Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To be very clear: we are very committed to the retail sector. That is why we are very focused on it in the Department and it is top of our agenda. It involves significant private sector employment, more than 300,000 jobs, albeit that during Covid approximately 70,000 were on the PUP. I hope to see the majority of them back at work.

I have been very clear; I have met with Mandate to discuss its proposals. The Tánaiste and I had a very good meeting with it. We believe we can manage this through the existing retail forum that has been set up and is working through our Department since 2014. We bring all the stakeholders together in the forum. It has proved to be very useful during our response to both Brexit and the pandemic in bringing together all the stakeholders involved throughout the sector, along with the unions as well. Mandate is represented on the forum by Gerry Light. We believe the opportunity exists to develop our response and future plans for the retail sector. We are engaging consultants to look to the future of retail and to set out all the areas we have to deal with in that regard. A major part will be the use of technology and the online opportunities for developing the skills of existing staff and bringing new staff into the sector. We want to see retail develop as a proper career option.

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