Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do actually, I farm, probably more than Deputy McGrath. I was making the point that I agree with him but a younger generation would not get the comment about the cock of hay. It was just in jest. I thank the Acting Chair for the opportunity to speak on this important Bill. We are going to amend an important piece of legislation to ensure that small- and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, are recapitalised and have a steady flow of money that will in some way alleviate the pain they are going to face in the months ahead. It has been well covered in other speeches but I want to use my speaking time to address an issue that got a good deal of airtime today on the national radio stations. It was covered on the front page of the Irish Mirror. It is the story of Crowe’s Gala Shop in Sixmilebridge, County Clare. They are no relations of mine but they are people I know in the local community. They run a valued supermarket locally. On the front of that paper was Flora Crowe who is a young shopkeeper carrying on the family tradition of providing a store in the local community. Sixmilebridge is a community that does not have a SuperValu, Lidl, Aldi or Tesco supermarket. It is reliant on the service that the Crowes and the other major grocer in the village, the Flynns, provide. To give some context this is a relatively small supermarket. It could just about fit in the middle of the Chamber on the lower level. The Crowe family now face a bill of €20,000 for electricity. This is devastating. Last year they thought they had seen the bill to beat all bills with €6,500 going up to €8,000 on the following bill. Now it has gone up almost threefold to €20,000. This is a bill they simply cannot pay. On budget day the temporary energy support scheme was announced. It is a positive intervention that will reduce some of the pressure that SMEs will face this winter.

I looked on the Revenue website on 28 October. It has not been updated since. Business owners are checking it day in, day out to see how they can avail of this support. On that day it stated that further details on how to apply for and draw down the scheme would become available in the weeks ahead. That is almost a fortnight ago and businesses now need to know. The likes of Crowe’s Gala shop in Sixmilebridge and so many others are getting these bills in the post. They do not know when they will be able to engage with this, how they will apply to Revenue or when that portal will be open.

It is very important as well that some kind of reclassification is made in terms of small and medium-sized businesses. Crowe’s and Flynn's in Sixmilebridge, like many other stores around the country, are family-owned entities. They have the branding over the door, but they are family-owned entities. They do not have motherships like Dunnes Stores, Tesco, Lidl or Aldi to lean back on. When these bills come in, they risk not being able to pay and risk defaulting with their energy providers. That is of huge concern. This scheme cannot come in quickly enough. However, it needs to go beyond that. Some better detail and clarification is needed. On budget day, I heard that the intervention will cover up to 40% of gas and electricity bills. In money terms, that will be €10,000 per month. That might benefit the larger store very well, but it certainly would not in its current guise benefit the small family-run store. There is a need for some amendments in that regard.

Most of these supports will expire at the end of February. For the likes of Crowe’s shop and many other retail outlets, however, turning off the refrigeration or the ovens in the deli counter area will simply not be an option when they get to the end of February. These are stores that rely on food refrigeration and heating systems that simply operate on a 365-day basis. They do not get shut off. If the local store in Sixmilebridge was to close, there is nothing else. This is a community that relies on its local shop. As I have said, they do not have any of the giant supermarkets in their community; they rely on the local family-run store.

On supports for businesses, our farming community is very reliant on grant incomes. There is a huge farming community in Clare. In fact, Clare has the highest reliance on suckler beef systems in the country. About 85% of our farm systems in Clare are suckler beef. I note that Deputy Mattie McGrath has left the room. I am a suckler beef farmer. I was out this morning at 6.30 a.m., foddering cattle in the shed before getting suited and booted and coming up to the Dáil. That is how many rural people live.

I have concerns about the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, which is being introduced by the Minister, Deputy McConalogue. It is a good scheme but it does not bring everyone with it. The Burren programme has been running in the Burren area of north Clare, with its famous karst stone landscape, for many years. This very successful scheme has surpassed all expectations. There are approximately 400 farmers in the Burren who sustain that environment. They manage and maintain it better than anyone. They manage it so well that UNESCO has now granted it world geopark status. It is now being suggested that they should move forward with the Burren and Aran scheme in the ACRES programme. I am very concerned that there will be a loss of funding for them. For some of them, it will make it unviable. They simply will not want to be out foddering cattle be it on a full-time basis or before or after work. If they walk off the field, so to speak, it will be to the detriment of the Burren and once again we will see parts of that karst landscape with shallow soils returning to a hazelwood jungle. That is what it looked like for many years and that is what that landscape looks like when it is not appropriately maintained. I have spoken directly with the Minister, Deputy McConalogue. Farming is often cast aside as just a rural activity, but it is an enterprise and a business. It sustains many families in rural Ireland, including 400 in the Burren area and many more throughout Clare.

I conclude by welcoming this Bill that is before the Oireachtas. It is positive and progressive. However, the likes of the Crowe family, who are not related to me, need to have some certainty on those budget measures announced some weeks ago. In the interests of farmers, including those in the north Clare area, ACRES needs to be adjusted before it is fully implemented in the new year to take account of those who have been on other schemes that paid better and had greater inputs with better outcomes for the landscape.

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