Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This amending Bill will recognise that no newly-redundant workers will have lost out on their reckonable service while they were temporarily laid off due to Covid-19 regulations. It also highlights these employees were not necessarily laid off and that they had not qualified for a State payment - the PUP or the jobseeker's allowance. The objective of this amending Bill is to address that gap. It allows the person to qualify for a Social Insurance Fund payment of €1,860. Employers are not liable for this shortfall in the period from March 2020. I understand the significance of the gap highlighted in this amending Bill and what this entails.

The Debenhams workers in Limerick and the way they were treated by an international company that moved its assets out of the country to another international company has already been mentioned in the Chamber. The company did that to get away from what it should have given the Irish Debenhams workers for the loyal service given to my county of Limerick and families and people who live there. They worked hard looking after the shop and the people of Limerick and the surrounding areas. Debenhams used a different international company to transfer the assets before the Government could do anything and that cannot happen again.

With rising fuel costs and costs of living in general in this country, how many more companies will fall short? How many of those will be small and medium enterprises, SMEs? We might see the same position with redundancies and although international companies might have many millions of euro, 51% of workers are employed by SMEs. There is currently a high cost of living and cost of running a business; there are high insurance costs across the board. These SMEs are being crippled as a result. International companies and those operating across the water can get stuff into this country much cheaper and they can be resupplied at a much cheaper rate than our SMEs. What happens to the people who will be forced into closure due to rising costs, which the Government could help with? I have already highlighted how this could happen with fuel costs.

There are also people in this country who through no fault of their own cannot work. I know one person who because of a late diagnosis of mental illness could not turn up to work. He did not qualify for a jobseeker's payment or any medical support. He cannot now get any funding while his wife and two children are trying to fight fires that are dropping all around him. They are trying to quench those fires so the family can survive but there is no recognition that the person has not worked at times over the past two years because of mental illness. They now know what was wrong but the family qualifies for nothing because it was not recognised when he was working. The period in question is two years and exceptional cases must be allowed for people to qualify in such circumstances.

I have been self-employed for more than 30 years. I look at my local publicans, shopkeepers and people in small industry around me who are like me. The legislation and criteria being put in place by us aimed at multinational companies will cripple our own economy, particularly the people who keep our children in summer jobs during college, for example. These people are trying to feed their families but we are crippling them with enforcement of regulations in this country. I need the Minister of State to help me get the Departments to understand what it is like to be somebody in an SME. Last night I spoke to such matters and I was corrected on one of my comments. I accept that. Nevertheless, I spoke as somebody in the Rural Independent Group, where most of us are self-employed. We bring to this Chamber real-life experience of people running a business outside this Chamber. We can see first-hand how other businesses struggle with insurance and the day-to-day running of their business while trying to keep the doors open. They are trying to compete with multinationals.

I have an example. In a city there are massive supermarkets but in my parish, which includes Granagh, Ballingarry and Croom, we have good sized shops but there is a smaller population. As a result the figures for food costs are slightly higher than what may be the case in the cities. What is in place to help SMEs outside a large populated area, as the costs for running the business are the same? If a business operates in a small parish, such as Granagh, and it is ratable, it provides for the community around it, including items such as fuel. That may be gas, coal, briquettes or whatever people want, but it needs them in large quantities so they can be some way affordable for those people. The business must stock all these different products to cover the area, which might have 400 or 500 people within a radius of five, six or seven miles. The rates paid in the county are the same as those paid in the city, despite such businesses not having a fraction of the footfall. These businesses are working for the community, however, and I can get my loaf of bread or milk without having to travel 20 miles or 30 miles to the nearest supermarket.

They are also a point where people can meet their neighbours; the hub of a parish. Years ago we had a pub in every parish but in some parishes we are lucky if there is a shop. There should be a hall, a church and facilities for GAA and soccer but the shop or SME is the hub. In our areas, they are so important to the communities. They are also important as they provide employment and a service to older people in our communities, including getting basic food items for the week.

I want us to consider what we can put in place for SMEs in this country that are providing a service for the rural people of Ireland in the likes of my county. What can we do to advise the Government and show what such companies can do on the ground? I mentioned Ballingarry, which has a supermarket used by people all around it. Again, that business does not have the same footfall as a business in the city. A shop in a city might have three or four different items and the neighbouring shop might have three or four different items and they can survive because of footfall. In the countryside, a shop must have everything people want in one shop.

A business is rateable on the size of a property and if there is a bathroom on the premises. That is a facility for somebody who may be passing through on their way to Kerry or Cork but it means the business is rateable if that person wants to go to the bathroom. All these elements must be examined and we must consider how we can keep our communities together and help them grow.

I support the legislation but it must go much further. I need the Minister of State's help within the Government to get people to understand rural living and the work of SMEs. It is not all about international companies. We can see what an international company did to the people of Limerick with the example of Debenhams. The action was too little, too late in that respect. I appreciate any help the Minister of State can give me in helping to protect SMEs.

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