Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the news today that the Taoiseach has written to the President of the European Commission, Ms Ursula von der Leyen, regarding the situation in Palestine and proposed some sort of economic sanctions against Israel. It is an example of Ireland and this Government standing up to Israel and showing leadership within Europe. I sincerely hope the Taoiseach's letter to the president will result in a chain reaction that will see economic sanctions. I do not agree with expelling ambassadors or any of that. Ambassadors need to hear what is happening and be able to feed that back. The far more effective way is economic sanctions.Of course, we all want the negotiations with a view to a ceasefire that are taking place at the moment to bear fruit. We need a cessation and not a temporary ceasefire. Let us hope that happens.

I agree about the challenges faced by small businesses at the moment. We have seen a number of increases recently, including an increase to the minimum wage. The plastic bottle return scheme has been introduced along with a whole raft of other initiatives. Each of them is laudable on its own and is the right thing to do but their combined effect on small businesses is negative. I welcome the fact that an increased cost of doing business grant will hop into people's bank accounts. That needs to happen sooner rather than later because people are struggling. The increased cost of doing business grant needs to be looked at with a view to increasing it. It is designed to pay 50% of rates up to a maximum of €5,000. We need to consider increasing that further. A debate with the relevant Minister would be welcome.