Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to bring up the issue of the burdens facing businesses in Ireland. There was a recent review that found that approximately 10,000 businesses are under financial strain and pressure at present. A lot of that is due to the warehousing of taxes from the Covid era. That has been filtering to an end. That is causing serious problems at a time when businesses are looking to a slowdown in our general economy, rising costs of power, staffing and spiralling inflation. The Leader might consult the powers that be in the Minister and the Department and have a serious conversation with the Collector General's division, which, in fairness, going by my work with it since I have been a Member of the Oireachtas, has always been quite empathetic to businesses that have a plan. That will certainly be needed to work with businesses, to work through this hiatus at present and to see them out the far side. The last thing we want is for these 10,000 businesses, which I think is approximately 4% of our listed businesses, to run into bigger trouble or hit the wall. I would appreciate if the Leader could do that.