Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Small shops are being wiped out by big business, which has the ear of Government. Recently at the Galway Races big businesses went into the tents and got their way because the Minister gave in as he did a long time ago. Dunnes and Tesco control most of the market now. Not long ago we had no Sunday shopping. Now we have shopping seven days a week and 24 hours a day. People used to say England was a pagan country. In England there is respect for Sunday as a day for religion or family. Small businesses will be badly affected by this Competition Bill. While I want to see competition I also want to see fairness and protection for small businesses but that will not happen. Instead the big companies will grow bigger.

I recently read in the newspaper that Tesco has identified another 100 stores for Ireland. Not alone is it entering big towns and cities but it is now prepared to go into small towns of 2,000 and fewer. In County Mayo there are three major towns, Castlebar, Ballina and Westport. Ballina has Tesco, Dunnes, Aldi and all the supermarkets. What will happen to Kiltimagh, Swinford, Westport and Louisburg? All the shops in these areas have been put out of business by supermarkets. It was bad enough in the past when Dunnes was at it, and now we have Tesco which takes its profit out of the country, pays little tax and operates its business outside the State while our own people are not protected.

I remember a factory in Westport that made underwear for a certain store here. Every week the store said it could buy this product cheaper elsewhere and of course it did. It closed the factory and the industry and avails of cheap labour abroad to bring cheap clothes here. Dunnes did the same with bread. It bought its bread for the entire country from Neville's of Cork. That bakery is no longer in operation but meanwhile every small bakery in the country — and one must remember that each bakery employed people who worked, lived and shopped in that town and sent their children to school there — closed because big business grew bigger.

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