John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Connell for raising this very important matter. I too was disappointed to hear of the difficulties experienced by the iconic Waltons music shop. It is very famous for its musical instruments, but particularly famous for sheet music. Musicians would come from all over the country to buy there.

I recognise that retail is hugely important in the fabric of towns and communities the length and breadth of Ireland. Almost one in seven people in employment in Ireland is working in the retail sector and the vast majority of these are in small businesses.

The Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, as the chair of my Department’s retail consultation forum, is engaging with retailers and retail representative bodies on the current key issues facing the sector, of which there are many. Through the forum, we are working on initiatives to both support retailers to build online capability and to enhance their cost competitiveness, and also to address the need for renewal of our town and village centres.

In 2017, the forum’s retail and town centre renewal working group published "A Framework for Town Centre Renewal", a reference document for stakeholder groups that sets out the key characteristics of a successful town centre and which identifies existing supports and best practice examples from around the country. It includes an action plan for town centre renewal which is intended to be a blueprint for towns and villages and to guide them through the three stages of town centre renewal: stakeholder engagement, carrying out a town centre health check, and preparing a town centre plan. Initiatives such as this are providing local groups with practical tools to make their town and village centres better places in which to work, shop and live.

It is important to note that the retail sector is currently undergoing a period of change as traditional modes of trading are accompanied by significant growth in online retailing, as we are all aware. The habits of consumers are changing and online retailing is rapidly becoming the norm. This rapid digital transformation of the retail sector and the competition from sophisticated international business models is a challenge to the domestic retail sector that needs to be turned into an opportunity. The internationalisation of retail means that Irish shops can now compete for business in a global market. Our support to the sector includes a focus on building digital capability within businesses in order to develop a competitive online offer to win back domestic sales and compete in the global marketplace.

The Deputy may be aware of the trading online voucher scheme, delivered by the local enterprise offices, LEOs, which was introduced in 2015 to provide training and matching funding to microbusinesses seeking to trade online. It is a very good scheme. It is a voucher scheme for businesses which have no more than ten employees, have less than €2 million in turnover, have been trading for at least two years, and are located within a local enterprise office's area. It is a pretty good scheme which appears to be working well. More than 1,200 vouchers were approved in 2015, some 1,140 in 2016, and a similar amount in 2017. Results from businesses in receipt of the voucher show that their sales increased by 20%, which is a dramatic increase.

To build on this, my Department is exploring the development of a pilot programme for the retail sector to support small and medium-sized retailers to scale up their domestic and international online trading activity. Through the retail consultation forum, a working group on skills for the retail sector is also looking at initiatives to assist with building digital skills capability in retail businesses. However, I also note that Walton’s music shop, which the Deputy referenced in her question, already has an online presence. In this regard, as a Government we must be mindful of the other issues, besides competition from online retailers, that are leading to businesses closing their high street premises.

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