Ms Sonya Duggan:

Our core funding increase this year was only 3 cent. My point is that this does not meet what is coming down the line with regard to voluntary pensions and increased sick leave. I know this affects all small businesses because it is in the newspapers. People are very worried about how they are going to meet the sick leave requirement and the 1.5% increase in pension contributions. Where is that money going to come from if I am already in what is pretty much a publicly funded model that is 100% funded by the Department? Where is the extra money for that and for the additional administration and accountancy costs and so on going to come from? It does not make sense. It does not add up. At the end of the day, core funding is basically just what we were receiving with the higher cap and the programme support payment rebranded. It is the same money given out and divvied up but with a lot of additional administration.