Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I can assure the Deputy that I talk to business owners all the time. I am the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and that is my job. What they are telling me is that, by and large, they are busy. The biggest problem they have at present is finding staff. That is the biggest issue that is brought to me from business, and not just in hospitality and retail but across the economy. They also tell they are struggling with very high increased input costs, particularly regarding energy, and other costs as well. I very much understand that. However, in terms of insolvencies, and the Deputy can check the figures for himself as they are publicly available, we have not seen a huge number of insolvencies, thankfully, at business level in recent years.

That may increase over the next few months because of the withdrawal of the employment wage subsidy scheme but we are seeing insolvencies that are at relative lows.

I do not know what the situation is in Malta. I will check it out. It might be that it has a special arrangement as it is a relatively new member of the European Union-----

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