Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am thankful to Deputy Connolly for raising this issue because this has been a matter of considerable concern. Of these sectors, some have been naturally slower to open, particularly in the catering sector where people have been slow to plan events, exhibitions, and so on. It is a sector that is uniquely small in the number of employees, with fewer than ten. I am thinking of two in my own constituency which adapted throughout the pandemic to try to provide food in different ways but they are highlighting that theirs is a slower recovery, even when things are open, because of their dependence on people planning events into the future, such as exhibitions, weddings, big catering events and so on. Is there any capacity for that sort of sectoral analysis that provides additional supports to those small, particularly those microenterprises that Deputy Connolly has referred to, to be able to help them through?

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