Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the way he proposes to help the retail sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52079/12]

John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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The retail and wholesale sector employs 258,000 people in Ireland, almost 15% of our total workforce. That sector has suffered heavy job losses in this recession, shedding over 55,000 jobs. The retail sector is very much dependent on domestic demand and this has suffered a substantial fall in the course of the crisis.

All of the Government programmes designed to restore economic confidence, economic sovereignty and international investment are part of the long-term restoration of the retail sector. Progress is being made on all of these fronts. We have already cut the lower rate of VAT, halved the lower rate of employers' PRSI and improved the employers PRSI exemption scheme and Revenue job assist for recruits from the live register. Recognising its importance to the economy, the action plan for jobs includes a number of specific measures aimed at supporting employment in the retail sector. These include improved access to finance through the microenterprise loan fund and the loan guarantee scheme, the enactment of legislation to reform the statutory wage setting mechanism, an audit of the licences required to start-up businesses, with a view to their simplification, and a renewed focus on prompt payments, the introduction of a statutory code of practice for grocery goods undertakings, the provision of support to retail firms seeking to internationalise, the provision of funding for the upskilling of workers in the sector and the promotion of the use of online tools to promote sales.

The retail sector must be innovative to overcome the difficulties posed by the current climate and our policies seek to support that innovation.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State but he should compare that answer to the answer given for the manufacturing sector, which had specific initiatives, task forces, reporting deadlines and job targets. This Government is doing nothing specific for the retail sector. The Minister of State listed the measures under the action plan for jobs, but nothing specific is being done by the Department to assist the retail sector, which is in huge distress at present. Fine Gael was elected promising to abolish upward only rent reviews, although it was aware that was not legally possible when it made that promise. The Minister of State talked about access to credit. When travelling the country to talk to retailers, the Minister of State hears directly from them that there is no access to credit in that sector.

We have four or five weeks ahead of us that will be make or break for many retailers for the next year. We accept that consumer demand is very weak but it is unacceptable that the Government has nothing specific in place to assist the retail sector apart from general responses from a document that essentially contains a lot of spin, accentuated by the specific focus and initiatives for manufacturing. Is there an assistant secretary in the Department who is in charge of retail and of the 258,000 working in that sector? As the Minister of State establishes the local enterprise offices, why has the retail sector been excluded from the process when it is the basis of local enterprise?

John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I totally disagree with Deputy Calleary on this issue. This Government has done a lot more than the last Administration.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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What is it doing?

John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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We have stated clearly what we are doing. We have brought in the loan guarantee and the microfinance schemes that the Fianna Fáil Party could not bring in. We have established the advisory group to Government and there are clear actions for job creation outlined in the action plan for jobs.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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What measures are specifically for the retail sector?

John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy must recognise the role of banks in retailing; it is all about viability. The policy of the last Government left 13,000 unoccupied square feet per head of population. That was Fianna Fáil's ideology.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Government has been in office for 18 months. What is it doing?

John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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The last Government talked about the microfinance loan fund for two years and we have introduced it.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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It took 18 months.

John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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It is now in place with the partial loan guarantee. We cut the lower rate of VAT, halved the lower rate of employers' PRSI and increased the employers' PRSI exemption. We introduced numerous initiatives and I can go through the action plan for jobs outlining each measure.

One of the first things we did was reform the wage setting mechanism. We extended employers' PRSI, encouraged all accountancy, taxation and legal services to lower their costs, brought in support at regional and local level to identify opportunity and we are listening to retailers. I was in Malahide last night at the meeting of the Retail Federation of Ireland and recently attended meetings in Kilkenny and Waterford. We have €3.5 billion lined up in the two main pillar banks to support viable companies. Banks are not going to give money to companies that will not repay it and it is our job to build competence and increase credit.

We are trying to raise confidence in the domestic economy, a difficult task. The last Administration left a legacy of 55,000 job losses in the retail sales sector due to low consumer demand. That is the problem in the whole sector, be it services, restaurants or hotels. That is the situation we inherited, a sector on the floor because absolutely nothing was done by the last Government for retailers.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Again, there are no specific proposals for retail. I accept the Minister of State is meeting people but he mentioned the €3.5 billion. At the Joint Committee on Finance and Public Expenditure meeting three weeks ago, AIB admitted that of the €3.5 billion, it was making only €600 million in new finance available to businesses. We have discussed this before. I welcomed the loan guarantee scheme and said it would be interesting to see how it rolls out. The reality on high streets around the country is that retail is suffering, it is in distress and this Government is offering nothing but platitudes.