Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Burke, to the Chamber. It is an honour for me, as a constituency colleague of his in Longford-Westmeath and on behalf of all the members of Fine Gael in Longford-Westmeath, to welcome him and congratulate him on his new role on this his first time in the Seanad. It is well deserved and I wish him every success and luck with the role. It is important to acknowledge the work of the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, over the past 12 months in his role and the recognition he had of the difficulties businesses face and have faced over recent months. It is important to recognise the €250 million that was allocated, as the Minister mentioned, in budget 2024.However, I recently heard of figures showing there is an extremely low take-up on that from businesses. That is something we need to get out there from this debate. Businesses only have a short two-week period in which to send their documentation to the local authority and claim that money. I heard that in one county in the region of 5% of the total value was all that had been claimed. The LEOs do a huge amount of work in every county. There is a great team in my county supporting businesses led by Michael Nevin. We might ask the LEOs to make further contact with business to ensure everyone avails of the grant that is in place.

Is it enough for businesses? I am afraid not. I speak from experience as I have a small business at home. There have been many positive changes implemented in the form of supports for workers. We have seen significant rises in the minimum wage - which are deserved - there is sick pay and now we have auto-enrolment. As I said, we have also had high energy costs over a significant period of time and while there were supports it still left companies with seriously high expenses over that period. Businesses are struggling. I know it from my own. I have only a very small business with a number of full-time and part-time staff. The minimum wage increase is probably going to cost me in the region of €4,500 to €5,000. The reality in a small retail business is it is not an option to add it on to something else. There are a lot of products you sell that you cannot put any extra cost on, whether it is the lotto or cigarettes or other stuff like that. We need help, to be quite honest, across the board. There are a lot of regulations in place, especially, as I said, for small businesses. If you are a petrol retailer there are constant monthly reports to be submitted to Revenue. All that takes time and comes at a cost, so we need additional supports. That is something the Minister is quite well aware of and I know that from any of the conversations I have had with him. He is already working on that situation and putting something in place. There will be additional supports and then, I hope, further supports in budget 2025.

I sit on the tourism Oireachtas joint committee and we have had significant engagement with the Restaurants Association of Ireland, the Irish Hotels Federation, etc. There are a lot of difficulties, especially at the hospitality end of things. In recent times we have seen a significant number of closures, particularly of cafés and restaurants. They are struggling a lot. The VAT rate was brought down to 9% during Covid but has returned to the flat rate of 13%. These businesses are finding it difficult. We could look at the possibility of splitting the VAT rate. It was said previously that it could not be done, but I believe it can be. To the best of my knowledge seven countries within the EU have a split rate. It is something we need to give serious consideration to. We need to ensure we support these businesses. They are providing jobs, especially throughout the rural economy. As I said, any support that can be put in place will help these businesses to survive. They had a tough period through Covid and in fairness to the Government we supported those businesses. They have got through Covid and are now hit with these additional challenges. The minimum wage increase is a warranted challenge, but it puts that additional strain on businesses. I look forward to further discussion today and to the recommendations that will be put in place in the near future to ensure we will be able to support these businesses and get through this tough period.