will be easy to use, a lot of work is going on at the moment on finalising the types of forms that will be used, dealing with the Companies Registration Office, CRO, online forms, court rules, the draft commencement orders and the forms and fees. We will also have a comprehensive information leaflet for businesses, online information content and a communications campaign. We would hope to have all three elements, that is, policy, management and communications, on track for the end of November.

On the long-term structural shifts, we are very seized with those as regards climate action and digitalisation. I mentioned in the brief the significant progress that has been made around digitalisation over the last 18 months in particular, with most businesses now having an online presence and 20% doing click and collect over the pandemic. They are claiming back some market share in online retail and so on. There have been significant increases in the number of businesses using cloud services, artificial intelligence, etc. That is very much part of a similar approach we will be taking on climate and the circular economy.

It is great that we have the climate action plan. The commitment to a reduction in carbon emissions has been set by the Government. There are three big areas there for our Department. The first is around cement and construction sites, the second is alumina and the third is the broad enterprise base. There is a particular focus on the food and drinks sector, pharmaceutical engineering and electronics but also across the full base of business. That will be a key element. To the Deputy's specific point on the award of funding, I know from being on the board of Enterprise Ireland that our support from the enterprise agencies as regards assessment of climate impact and investment is about supporting environmental credentials and carbon reduction. On the point around assessment and planning by businesses, one of the specific initiatives we will be rolling out shortly is a climate toolkit for businesses. That will allow them to assess their current climate compliance and carbon footprint and identify measures they can take, as well as the range of supports or grants that might be available from Enterprise Ireland, the local enterprise offices or the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI.

We are also working across our agencies, including National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI, around energy efficiency standards, carbon reduction and carbon labelling. There are proposals before the Oireachtas on that. Audit and anticipation are very much a key part of our focus in that area. We have €55 million under the recovery and resilience plan and will roll that out from January through the agencies.

On insurance costs, we have continued to see reductions in premiums, as recorded by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, and the Central Bank. There are other issues around legal costs etc. and I would be very interested in the proposal the Deputy mentioned around benchmarking or further analysis of legal costs over and above. PIAB removes many of those elements but there is a broader issue there around the costs of business. It is something the NCPCl has focused on. The Competition Authority focused on it some years ago and made significant recommendations.

On the changing towns and villages, we get feedback directly from businesses as well as local enterprise offices, LEOs, and in the past 18 months we have seen a resurgence and regeneration of many of our towns and villages. As the Deputy said himself, Dublin is a collection of villages. We have seen it throughout the country. The local enterprise officers are working with businesses in the towns and with chambers of commerce and other stakeholders try to develop those plans. We have a town centre audit tool and we are also part of the town centre first strategy, which is particularly timely in its bottom-up approach to identifying the strengths and experience and the experience economy for towns and villages.

That will also be part of the work of the regional enterprise plans we are developing and completing. It has a key focus on both. Many of our regions are city regions and we need to ensure the cities themselves are attractive places in which to live, work and play but ensuring as well they are well connected with their hinterlands and towns. It is something we will continue to work on with our LEOs and Enterprise Ireland and with other Departments, including Rural and Community Development, which runs its own schemes for rural funding and the urban development funds. We are on both of those committees that are run by other Departments.

There is a lot of complementarity between what we do. For example, with our regional enterprise development funds, we have allocated nearly €117 million to developing digital hubs in towns and villages which create a centre and ecosystem. We have had complementary funding from the urban and rural funds. We anticipate that in future more of our money will probably go into the programmatic side in terms of helping small businesses to start, grow and prosper in those towns and to make best use of the infrastructure being developed by other bodies. We hope to see that as part of the enterprise plans when they are launched in the coming weeks and that there might be additional funding to underpin that investment.