Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his detailed reply. I again acknowledge the efforts he and his ministerial colleagues have made in getting the message out that this money is available and there is a simple and speedy application process. Quite rightly, the areas of retail and hospitality were identified for particular assistance. I have recently been engaging considerably with small-scale manufacturing, which is facing particular challenges as well. I am sure the Minister will engage with industry, particularly the smaller-scale enterprises. I spoke to the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, about this and he is very conscious of the need to ensure that it gets adequate support as well. I recently spoke to an employer who has approximately 30 employees. The biggest problems facing her at the moment are the cost of sick pay and pensions, and access to finance and credit. She says that access to credit is a real problem for small-scale manufacturing. I refer to businesses that are showing little or no annual profit and have been struggling in recent years through no fault of their own, but because of the various challenges that arose with the increased cost of business, market disruption, the Covid pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the increased energy costs. I would like particular emphasis to be placed on small-scale manufacturing, as the Minister has quite rightly done in respect of small-scale hospitality and retail. Even with the assistance that the Government is giving, many of those firms still face particular challenges in trying to survive and make their businesses viable.

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