Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter and welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber.

The Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation launched a report in March of this year entitled "Policy Options to Support Business Growth and Job Creation in Town and Village Centres." I commend the chair of the committee, Deputy Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, the vice-chairman, Deputy John Lyons and all the members of the committee, across the parties, who engaged in the process and produced the report.

The committee heard evidence and received submissions on a wide range of issues to do with improving the conditions for businesses to thrive in town and village centres. These included issues such as rates and supports for businesses. Some four recommendations were made surrounding rate reform, reductions, upward only rent review and grant relief schemes. For example, one of the old chestnuts concerns the ability to vary rates for small corner shops rather than the local authorities having to reduce the rates for all businesses such as big out of town retailers or multiples. Unfortunately, this has not happened in the past four years.

In regard to online sales and digital hubs, the committee made two recommendations, namely, to expand the Government trading online voucher scheme, which has been deemed successful and that LEOs work with chambers of commerce etc. re online sales. Up to €6 billion is spent by Irish consumers on online sales per year, but only one third or less of this goes to Irish retailers. Only 23% of Irish companies engage in online sales.

In regard to business costs, there were two recommendations. These were to continue discussion between Government and banks re charges being levied and a co-ordinated campaign between Government and industry bodies to switch energy providers and provide a platform to allow businesses compare prices more easily. On promotion and marketing, we had one recommendation relating to tourism, that Tourism Ireland strongly market our towns and cities as shopping destinations. In regard to making town centres better places to visit, there were two recommendations, namely, the roll-out of town teams and the roll-out of the business improvement district model. On the high street innovation fund, the recommendation was to provide funding to local authorities to rejuvenate and regenerate our town centres. On car parking, a bugbear of many retailers, the recommendation is to provide free parking for several hours per day and to combat the over zealous issuing of parking tickets by our local authorities.

In regard to crime and safety, we recommend a strategic policing operation in urban centres to provide a safer shopping environment and higher visibility policing in conjunction with town teams and other stakeholders. I ask that these recommendations be acted upon by Government agencies and urge that the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, play a role in this. I commend its successful jobs action plan which has been rolled out over a number of years and urge that these initiatives be part of the 2016 jobs action plan. Before that comes into play, I urge the Department to engage on them. The recommendations should be acted on and the initiatives rolled out. The report should not be left on a shelf because it has some excellent recommendations.

The bigger picture here is that the population trends in this country are to Dublin and the east. The greater Dublin area accounts for approximately one third of the population and up to 50% of the population lives in Leinster. We need regional balance. In the west, in my constituency, for example, significant money is being spent currently, including €500 million on a new motorway - the M17/M18. This is welcome and will improve access to the area. We know the Government has a plan in regard to broadband and that this should go to tender at the end of the year to improve access. Both of these projects will include mobility and ease of movement for businesses, enabling growth in the regional areas. We need regional balance and we need to provide growth within our towns and incentives for job creation.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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I know that as a member of the Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Kyne has a genuine interest in seeing a recovery in the retail sector and has made a strong contribution in that policy area.

The retail sector is an important part of the social fabric of both rural and urban areas. The retail and wholesale sector employs more than 270,000 people and constitutes the largest sector of private employment in this country. It also indirectly supports jobs in sectors such as logistics and distribution and provides an important outlet for Irish products and produce. The wholesale and retail sector combined suffered losses of more than 45,000 jobs in the period between 2008 and 2012. In spite of employment growth in the economy generally in the past two years, employment growth in the wholesale and retail sector has been sluggish and somewhat inconsistent. A key objective of the retail consultation forum, which I chair, is to establish how industry and Government can work together to support the recovery of jobs in the sector.

As chair of the forum, I very much welcomed the report published by the committee in March. One of the key issues raised with me by retailers, as chairman of the forum, was the need to focus on actions that can be taken to support retail in town centres around the country. A number of different Departments and agencies and local authorities across the country are directly responsible for this area. We want to work closely with all of the stakeholders to ensure we can advance practical policy measures to effect real change in our town centres.

Shortly after publication of the report I convened a special meeting of the retail consultation forum on 27 April to discuss it. I invited Senator Feargal Quinn, a member of the committee, to address the meeting to highlight the main elements of the report. There are 15 recommendations in the Oireachtas committee's report which covers a wide range of issues. Our objective in the retail forum was to identify the recommendations considered most feasible for delivery, whether from within the public sector or by the private sector. On the basis of our discussions, the recommendations in the committee's report identified by the forum as holding particular potential for action centred on, for example, developing training for retailers in online sales and social media and highlighting the increased cost of bank charges and other administrative burdens on retailers. These issues were raised directly with me when I visited Galway recently with my colleague, Deputy Derek Nolan. I discussed them with retailers at the invitation of my colleague. Another recommendation was to explore how retailers might get improved deals from energy providers, for example, as is the case in the hotels industry, and the identification of towns that might be suitable for a pilot approach to the town teams model referenced in the committee's report and also by Deputy Seán Kyne. These and other recommendations for implementation will be considered further by the forum in the autumn. We are in the process of nuancing it.

I am strongly of the view that a collaborative approach on the part of retailers is the most effective way to implement some of the recommendations made in the report. My Department will be happy to continue to support and assist retail bodies in whatever way it can, including, potentially, through the setting up of working groups within the retail consultation forum if we consider it appropriate to drive forward some of the recommendations.

As part of the eight regional Action Plan for Jobs strategies the Government has introduced this year, Enterprise Ireland is accepting proposals under a new community enterprise initiatives fund. Retail bodies might be interested in exploring opportunities to support the recovery of town centre retailing. Some retail bodies are very interested in pursuing potential funding through this stream. I believe the Deputy is aware of the full details of the call for proposals. The closing date for receipt of applications under the scheme is 10 July.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I acknowledge the work of the retail consultation forum which the Minister of State chairs. It is very positive that he is taking on board the recommendations made in the report published in March on the retail sector and the areas identified in the report. Small towns need to be the drivers of growth and recovery. As well as doing all we can to encourage job creation and job retention in existing businesses, we must encourage people back onto the main street of town centres. We must incentivise the development of derelict and vacant sites for commercial and residential use. We must get people back living on main streets. In the 1960s there were towns in the Minister of State’s county and elsewhere where 150 people were living but today there might only be ten. People have moved out and there is now dereliction or high vacancy rates in town centres. We must examine every measure we can to incentivise the development of town centres. We must also stop penalising development. For example, local authorities impose development contributions on developments on main streets. I accept that they must fund themselves, but we must incentivise development on main streets. We must consider living over shops, a subject in which my colleague, Deputy Michelle Mulherin, has a particular interest, to rejuvenate such areas. We must get people back into town centres and encourage business. In areas where commercial businesses have moved out we must allow for changes from commercial use to residential use where this is sustainable in town centre areas. We must encourage the provision of a mix of housing, not just social housing, within towns.

Property rights are protected in the Constitution, rightly so, but we must incentivise development. If people refuse to make town centre properties available for housing or other use, the introduction of a stick approach should be considered. If we continue to allow rural towns to die, the regional imbalance that is evident which has progressed in recent years will continue. I encourage the continuation of policies to get people back into town centres and allow businesses to grow. The more footfall there is and the more people there are living in them the better, including people from new communities who are more used to rental accommodation and city and town centre living. We must encourage such an approach.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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I thank the Deputy for his contribution to this debate on the ongoing work of the committee and his input into its report. The importance the Government is placing on the retail sector is reflected in the fact that there are 12 discrete actions in the 2015 Action Plan for Jobs designed to support recovery in the retail sector. They includes a commitment to review the recommendations made in the Oireachtas joint committee's report. Apart from these recommendations, public bodies have been progressing other recommendations in the Action Plan for Jobs relevant to the issue. The County and City Management Association recently published a series of best practice initiatives which are being taken by local authorities to support retail development at local level and which could serve as exemplars for other local authority areas.

The Deputy has referred to the local enterprise offices which are rolling out the trading online voucher scheme on behalf of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. I am delighted to be associated with the scheme because it is very effective. This week the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Alex White, the Taoiseach and I awarded the one thousandth online trading voucher to a company from Kilkenny. I had a very interesting conversation yesterday in connection with the award. We were in a shop in Dawson Street, a relatively new business, Kingsize, that is performing well in terms of online sales. We were struck by the fact that, to an extent, we had been missing a trick in this country in recent years in building an online trading presence for retailers. When a shop’s shutters go down at 6 p.m., the business can still operate and make money by retaining a presence online. The conversation in that regard really struck home with me. Such an approach makes money for businesses, keeps people in employment and adds jobs also.

When we awarded the one thousandth voucher, the Minister, Deputy Alex White, launched a report on the impact of the scheme to date. A survey of 225 companies that had received trading online vouchers showed there had been an average increase in sales of 21%, which is phenomenal. A total of 71% of the companies surveyed expected to take on staff to cover increased sales. The average number of new jobs is 1.4 per business in a sector that has been struggling in recent years for a variety of reasons. As the economic recovery accelerates and we put more money back into people’s pockets in terms of tax and USC reforms, we hope the performance of the retail sector will improve. This is an opportunity for retailers to gain a competitive advantage.

In the retail consultation forum we have also been looking at a host of other areas, for example, upskilling and career paths in the retail sector. There are career opportunities, but too few workers see the retail sector as a viable career option. We must professionalise the sector. We have a strong story to tell and are good at retailing in this country. I would like to see Ireland become a retail destination as that would provide opportunities for us.

Reference was made to the living city initiative in the context of trying to bring people back into city and town centres. That could improve the position in terms of encouraging over-the-shop living. We want town and city centres to become 24-7 spaces, not simply spaces where people go to work and shop between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. each day but vibrant, dynamic places with vibrant and dynamic communities. Some of the changes the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, wishes to introduce for vacant sites will also help. The pilot initiative introduced by the Minister of State, Deputy Ann Phelan, for rural economic development zones, REDZ, schemes could also help local authorities to revitalise rural towns and villages, in particular.