Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of ESB electricity outages. This is not just happening in my town but throughout the country. It is happening on Saturdays, when businesses cannot operate, and during lunch times. There is no compensation for these businesses. If this were an Irish Water outage, that company would compensate its business customers. The ESB, however, does not. This is wrong. How can businesses be expected to operate when they do not have electricity? I refer especially to the hospitality sector. I read an article a few days ago about the Restaurants Association of Ireland and that 30 restaurants had closed in November alone.

A scary situation is going to take place next year for businesses, whether this involves the living wage, with increases in the minimum wage coming in January 2024, pension auto-enrolment, statutory sick pay provision, PRSI increases or the provisions of various legislation that must be implemented next year. There will be the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023 and parental leave being extended to nine weeks. All these initiatives will be hitting small businesses next year and will cost them €4 billion. The Department stated yesterday that it is going to give some €257 million to rateable businesses. I actually could not believe there are only 140,000 rateable businesses here. I somehow thought it was more. This €257 million, though, is a drop in the ocean compared to the support these companies are going to need come January 2024. I feel we are heading into a storm for these small businesses here come January and February 2024. There is already talk of there being an economic downturn. For small businesses, we are heading into a very scary place come 2024.