Mr. Colin Fee:

I thank the Chair and committee members for affording me the opportunity to speak today. I am president of RGDATA and operate four convenience stores, a pub and a restaurant in Dundalk, County Louth. Three of the convenience stores have Maxol forecourts attached. My family have been involved in retail in Dundalk since the mid-1950s and like all RGDATA members, I operate an SME that is unique, distinctive, and a vital part of the local community. I live locally to my business and am in my store every day and employ almost 100 people locally. I support local suppliers and play an active role in the local community. Since the mid-1980s we have experienced and have had to deal with the Troubles in the North, cross-Border shopping and fuel laundering, foot and mouth disease, the crash in 2008 and the Covid-19 pandemic. In all that time, I have never been as worried about the viability of my business as I am now. We have seen practically all of our overhead costs rise dramatically and our gross margins have been squeezed due to price inflation on goods inwards and on raw materials. On behalf of the SME store owners represented by RGDATA, I can say that this is the most challenging and stressful time we have ever faced.

To give some examples, in just two of our two Centra stores the cost of rates, electricity and insurance have increased by more than 200% between 2019-20 and 2022-23. If our next ten ESB bills are the same as the last two, these three overheads, namely, rates, electricity and insurance, will cost over €200,000 more than they did three years ago. Added to this wage inflation, increases in other overheads, reduced margins and the possibility of a reduction in sales and I feel we are in the middle of a perfect storm. We see increases in the price of chicken, which is one of our biggest raw materials, of 80%, in bread of 40%, and in milk and cream of 40% to 50%. I want the committee to understand that cost increases of this magnitude are not sustainable in the medium term and will result in closures and job losses. We have already started to reduce the hours and curtail services to try to reduce our wage cost, which is the only overhead we have direct control over and that has any sizeable effect.

From next year, we will have phased increases to the living wage, the introduction of the sick pay scheme and changes to pensions, all of which will add to the cost of doing business. Throw in the proposed deposit return scheme and the latte levy and something will have to give. There is only so much that the sector can withstand.

I welcome the TBESS, as everything helps, but I respectfully ask the committee to look at the whole problem. Energy is only one piece of the jigsaw. We need supports to cover not just 40% of the increase in energy costs but the percentage of the increase in the total costs or else we will begin to see shops close. Once again, I stress to the committee that in 35 years of trading this is the first time I am anxious, concerned and afraid about the viability of all my businesses and the jobs they provide.