Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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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.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak during this debate. First, I congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, and wish her well.

Business and, indeed, all of enterprise is going through a period of rapid transition. Just looking out the back window, there was the financial crisis, followed by the Covid closures, the Ukraine crisis and the impact that has had on supply chains. Businesses have been buffeted repeatedly and, in the longer term, two huge transformations are coming, namely, the move to net zero and the sustainable use of resources, and the impact of digitisation and, in particular, artificial intelligence. Any of these changes coming individually would be a challenge, but they are all coming together and potentially that will be enormously disruptive.

The short-term difficulties are very real. We have seen the impact on not only cost but also demand, particularly from remote working and the changed lifestyles people are leading, and the change in the supply of labour, which has also been impacted by the availability of remote working and the greater difficulty in filling shifts, such as in the hospitality sector. I see many pressures coming onto such businesses, even more from the side of not being able to get staff than from the cost side. People who had thought that at this stage in their lives they would be able to take a more relaxed role in their business are absolutely up front. I really welcome, therefore, the package that is being debated here. I welcome the short-term measures on the cost side, but I particularly welcome the initiatives on the energy side, the innovation side and the skills side.

We are genuinely going through an industrial revolution of an enormous scale, given the force of transformation to reach net zero in the space of 25 years and to accommodate artificial intelligence, which really started to impact only towards the end of 2022. In two years, we will be transforming the face of many enterprises. We can see that creeping in certain areas but it will rise to a gallop. Those forces of change, in my view, are unstoppable and it can be sad at times to hear voices in this House saying forces such as moving to net zero are something we have an option to opt out of. Those farms or businesses that decide they are going to seek to opt out of the wind-down of fossil fuel or the reduction in other types of damaging emissions will be the ones whose businesses will not be viable in ten years. It is those that recognise that change has to be made, that seek to adapt and be agile, that will have a prosperous future.

The key challenge for the Government, however, is to recognise the pace of change which which enterprise is now going to have to live. The take-up of local enterprise office and Enterprise Ireland initiatives is very low in the area of energy efficiency measures, let alone in regard to moving to assess the impact of digitisation. There is a very slow process, and the challenge for many small businesses is they simply do not have the capacity to plan for those longer term challenges. There is a massive onus on the Government, therefore, to work with enterprise, both small and large, to anticipate the type of change and to sketch out for business where opportunities can arise. I commend decisions that have been taken, some of which I was proud to be involved in myself, such as the roll-out of the national broadband plan, which is truly transformative infrastructure that will gear up people for a new world, but we have not done enough to develop the opportunities that can arise on the back of it. Where are the strategies for the remote delivery of healthcare or education? There is the online voucher but that is a rather tame approach to the transformative nature that national broadband should be providing.

Offshore renewable energy is truly our moonshot, as the former Taoiseach used to describe it, but we need to recognise the pressure we are putting on cloud infrastructure companies, which are the feedstock for artificial intelligence and the ICT industry, in the short term. If we choke those in the short term to get over difficulties we have in our climate budgeting, we could easily jeopardise sectors that will be vital to the longer term utilisation of this moonshot opportunity. We need to be very careful, therefore, not to undermine some of the critical private sector infrastructure that will open the doors to not only the success of their own enterprises but also the opportunity for many small start-ups and businesses to thrive in their wake.

We have not yet traced out how a net-zero environment can be compatible with prosperous and thriving agriculture, in particular, and the food sector, in general, and that leaves a lot of people uncertain and uneasy about the coming change. We need to accelerate our capacity to portray what that changed future will be for farmers who are starting out in their lives or want to see what it will be such that they will still have prosperous farms in ten years.

We need to be braver. The former Taoiseach said one regret he had was that we were not bolder when reaching decisions. There is a natural caution but the pace of change we now face into is not compatible with an approach of caution. It must be more one of calculated risk-taking.

In the area of human resources, we will face massive changes. The OECD described our leaving certificate as one that is creating second-class robots. Artificial intelligence and the pace of change that is coming will put massive pressure on the adequacy of our education system. We need to think much more seriously, not only about reform for those who are now in school but, even more important, for those who are now at work whose jobs are facing very significant changes. The Minister of State, with her background being in this sector, is particularly well-equipped to look at that. The €1.5 billion training fund surplus the Minister of State pointed to should be focused in a very strategic way on equipping us to deal with these challenges.

Ireland needs to take a leadership position in equipping ourselves to adapt to the world that artificial intelligence will open up. It will create regulatory challenges and we should be the first to roll out and effectively implement the EU legislation in this arena and show we can deliver best practice in regulation. I believe best practice in regulation will be the environment in which best enterprise practice will also thrive. In the long term, it is only the responsible use of AI that will yield returns. We need to look more aggressively at what the uptake in the public service of artificial intelligence will mean. How will it transform the services we are delivering? How will we evolve education and skills? How will we make compact sustainable development, which is what we all need? We do not deliver compact sustainable development in this country. We build house estates and then build schools ten years late. We cannot be compatible with the sort of sustainable society we are trying to create if we do not have capacity to invest in a timely way.

We need to look at reformed public service structures that help us to plan for the pace of change that will hit our enterprises and our society. I fear we need to think afresh about that if we are to do it. The traditions of reliability, consistency and caution that are so strong in our public service need to be now tempered by a capacity to build internally the resources that can anticipate and agilely change systems in time to be at the leadership end rather than the laggard end of these massive changes. That is a serious challenge we need to anticipate. I know some Members of the House talk about a future commission. It do not think that would do it because it would hive off anticipation of that to some little group of experts in the corner. It has to be mainstreamed in the business of every Department. It is a challenge, in particular to the Taoiseach's Department and the Department of public service, to spearhead these challenges in a new way.

Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent)
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The Regional Group and I have remained steadfast in our commitment to advocating for the prosperity and growth of SMEs within our towns and villages to ensure that the voices and needs of small business owners are not only heard, but also acted upon. Microenterprises and SMEs are not merely a segment of our economy, they are its very pulse. SMEs constitute 95% to 98% of all businesses, produce 50% of GDP and generate 1.2 million jobs in Ireland, representing 99.8% of active enterprises. Their ability to innovate, generate employment and contribute to regional development makes them indispensable.

Many SMEs, including rural and regional businesses, have been hit by a wave of cost drivers. They have to deal with the cumulative impact of increases in energy, inflation and insurance along with enhanced wage costs as workers seek higher wages to compensate for higher living costs and on the back of successive increases in the national minimum wage and higher PRSI. For example, the minimum wage was increased to €12.70 in January but employers argue they were landed with higher costs because the PRSI threshold for the higher rate remained the same. On top of this, local businesses in my constituency of Louth and east Meath have highlighted their concerns over plans for pension auto-enrolment and extended sick-pay entitlements on top of VAT increases. SMEs are finding it very difficult to continue trading. According to the Restaurants Association of Ireland, the single biggest driver of costs, accounting for €37,000, relates to the increased VAT rate, which is why I and my colleagues in the Regional Group brought a motion in February to cut VAT and PRSI rates for struggling SMEs.

I am grateful that the new Minister for enterprise, Deputy Peter Burke, has listened and taken action. The new enterprise support package for small and medium-sized businesses, particularly those in the hard-pressed hospitality sector, signals a new approach to addressing the very significant competitiveness pressures facing businesses.

According to PwC, SME insolvencies accounted for 85% of the total recorded in the first three months of this year. Four out of every eight insolvencies were within the hospitality and retail sectors. These numbers do not capture the many small businesses that are currently teetering on the edge of insolvency or those that decided to shut up shop before they went bankrupt. The Government needs to target these businesses with this plan, the centrepiece of which will allow them to claim up to €10,000 back against their commercial rates.

The increased cost of business grant was very well received in Louth, so it is great to see it reopened for new registrations, as well as the announcement that a second payment will be made to all businesses in the retail and hospitality sectors, as these are the businesses most exposed to increased costs. This will mean a further payment of up to €5,000 will be available to all such businesses, paid directly into their bank accounts. On top of this, it is encouraging to see the increase in energy grants. Any business in my constituency of Louth and east Meath, and indeed across the country, that wants to upgrade its equipment to ensure better energy efficiency and lower bills will now only have to pay 25%, with the Department providing a 75% grant of up to €10,000. An example of equipment covered includes heating or lighting upgrades.

One of the Government's 2024 goals is to actively promote loans among entrepreneurs, especially among minority groups such as women, migrants, seniors, youth and people with disabilities, to ensure that these missing entrepreneurs have an opportunity to start a business and realise their dreams. This aligns with the 2020 programme for Government, which includes a commitment to scale up Microfinance Ireland in order to support greater numbers of small businesses and start-ups in accessing finance. Increasing the lending limit for Microfinance Ireland loans to €50,000 from €25,000 and launching a new Ireland’s best entrepreneur programme to encourage entrepreneurship and start-ups in under-represented groups are promising steps forward.

Nevertheless, although the grants are available to approximately 143,000 businesses across the State, it must be noted that, with the deadline imminent, a low percentage of businesses have registered for the support package offered by the Government in the budget. While launching the new online national enterprise hub within this plan for SMEs to access information on the wide range of Government business supports is welcome, we need to consider why businesses are not registering. From speaking with people in various businesses in my constituency, the process needs to be simplified.

It is also important to note the interdepartmental work progressing within this support package. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, has confirmed that she will increase the employer PRSI threshold from €441 to €496 with effect from 1 October 2024. This means that employers will not be required to pay the higher rate of employer PRSI of 11.05% and will instead pay the lower rate of 8.8%. This will be a lifeline for many businesses. In addition, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage will shortly issue a circular letter to local authorities informing them that no fees shall be charged or levied on tables and chairs for the purpose of outdoor dining up to 31 December 2024. This is expected to save €125 per table for hotels, restaurants, public houses and other establishments where food is sold for consumption on the premises.

The head of the Restaurants Association of Ireland highlights, however, that although these measures will give additional headroom to SMEs that are struggling, fundamental cost issues remain, given the scale and nature of the problems facing the sector, especially the current string of restaurant closures.

The only way the Government can halt closures and secure the vibrancy of towns and villages across the country into the future is by reinstating the 9% VAT rate.

Our small businesses are the backbone of our economy and provide much-valued employment in communities across the country. It is not only important that we relieve the pressures and costs put on these sectors, but also that we safeguard jobs and protect the industry. I have spoken to many businesspeople in Dundalk, Louth and east Meath over recent months. I am been flabbergasted at the cost increases they are facing. These businesses need every support we can give them to keep their doors open. These measures represent agreement from across Government on the need to support our SMEs in the face of rising costs. I will continue to advocate on behalf of small businesses and traders. I look forward to budget 2025 to highlight further Government commitment to this critical sector, ensuring that the voices and needs of small business owners are not only heard but also acted on.

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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According to the 2022 census, 32% of people in Ireland, including 15,300 people in Donegal, work from home for at least some part of their week. When considering business support packages, it is important that we also consider supporting businesses to offer the option of remote working and support the transition to remote working. There are companies with jobs that exist only online and these need to be targeted. Remote working has the ability to improve access to work for those who face obstacles in taking up employment, such as people with disabilities, those with long-term health conditions and those from rural communities.

Remote working has significantly improved the lives of many in the west of Ireland. It has allowed many of my constituents in Donegal to take up employment in companies that are based in the capital and further afield, giving them access they previously did not have to different types of employment and giving many people the freedom to return to Donegal to live and work.

Last week, I met Grow Remote, which works to improve and expand remote working in Donegal and across the country and whose aim is to make remote work accessible for everyone. It outlined the importance of digital hubs, such as in Árainn Mhór, in providing necessary facilities, high speed internet and the opportunity for workers to engage socially in an office environment while working remotely. Bizarrely, remote working is not promoted by the State's employment agencies, Enterprise Ireland or IDA Ireland. Grow Remote is a voluntary body and is happy to develop this aspect of employment and should be supported by the State in doing so.

There are currently 14 digital hubs across the county of Donegal. I am delighted that another will be opening in Island House in Killybegs in the next few months when works in the town are completed. This would allow more people to come to and back to Killybegs, which would be great for the town, community and small businesses in terms of making them more sustainable. I would urge the Government and councils to expand this even further and provide more digital hubs across the county.

Digital hubs provide an opportunity for us to reinvigorate our local communities, promote a better work-life balance for individuals and support a green transition. Remote working has the potential to have a very positive impact on our society. However, this can only be the case if high-speed broadband is prioritised and provided to everyone. For many in Dublin and across the country, access to fibre broadband might seem like a given and an issue that was resolved long ago. Sadly, however, this is not the case.

There are places in Killybegs that have an anticipated date for connection to high-speed fibre broadband of December 2026. This is completely unacceptable, and it is unfair that there are some in this country who are still waiting for access to high-speed broadband and will be waiting for a further two years at least. Remote working has the potential to somewhat address this inequality in terms of access to work opportunities for people in rural communities and stimulate and provide business for small employers, which is vitally important.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak. Unfortunately, we did not receive copies of the Minister's speech. He referred to small businesses being the backbone of society, something that has also been said in press releases. This is repeatedly said, and I fully agree with it. I also agree that small and medium businesses are the lifeblood of towns and villages the length and breadth of the country. However, we do not take action in accordance with that recognition and we are constantly reacting. I welcome all of that the Government has done to support businesses. There is a list of actions which I fully welcome, in particular the increased cost of business scheme which is open for another 14 days. I will come back to the take-up of the scheme. The time to register has been extended which I welcome, along with doubling of the innovation grant to €10,000.

I have serious questions about research being carried out. I always welcome research from the ERSI, but it is done following a decision to introduce and increase statutory sick pay leave. Why was that analysis not done before now? As has been said, it pits employers against employees, which I do not welcome.

I believe in small businesses. They are the backbone of our society. We need to support them in every way possible. I have referred on previous occasions to a small business in the Gaeltacht and the number of smaller businesses it supports, everything from organic eggs to cheeses and fresh vegetables from the area. That is the ecology of one tiny business that we need to support.

There is a massive difference between what is on offer and the level of take-up. It was mentioned that 74,000 out of 140,000 eligible businesses registered for the increased cost of business scheme. For Galway City Council, there were 532 approvals out of 2,062 registered businesses. I do not know whether that is good or bad, but what analysis has been done on the uptake? Galway County Council had 579 approvals out of 2,085 registered businesses. There is a gap between registrations, approvals and take up. It would be helpful to know what analysis has been done on that.

We have been told repeatedly that the VAT rate could not be changed to 9%, but have now been told that the Government will actively examine that. We begged for this for smaller businesses, in particular. I welcome that it will happen, but it is being done as an election trick rather than in terms of could be done for small businesses.

As far back as 2020, a report told us that businesses were struggling. An ESRI working paper from January 2022 referred to the financial distress of small and medium enterprises. These problems have been there for a long time. Rather than short-term and once-off measures, we need to recognise that we need transformative action in a new world with ongoing supports.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank all Deputies for this useful discussion on the recent set of measures agreed to reduce costs for small and medium businesses. I would like to begin by reiterating the point made earlier by the Minister that small and medium businesses are vital to the success of the Irish economy. As someone with a business background, I understand the importance of supporting small businesses and how integral they are to local communities, as many Deputies have pointed out, and why we need to future-proof them so that they can be passed to the next generation, sold or moved on and continue to have certainty and success.

I spent my first month as a Minister of State meeting many local businesses and business owners up and down the country to get under the hood of what is going on for a business perspective. I met businesses not just here in Dublin but in Limerick, Wexford, Waterford, Galway and Roscommon. I met business groups like ISME, Retail Excellence, RGDATA, Retail Ireland, chambers of commerce and the small and medium enterprise task force, in addition to many more. The feedback from businesses on the ground was why the Minister and I were pleased to extend the increased cost of business grant, which is now open for registration until Wednesday, 29 May. That will give businesses an extra chance to register to get up to half of their rates, facilitating much-needed cashflow. It will provide even more support for businesses in the retail and hospitality sectors.

As the Minister indicated, we have had 74,000 registrations, which represents an uptake of 62% to date. I encourage businesses that have not registered to do so now. They have until Wednesday.

It is a two-minute process. All that businesses need to do is register online. There is no long application form and their local authority sends them a pin code. This is a really quick and easy way of getting cashflow back into their businesses.

It is important to acknowledge the challenges facing Irish enterprises in recent years, as many Deputies here today have done. The Government understands the concerns of businesses in respect of the rising costs they are experiencing at the moment, but the impact of rising prices is not unique to Ireland. This is an issue facing all major economies around the world, arising, first, on foot of the Covid-19 pandemic and, second, from the quicker-than-expected bounceback in global activity that has strained global supply chains. In addition, we have had a period of geopolitical tension that has had a major impact on energy costs. The latter have increased for consumers as well as for businesses.

Earlier this year, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, along with the Department of Social Protection, published a comprehensive analysis of the cost of doing business. This provided robust evidence in relation to the future impact of new potential sets of measures. This analysis firmly established in a clear and evidence-based manner that there is a cost impact on firms from measures to improve working conditions and that these costs are expected to vary significantly by sector. That is factual. Implementation of the living wage is assessed to have had the most significant impact on costs, with those operating in the hospitality and retail sectors expected to experience a sharper increase in their costs compared with others. Contained in that report is a heat map depicting exactly that.

The package of measures being brought forward will make a difference in helping firms to adjust to these increased costs, as well as more generally to improve the cost competitiveness of firms. I will reflect briefly on a number of these measure and how they will improve the cost competitiveness of firms. Let us take the example of the enhanced SME test. This was agreed as part of the SME package announced last week. Ireland first introduced the SME test following an action in the action plan for jobs back in 2017, under the then Minister, Deputy Bruton. This recommended that my Department would develop an easy, user-friendly SME test suitable for the Irish context to ensure that policy makers think small first. Ireland's SME test was designed to invite consideration of less stringent compliance requirements for smaller companies, where appropriate and proportionate, including simplification of regulatory adherence through the use of templates, reduced regulatory thresholds for SMEs and the use of exemptions, where possible. This approach mirrors EU best practice. The SME test has become an integral part of the European Commission's better regulation guidelines since 2009.

Back in 2022, my Department established a cross-government network of officials to monitor and ensure that the SME test is applied to all relevant upcoming legislation. In advance of the most recent meeting of the network, all Departments had officially nominated a representative. This group reports back on a quarterly basis on the implementation of the test and since the introduction of reporting obligations, 11 Departments have applied the SME test to 32 items of legislation. Working with the Department of An Taoiseach, officials in my Department are now developing proposals for improving the impact and application of the SME test as it applies to legislation and are working on extending it to key non-legislative policy changes that impact the competitiveness of small businesses. Currently, the Cabinet stress tests all decisions on policy, statutory instruments, legislation and regulation against three core areas, namely the cost to the Exchequer, the impact on jobs and on the Good Friday Agreement. Going forward, the Cabinet will soon be stress testing decisions from an SME perspective and looking at them through a small-business-owner lens. To achieve this, a number of steps have been agreed, including increasing the frequency of our cross-government network meetings, rolling out training internally in the Department and across Government and reviewing the SME test guidance document. The Department's legislative handbook is going to be updated to elevate the use of the SME test. We are also examining how the SME test can be better embedded in the national policymaking system, including in the Cabinet handbook, departmental legislative handbooks and the Attorney General's guidance on legislation, for example. We will be encouraging Departments to publish their completed SME tests on their websites to make them publicly available. We will also be requiring justification for any Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment legislation that has not been subjected to the SME test. Having the SME test fully embedded will ensure that an enterprise perspective is there when all Government Departments are making decisions.

As I mentioned earlier, the reopening of the increased cost of business scheme for further registrations until Wednesday as well as a second round of funding for those in the retail and hospitality sectors demonstrates our commitment to these areas. The Government is taking very seriously all concerns in relation to cost impacts on firms and the evidence available in relation to this. The aforementioned two measures will help to ensure that there is as much of a draw down of the funds allocated to the scheme as possible to help firms to deal with increased costs. Companies have until Wednesday to apply. I ask Deputies for their help in pushing the scheme with business owners and SMEs in their constituencies and encouraging them to avail of it. This is cashflow and cash injections back into their businesses. These measures go beyond seeking to support the viability of firms across Ireland but will also ensure that they can compete effectively and grow their businesses, while providing high-quality, sustainable employment.

It is important to mention again that there is a need for balance in considering the current position of enterprise. The Central Bank's financial stability review of 2023 does not raise alarm bells regarding insolvency spikes or SME impacts. It does note that corporate insolvencies continue to rise but are doing so from an historically low base. Significantly, the report notes that this trend appears to relate primarily to firms that exited the pandemic in a weak financial condition and that did so having availed of huge Government supports. It is the role of Government to make sure we achieve a balance across improvements for workers, such as ensuring that minimum rates of pay are fair, while also having regard to the business environment and the viability of firms. The Government is absolutely committed to achieving this balance. The fact that inflation is now easing is really positive and will make striking that balance easier going forward. The measures announced last week also demonstrate that this Government remains ready to support firms, should there be a need. Ultimately, however, as the Minister said earlier, we need to move in a direction where concerns around viability do not dominate the discussion on the enterprise agenda. We need to keep driving productivity and growth across the enterprise base, helping firms to grow and access export markets and the measures introduced last week will help firms to do that.

The Irish economy is one of the most competitive, globally and that is an evidence-based statement. Ireland has a strong and stable financial position, with sound institutions, a supportive business environment and strong democratic endowments. It is important that we do not become complacent but continue to ensure the delivery of infrastructure alongside investment in enterprise. We are all aware of the increasingly difficult geopolitical environment in which we live now, including the increased difficulties in global conditions as the USA and China take actions to protect their supply chains. That needs to be reflected also. Ireland will weather the uncertain global economic and geopolitical environment ahead in the coming years. We need to ensure that we continue to foster a supportive business environment that is innovative, attractive to inward investment, that fosters enterprise and entrepreneurship and protects workers and jobs. That is what this Government is committed to doing.