Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

When the current Tánaiste was Taoiseach, he visited Castleknock village to hear directly from our local businesses about the cost of doing business. Since then, some of our vacant units have been sold or leased, and we look forward to them all opening. However, last Friday another business closed, which had been operating for more than 20 years. As a community we want our village stores, salons, cafés and restaurants to succeed and thrive. The Tánaiste is delivering on the commitments he made that day by reducing VAT for hospitality and hairdressing, and cutting the cumulative cost of business and regulations through the establishment of a cost-of-business advisory forum. I am asking him today to give those local business owners a prominent voice in that process, to include a three-week consultation period and to invite them to have their say. If he listens directly to local small businesses, they will tell him where the real cost pressures are, especially the many publicly imposed charges and levies that they face. Not all independent, enterprising local businesses are represented by industry bodies, but they are just as important for jobs and for vibrancy.

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