Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not believe there is anyone in this entire building who has not been contacted by those in business. I thank the Regional Group for bringing this motion forward and giving us the opportunity to debate. We know the issues being faced by micro, small and medium enterprises. We have often had an over-and-back in relation to energy costs. There is an accommodation crisis and a property crisis. We know the cost of rents. No doubt this is a significant factor in the costs for businesses and this is before one even talks of rates. We know the issues we have had for a considerable period around insurance and public liability. Some moves have been made in that regard but with a lot of them we should probably have been in the place we are now a lot earlier. I believe that a further journey has to be made with regard to insurance companies. There is an element of ensuring we keep the pressure on. This is before anybody has to look at any sort of capital outlay and particularly for building costs. Businesses will welcome any sort of injection of cash or anything that helps them at this point. Everybody has spoken about the issues currently facing the hospitality sector.

As for the increased cost of business scheme, there are question marks around the timeline and how easy it will be for those to access it. We know from a lot of businesses that this will not cut the mustard. I will not start naming places in my home town of Dundalk that have spoken to me on it as they probably would not thank me for it but the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment has said in a lot of these cases - especially hospitality businesses that are involved in food production - there are real difficulties and there would be a need for some sort of targeted scheme. We need to deal with that. The point has definitely been made in relation to the temporary business energy support scheme and the fact that €1 billion of underspend could have been reprofiled. We definitely could have simplified that system. We have to look at doing this a lot better. We welcome the moves on warehousing tax debt but many of these things could have been simplified a lot earlier. I seek some detail on what is being proposed for the hospitality sector.

While I have the Minister of State in front of me, we have spoken before on manufacturing and a particular manufacturing company, Enterprise Ireland and engagement. At times, their added cost can sometimes be offset by capital outlay, which would allow them to operate on a wider level. I will come back to the Minister of State and the senior Minister on the matter of PayPal and Glen Dimplex and the need for Government engagement, especially on the case of workers in Marks and Spencer with 57 job losses in Drogheda.

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