Like many Deputies, I wish to raise the issue of the near desperation of many local businesses due to the cumulative impact of so many different increases in the past year. We have heard about the increase in the cost of energy. All businesses are impacted. I listened to the Tánaiste's responses this morning to oral questions. The Government has taken some steps in this regard. The temporary business energy support scheme is a good scheme, but it is worth taking a closer look at its impact. The owners of the local Centra shop in Magheraboy contacted me and sent me copies of that business's ESB bills. I was asked to use this shop as an example. In 2019, for example, one of this shop's monthly bills cost just over €7,000, with VAT of €925. In August 2022, this shop's bill was €20,966, with VAT at 9% of €1,731. The cost has trebled and the VAT due has doubled. I note that the TBESS will help, but only at the rate of 40%. This shop will still be left to carry the can for 60% of the cost. For this business, this amounts to €5,000 every month.

I know businesses can make savings and they are doing so assiduously already. It is not just the impact of the energy costs alone, however, but the cumulative impact overall. Returning to the example of my local Centra shop, rates have also increased. This is happening in many counties. Insurance costs have also increased. Motor insurance costs have been addressed but public liability insurance costs have not been. There has also been an increase in packaging costs. The biggest increase in costs has been in wages. The minimum wage increased by 80 cent. I voted for it and I support it. In fact, I would support a living wage. The impact in this regard on these businesses, though, of paying 80 cent an hour at 1,400 hours weekly will be €58,000 next year.

My point is that businesses are taking one hit after another. Their capital reserves are gone. They cannot use capital reserves to benefit from some of the initiatives, such as that for solar panels, that the Tánaiste spoke about. These businesses are talking to the banks about interest-only repayments. I am hearing this from retailers across my constituency, as I am sure the Tánaiste is as well. This morning, I spoke to the owner of the SuperValu shop in Manorhamilton. He wrote to the Tánaiste only a few days ago and again raised the point that it is the cumulative impacts that are really hitting businesses. I ask the Tánaiste, therefore, if there is anything more he can do to deal with the cumulative impact of all these increased costs.

I welcome the Deputy's support for the increase in the national minimum wage and her call for us to go further through the introduction of a living wage. I acknowledge that businesses are facing rising costs from many different angles, whether it is from the costs of labour, materials or energy and fuel. The budget had several measures to help. These included the extension of the 9% rate of VAT until the end of February.

Crucially, the temporary business energy support scheme, which we are legislating for in the Houses at present, will refund approximately 40% of the increase in the cost of energy to businesses up to €10,000 a month.

However, there are constraints. We need to be honest with people about that. This is taxpayers' money. It is over €1 billion in ordinary taxpayers' money helping businesses with their energy bills. Another €1 billion in loans is being guaranteed by ordinary taxpayers to help businesses with their bills, and rightly so. Businesses are taxpayers too and they employ people who are taxpayers, but it is still well over €2 billion in financial support being provided to businesses only between now and the end of February. It is not a small amount of money. We need to be honest with people that we will not be able to fully cover the increase in their bills. We are limited by EU state aid rules, which only allow us to refund 30% of the difference. We are pushing for 40%, which is higher. It will not be possible to go beyond that and we need to be honest about that. Anyone calling for measures going beyond that is not making an honest call.

I deal and engage with businesses all over the country all the time. I talk to individuals who are in business. They regularly give me copies of their electricity bills and gas bills, as the Deputy can imagine, so that I can see for myself what the increases are. In most cases, they are double and treble. I engage with the business groups headquartered here in Dublin but also chambers of commerce around the country.

Something I am struck by, whether it is the chamber of commerce in Dublin or the chamber of commerce in Dungarvan that I met on Friday last, is that the biggest issue still coming up is the difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff. It is as big an issue, if not a bigger issue, than energy costs. We need to ask ourselves as a Government, as a Parliament and as custodians of taxpayers' money, if there are lots of businesses that cannot get staff at all, are doing well but cannot get staff, have to close early because they cannot get staff, or sometimes cannot open six or seven days a week because they cannot get staff, does it make sense to use a considerable amount of taxpayers' money to subsidise businesses that are not doing so well? We have to be realistic about these matters.

What I am talking about here are not small businesses. Even a small supermarket employs ten to 15 people. Those at the larger end in small towns still employ perhaps 50 or 60 people. The money that goes into the local community from the wages is significant. I hear what the Tánaiste says about subsidising businesses that may find it hard to get staff but I ask him to think about what will happen to those staff if they lose their jobs and those communities if they lose their local supermarket, their local café and their services. These are the businesses that support local clubs, local charities, local GAA clubs, soccer clubs and societies. They are part of the fabric of many rural towns and urban centres. We are looking at some of them closing unless they pass on these increased costs to consumers. That will send inflation through the roof. People will not be without supermarkets. They will have the large chains and the multinationals but the small ones will close unless the Government looks at rates rebates or finding some other way of giving more support to these businesses.

We will do everything we can, as we did during the pandemic, to protect those businesses and those jobs that are viable but vulnerable. We have shown true cause on that in the years that have gone by. We have cut taxes. We cut VAT to 9% for electricity, gas, hospitality and personal services. We have also reduced excise on petrol and diesel. Now we are bringing in energy subsidies to help businesses to pay their energy bills. They will see that money in the next few weeks and it will be backdated to September. It will help a lot.

At a time of close to full employment, when lots of businesses cannot expand or open fully because they cannot get staff, it does not make sense to continue to fund and subsidise businesses that are not viable when there is another business down the road that cannot stay open because it cannot get staff.

How does the Tánaiste decide?