Ciarán Cannon (Fine Gael)

Like me, Senator Ó Brolcháin will be aware of the closure in recent weeks of two iconic businesses, Zhivago music and the Cellar Bar, which have traded in the heart of Galway city for more than 40 years. These companies benefited from some of the greatest footfall available to businesses in this country. They were not fledgling businesses with inexperienced owners at the helm. On the contrary, they were operated by astute, experienced and hard working people. However, they were wholly dependent on discretionary spending. As was evident a couple of weeks ago in the case of Celtic Bookmakers, discretionary spending has virtually ceased because people are paralysed by fear and hopelessness. For the past ten days, while businesses have continued to go to the wall, we have endured the unedifying sideshow of a battle to determine who gets to stand on the bridge of the Titanic as it slowly sinks without trace. The owners of such businesses and their employees must feel betrayed by the Government.