Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan.

I thank the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, for being here to listen to my plea. I very much support today's resolution and the CRSS, but I have to use my time to point out an anomaly with it. Before I do that, I would like to day the Government is extremely well-placed to adjust and increase supports, given, on the one hand, the better-than-expected performance in respect of corporation tax and Exchequer revenue generally. Second, as alluded to by other speakers, when initially profiled, the cost of some €80 million per week was foreseen, while we all acknowledge that those in receipt of the CRSS are most welcoming of it and it will certainly assist them in this never-ending misery in terms of their prospects for surviving. As was also mentioned earlier, the cost of the scheme at the moment is less that one quarter of what was budgeted. In addition, in budget 2021 we voted for a contingency budget, which is included. The scope is certainly there and I appeal to the Minister to act on it.

There are approximately 17 nationwide wholesalers relevant to supporting the on-trade. There are approximately five in my area in the north-west, and they are spread throughout the country. They employ up to 800 people and all are family-run. Historically, they were known as wholesale bottlers. Some 90% of their customers are closed and 90% of their orders are gone. In practice, these wholesalers act as a credit line to the on-trade. For example, in one instance, at the beginning of the pandemic, let us say, 15 March 2020, a wholesaler with an annual turnover of €11 million was owed approximately €1.8 million, and had to enter into payment plans for this. That is a huge issue. Of course, the other supports are available to them, but they are nowhere near enough. They cannot compete and they do not supply the multiples directly.

They only supply the on-trade businesses, including gastropubs, hotels and so on, which are not open.

There are 17 family businesses in this situation, involving 800 people to whom we can afford to extend the scheme. There are only 17 of them, as I said, and we should extend cover to them. In my own area, for example, MCM Brands in Ballyshannon, County Donegal has 18 employees. That is 18 pay packets every week and 18 families affected in a town that has suffered greatly, through many generations, from neglect by consecutive Governments. Kelly & Co wholesalers, Gill's and G. McFadden & Sons, all in County Donegal, are in the same boat. Drino Drinks in County Leitrim is another example. These people are expected to stand still on the wage subsidy and, in effect, put their businesses at a complete disadvantage, without hope of recommencing supply to the trade after the fact. Indeed, many on-trade pubs, having made their Christmas orders and with their stores full, had to close at Christmas, understandably, with the pandemic numbers the way they are, and the wholesalers are expected to take the stock back. They do so, of course, because that is what they do.

I urge the Minister to extend this scheme. We have the money to do it, both by way of the extra taxation revenue and because the scheme is undersubscribed, as other Deputies noted, to the extent that only some €20 million or less is being used on it per week. As a colleague and a Government backbencher, I ask the Minister to extend the scheme for the small number of businesses involved. There are 17 of them nationally and 800 families affected. I ask that we give them the support from the CRSS that they deserve.

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