Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

At the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment this morning, we met representatives from the SME community and listened to the tsunami of difficulties facing small and medium-sized businesses in this country. They range from energy bills to delays in accessing energy grants and rebates, on top of rising rates, insurance problems and town planning issues, which are crippling many businesses coming up to Christmas.

The representatives have asked for two things. First is the inclusion of ISME on the board of the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, which I previously brought up in this House. Second is the creation of a body to help non-exporting businesses access export markets in terms of the domestic economy. I ask one more thing. Given the significant problems in the indigenous sector, will the Government look at developing an emergency task force to look at the incredible challenges facing small business? Otherwise, we will have a raft of business redundancies and unemployment in the new year.

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