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

I do not have those figures on me but I will certainly get them for Deputy Stanton. What we generally see is that any business that invests in the digitalisation agenda increases its sales as well as driving its innovation or its business. To allay concerns about online versus high street, the town centre first principal and approach is highly recommended in the programme for Government, and the framework to enable that work, which involves our Department, under the guidance of the Tánaiste, along with the Departments responsible for housing and rural affairs, will be ready for publication in the very near future. Deputy Stanton will have seen in the Housing for All document published just recently a drive towards town centre first. That will support housing, people living in our towns and villages and the development of retail and other businesses there. We really are committed on a regional basis, as well as addressing the difficulty in our cities now, to driving that town centre approach, which means people will be asked to spend money locally in the economy. That framework will assist, but I believe the combination of the two are required if we are to have a sustainable retail sector that can challenge, grow and create jobs. We know that prior to Covid there were nearly 300,000 jobs in the sector. We want to build on that. That can only happen with a physical presence as well as an online presence.

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