Mary White (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----very sheltered whereas it is very different in the private sector. For example, when I got involved in starting up Lir Chocolates my passion was to create employment, given that the national unemployment rate was 17% at that time. The people in retail work morning, noon and night and if the shop is not open they are still on the job. For example, Tesco employs 15,000 people all over the island. So far as I am concerned, there is no understanding by the majority of the people, the majority of elected representatives, and the majority of Departments, particularly those which deal with trade, of the reality of the retail business. My experience is that they do not have a clue and increasingly I am getting more frustrated by the lack of understanding.

Towns and villages are reeling from the loss of critical local services such as Garda stations and the loss of many post offices willy-nilly around the country. It does not seem to matter a damn. I support the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, on his general philosophy on rationalising the Garda stations but not enough thought was put into it. It should have been done in consultation with local communities in a more European democracy style rather than the way it is done here.

The local government grant has been reduced and as a result local authorities are leaning more on poor retailers as a source of their income. How dare they? It has not been a strategic issue in the main. The whole focus in the budget was about maintaining the VAT rate in the restaurant and tourism area. We made a big fight for it and were part of the lobby group which sought to retain it. However, it was not covered on radio. I was not familiar with the issue of reintroducing PRSI which is having a awful effect on many retailers. They do not know how they will pay their staff as the increased PRSI rate for employers starts again.

The idea of a level playing field is important. This morning I had a meeting with two retailers, from the south of the city, two convenient store owners. The issue of the flexible parking charge in town centres was raised. At Dundrum town centre one pays for one hour and get three hours parking for €2. People are crowding into it from all over Ireland because car parking is so cheap. If one goes into town or to Grafton Street the parking fee could be €10 or €11 on one's return. What is happening is madness. I blame local authorities, county managers and assistant county managers as they do not devote enough time to thinking about the jobs and retailers. Retailers have very demanding careers.