Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)

It is important to remind ourselves that main street Ireland is closing down. There has been a shocking trend in recent years of businesses being unable to function. The Small Firms Association reckons that 62,000 businesses are in danger of closure and that 200,000 jobs are in danger of loss. There is an urgency in those numbers that no one can ignore. The major reasons for those closures is a shrinking of the amount of money within the system which I and many Members on this side of the House would say is because of the austerity measures being employed. The deficit has increased from €7 billion to €9 billion this year.

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