It was a real pleasure to spend the day with the Deputy and his team in Kerry last Friday. We did not get to Kilgarvan but we did get to Castlemaine. No visit to Kerry is complete without a visit to Castlemaine. The large-scale sport infrastructure programme is being discussed at the moment between the Departments of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and Public Expenditure and Reform. We have a difficulty in that a lot of allocations were made for some really important projects around the country b…

It is not good and it is not acceptable that those services should be cancelled in that way. As the Deputy said, there will be problems from time to time but if the problems become too frequent, there is something else going on. I certainly will alert the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, that the Deputy has raised the issue and ask him to talk directly to the Deputy about the matter.

I thank the Deputy for the question. We want to reward work and ensure that work pays more. Minimum wage workers are among the hardest working people in Ireland and deserve to paid more, particularly at a time of rising prices. Yesterday the Government accepted the Low Pay Commission's recommendation to increase the national minimum wage by 80 cent to €11.30 per hour commencing on 1 January 2023. At least 164,000 people will be in line for an increase but the real figure is likely to be much more, given that there …

I thank the Deputy. The recommendation was made by a majority vote of the Low Pay Commission. Two members dissented but eight or ten were in favour so a very clear majority was in favour of this recommendation. What we will see next year is a not insignificant increase. It brings us closer to the 60% median, not as close as the Deputy or I would like, but it does bring us closer to the 60% median so we are on the right trajectory. The sum of €1,600 a year is not a small amount of money. It is enough perhaps to pay …

I take the Deputy's point but I have to bear in mind other impacts such as the cost on small businesses. All of the employer representatives favoured the 80 cent increase. That is not to say that all employer organisations do by any means. Many have been very critical of the increase yesterday. All of the independent and academic members favoured the increase, as well as one of the workers' representatives. I always have to bear in mind that I do not want to increase the minimum wage to the point where businesses c…

It is fair to say that the Government has not been found wanting when it comes to helping businesses to get through difficult periods and indeed saving jobs. The multibillion euro financial assistance provided by the Government during the pandemic was unprecedented whether it was to help businesses with their wage bills so that they could keep staff on, or their overheads, or with the introduction of a cheaper easier way to restructure and survive that examinership. The commercial rates waiver and the reduction in …

We certainly can do analysis, we have and we will do more. We can make projections but, unfortunately, I do not believe that these projections can be particularly helpful. The truth is that no one of us can guess how long this energy price crisis will go on for and no one can say how high gas and electricity prices will go. That is the reality of the situation. One can make one’s projections but they are entirely based on assumptions and those projections essentially, to be polite about it, are going to be guesswor…

I do not disagree with what the Deputy is saying. We did not put all of the resources into saving so many businesses and jobs during the pandemic to have those businesses fail now during this energy crisis. What I have learned from experience from helping to lead the country through a number of crises: the bailout and the banking crisis ten or 11 years ago with the Labour Party; Brexit and avoiding a hard border and no deal; and more recently the pandemic, is that one needs to be dynamic in one’s response. The wors…

Deputy Gannon is here to deal with Deputy Catherine Murphy’s question, which is similar to these questions, so perhaps he wants to come in on this. I have no objection to that.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 5, 10, 11 and 18 together. I think it is fair to say that the Government has not been found wanting when it has come to helping businesses get through difficult periods and saving the jobs of people who work in those businesses. The multibillion euro financial assistance provided by Government during the pandemic was unprecedented, whether it was help with businesses' wage bills so they could keep staff on, their overheads, the introduction of cheaper, easier ways to restructure and…

I thank the Deputies for their questions. As we all appreciate, businesses are going to be affected in very different ways. Some businesses are very energy-intense; for others, labour costs outweigh energy costs many times over. Some have been able to recover their costs, often through price increases, which are unwelcome. Some businesses are very profitable and will simply face lower profits, while others are barely profitable at all and face being pushed from profit into loss. That is a very serious situation ind…

I thank the Deputies for their questions and their advocacy on behalf of small businesses and the retail and hospitality industry in their constituencies. I agree a response of scale is required. I cannot put a figure on that now. It may not be possible to put a figure on it, because we just do not know how long this situation will continue. We probably will be able to put a figure on it for this year, but I am not sure about next year. That will depend on how things develop. The objective, however, is clear: it is…

I thank Deputy Crowe for the question. Shannon Airport is a really important infrastructure asset for foreign direct investment, FDI, and indigenous enterprise in Ireland. As part of IDA Ireland's current strategy, it is proposed to target 76 new investments for the mid-west region in the period between now and 2024. The FDI performance in the region has been consistent over the past five years with employment by IDA Ireland clients increasing by almost 30%. The mid-west is now recognised as a global cluster locati…

I very much share the Deputy's vision and aspiration for what we can do in Shannon into the future. The zone around the airport has been an enormous success in the past couple of years. There has been a huge increase in employment, and the quality of employment, there as well. For the airport itself, it is always a bit more of a struggle but we all want to see passengers numbers increase. I was pleased to engage with Deputy Carey, as head of the airport group, and to see also that the flights to Paris have resumed,…

I thank the Deputies again for their questions. I must confess, I do not have the Amazon app on my phone. I use Amazon from time to time and have nothing against it but I like to support local too and, particularly in the run-up to Christmas, will try to buy as much as I can in retailers in west and central Dublin. I know that Deputy Carey is a big supporter of local businesses in Clare as well. I am familiar with the plans Shannon Group has. They are really exciting. I can certainly say to the Deputy, without givi…

"Viable-vulnerable" is a commonly used term when it comes to the various schemes we have. It is designed to ensure we do not provide taxpayers' money to businesses that we know will fail, regardless of what support they receive. We take a liberal approach, which sometimes involves supporting businesses that cannot succeed, but we err on the side of supporting a business or protecting jobs any time we can. For example, we provided the sustaining enterprise fund during the pandemic. We will have something similar for…

Those are exactly the kinds of things we have to take into account when it comes to any scheme, for example, a clawback mechanism to recover money from businesses that received it but did not need it in the end. Many companies paid back money they received through the employment wage subsidy scheme. I am glad we gave it to them because at the time it looked as though they might not succeed. They were able to keep on their staff and make profits during the pandemic, and they gave the money back. It is important that…

The way we do that is by assisting businesses to get professional expertise in this area. Long before the current energy crisis, we provided about 20 different schemes through my Department and its agencies, and through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, not just to help businesses reduce their carbon footprint and invest in modern energy systems but also to enable them to carry out an energy audit. I have met many businesses that have availed of those vouchers that have had the audit done. Even tho…

The latest numbers, as the Deputy is aware, indicate that wages are rising in Ireland but not rising as fast as inflation. The Government does not centrally control wages but there are different mechanisms by which we can influence how much people are paid. In the public sector, for example, we have negotiated a new pay agreement, which will go out to a ballot. That agreement has been made by the Government and recommended by various unions. I hope it will get through. That would see people receive pay increases th…

I thank the Deputy. We both know how statistics work and it depends on how they are measured. I appreciate the figure the Deputy has used on the proportion of Irish people on low pay but it is skewed by the fact we have such a high number of people on very high pay. This brings up the median. It is equally true that average pay in Ireland is 30% to 40% higher than in the average European country. Of course the cost of living is also higher. Our national minimum wage is in the top three or five in cash terms. Even w…