Reference has been made to supporting small employers across the country. I received a communication from a representative body for hairdressers stating that the Government is determined to increase dole queues, close down small to medium sized businesses and deny creative, artistic young people an opportunity to gain employment and learn skills for life. It is crushing small to medium sized businesses, which are the cornerstone of many communities, and the service industry, which generates over 200,000 jobs. That is from the hairdressing industry. It was hit with a 4.5% increase in rates. There was an increase in the national minimum wage, which I support. Now there has been an abolition of the training rates. This came in on 4 or 5 March and they were only notified on 1 March. There are two or three businesses in the constituency that are ready to go out of business already. They cannot sustain any more of this. The hairdressing industry took a fierce blow from the VAT increase. It might be all right in the big cities but in small towns and villages, this is the straw that breaks the camel's back. We are serving them well by wiping them out.

It was the Low Pay Commission that recommended to the Government last year that the training rates be abolished, on the basis that they were not being used. That report was published in the fourth quarter of last year and laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas at that time. There was no delay whatsoever in telling anybody in the industry. We all received the letter from the hairdressing industry this week but it is certainly not news.