Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to come back in. When I talk about retail, it would be remiss of me not to mention my late mother. She ran a shop all her life and worked herself to the bone. I remember that when I was thinking of dropping out of school, she gave me very salient advice. She said if I wanted to find out how popular I was, I should open my open business or go into politics. Sadly, I did not listen to her. That is just an aside.

These businesses are very much the bedrock of rural Ireland. They are the shops and the retailers that were there through Covid and looked after us. They are the small local businesses and medium businesses that can reach out to the elderly and those who are struggling with mental health issues. People I have spoken to have told me that they shop in a particular shop, and only reason they go there is because the staff stop and say hello to them. These businesses are doing untold work for our society and communities.

We have had many achievements, but we really cannot be let it be a stain on the legacy of this Government that we made it harder for these businesses to do business in rural Ireland. Certainly, we welcome the ICOB scheme. It has a lot of merit in it, but it does exclude some businesses. I fear that it is not going to go far enough in the scale of supports that these businesses need. In fairness, the businesses are not coming, cap in hand; they are coming with a proposal. Over the coming weeks we have an opportunity to look at the proposal for the abolition of PRSI for lower-earning workers over a three-year period in 2024, 2025 and 2026. I think that would give these businesses sufficient opportunity to come to terms with the increased costs. More importantly, it would also be of huge benefit to those workers in terms of the challenges that they face economically as well. It is a point that these businesses have articulated to me and it is one that I hope the Minister of State can bring back to the Department of Finance to put some meat on the bone. I think it is a realistic and viable solution for these businesses in the challenging 18 months ahead.

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