Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is a vast topic because small and medium enterprises are so critical to our economy. I want to focus on the small independent trader. We know that all businesses will be affected by Brexit. Some will be affected to greater degrees and some to lesser, but it cannot but have an impact when it involves trade. We need to have a renewed initiative in respect of our local rural market towns and villages. Boyle has been mentioned. I can give the Minister of State a list the length of my arm of such places in Mayo, Roscommon and Galway. Towns that were once vibrant no longer are. One walks up the main street and sees that retail is in difficulty. A shop on the main street is charged rates on the same basis as an out-of-town multiple retailer, yet there is no comparison. One even controls the price of commodities. We have farmers complaining about how they set the prices for vegetables, milk and other produce. They are not the same animal at all.

We also have those shops competing with online retail and other services, yet the shops have to pay the rates. Their existence on the high street enhances its visual amenity. The owners are painting the shops. There is activity going on. There is life and vibrancy and yet, in a way, they are being penalised in a way that online business is not. We have to come up with a formula or we will not see independent traders on the high street. They will be gone because they cannot afford to compete unless they are highly specialised or in highly unusual situations.

I very much welcome the initiatives of my county colleague, the Minister, Deputy Ring. I welcome Project Ireland 2040 and the funding of €2 billion for towns with populations of more than 10,000 and €1 billion for those with populations less than 10,000. We need more than projects however. We need to really drill down and get to grips with the individual businesses - the shops, the restaurants and the pubs - that are struggling to survive.We must come up with a formula that will treat such businesses differently from larger ones and I am sure that we can arrive at a definition to also protect the core of towns. Very often it is as easy to get planning permission for a shop located on the outskirts of a town as it is for one in the middle of a town. That does not sound like good town planning to me. We must preserve our heritage because many old market towns and villages have many properties of fine heritage and architectural value.

Finally, I must address the cost of insurance. A cost of insurance working group was set up and it made recommendations. Last week, a representative organisation made itself available for consultation in the AV room but, unfortunately, the meeting was of no help whatsoever to the organisation. Businesses have been cited, and black and white examples offered. They have gone out of business due to insurance costs, fraudulent claims and all of the rest. A list has been compiled of what needs to be done. We must tackle the issue. There are many issues with insurance but we should definitely not tolerate fraud. We need to establish a Garda bureau that is dedicated to investigating insurance claims. A great deal of evidence seems to be available. A lot of evidence in the form of CCTV footage has been shown to us but, notwithstanding that, there have been no prosecutions. There are many ways to approach this issue. One thing that is for sure is we must tackle the issue or businesses will continue to go out of business. These are the businesses that sponsor local football teams and the business owners who run community festivals. They are the people who ensure money is kept in local economies and they need support. One can have full employment in rural Ireland but that is no good if towns are so quiet that tumbleweeds could roll down the roads due to a lack of shops being open, no one lives in the houses and people are totally depressed. We have to get the correct policy to solve the issue and we are not there yet.