Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

There is no doubt that some small businesses in particular sectors like hospitality, small cafés, some retail and so on are struggling. We all come across them. There are certainly plenty of businesses in Dún Laoghaire town that are struggling and deserve and need assistance. However, I warn strongly against any idea that the way to help those struggling businesses is to attack, undermine and delay improvements in workers' wages and conditions. The Government is putting forward worrying signals, some of which are included in the narrative around this or in the actual proposals for a delay in the increase in sick leave. If it does that, the Government will be cutting off its nose to spite its face.

I was listening to Newstalk this morning and there was an economist talking about the issue of consumer confidence. He made the point that consumer confidence at the moment is stagnant. It is down a bit is the way he put it. It is not a collapse, but it is down a bit, and he described that as worrying. Why is that important? One of the main sources of revenue and income for the small and struggling businesses in Dún Laoghaire - I am sure it is the same in every town and village in the country - is the workers who spend money in those small businesses, coffee shops and all the rest of it. If they feel like the cost of living is increasing and they have less money in their pockets, they will spend less in those businesses. It is really simple. The workers from one business go for lunch or their sandwiches and coffee in the business next door or a few doors up. The same economist made the point that despite the fact that inflation increases have reduced somewhat, the overall cost of living is 20% higher than it was before the inflation crisis started.

That is an increase in real terms of one fifth in the cost of living, and he connected these two things. Because of massive energy price hikes, the cost of rents and other accommodation and so on, consumer confidence is potentially stagnating. In that context, the idea the Government would put the brake on increasing people's wages, when the cost of living has significantly increased for them, is a mistake. It will cut off its nose to spite its face and badly damage and impact on the very businesses it is trying to help.

Furthermore, Michael Taffe makes the very interesting observation, looking at the operating profit per employee, that the productivity of workers has gone up. While small businesses are struggling, it is not because of the cost of workers. According to his figures, in hospitality, the gross profit divided by the number of employees in 2019 was €6,100 per employee per year. By 2021, it had gone up to €10,900 per employee. In 2019, it was €11,600; in 2020, it was €15,900; and in 2021, it was €17,500. Workers generate profit and income for small businesses. We should not look, therefore, to attack workers' rights, as the Government is doing, by putting the brakes on improved sick leave or, indeed, sending warning shots to the Low Pay Commission that it should not increase the minimum wage to the living wage, which workers badly need, not least because of the cost-of-living crisis.

What should the Government do, therefore? It should not do that, for one. Workers should resist that and it is a big mistake by the Government. I think it is a pre-election play for small business - that is what it looks like - but it is a mistake. The Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, said Deputies on the other side of the House do not make suggestions. For at least a decade in this House, I have been arguing, in line with our policy in People Before Profit, that we should have a progressive rates system. It is absolutely crazy that the likes of banks, Tesco and other big businesses that are highly profitable, of which there are many, are paying the same rates or even less, given there could be a struggling small business that is big in size and is paying very high rates, on the one hand, while a very profitable business that has a physically smaller building could be paying less, on the other hand. The rates system should be progressive and be based on revenue and profitability. We should also do something about the profiteering of energy companies, which have increased energy costs for business, and about the profiteering of insurance companies, but we should not attack workers in the name of protecting small business because that is unfair on workers who have been crippled by the cost of living and it would be a big mistake that will ultimately come back to haunt the small businesses the Government says it wants to protect.

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