Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

What plan has been put in place for small-time retailers who may be opening sometime soon? While we promote, tell and encourage people to shop online, most of these small-time retailers in my constituency of Meath West do not trade online. Even if they did trade online, they could not compete with the corporations and big companies. I spoke to a small retailer in Oldcastle this morning who pays €2,500 each year to Meath County Council for rates. There are hundreds of such businesses in counties Meath and Westmeath. Those small businesses pay the main rates base in those counties. If we do not look after them, the rates base in Meath and Westmeath, and similar counties, will be destroyed in the long term when the Covid-19 pandemic is over. We must, therefore, get a plan in place and look after these small retailers. This is their second busiest month of the year and December is not too far away.

See this speech in context