Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would robustly point out that the Government is listening to the SME sector. That is demonstrated by our warehousing of debt at 0% for those who experienced difficulties over the Covid period. Some €20 billion has been put in towards Covid and Brexit, with €12 billion put in through the past two budgets. We have halved inflation, which is a key metric of business. Energy costs are coming down substantially. We want to see that being passed on to businesses, and indeed consumers. The 9% VAT rate relating to the energy sector is hitting businesses right now and there are 15 interventions that we have done through the SME package which was brought forward and approved by the Government last week. It clearly demonstrates that this Government, through every step of uncertainty in the past four years, has been front and centre in supporting businesses. In some cases, we put them on life support and ensured they were able to survive and, when restrictions were lifted, we took out the jump leads to restart them. Our economy took off like a rocket. We have 2.8 million people employed in this economy. We are here to protect and grow that and to ensure that businesses can survive, grow and prosper into the future.

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