Mr. Neil McDonnell:

On disability, employers are very keen to help but there are significant knowledge and finance costs involved in employing people with disabilities. As part of a consortium with Chambers Ireland and the Irish Business Employers Confederation, IBEC, we ran the employer disability information service until the end of 2019. It was not renewed by the National Disability Authority, to our great regret, despite us corresponding with the whole of the Government in the lead-up to the termination of that. We are determined to do our best and put our best foot forward but we must resource small businesses to do that.

On the CSRD, not alone is the directive going to be very substantial, but we have also written to the Government, MEPs and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment about the report of the JURI committee, which followed that directive last November and advocates an even more stringent version of the CSRD. None of this is badly-intentioned. It is hugely well-intentioned but there is an absence of understanding in the European Parliament of what it means for a small business to, for instance, evaluate the value chain of a tea supplier in Kenya or a clothing manufacturer in China. Realistically, it is not possible.

If we want to go the route of the CSRD in the way it has been vocalised in Europe, we may as well just say we are no longer interested in having small businesses in the value chain. As we have already heard, what will happen is that big businesses, but also local authorities and the State, will not contract with businesses that are not able to validate their supply chain all the way down. That will just kill off a lot of small importers.