The hospitality sector in Ireland is under huge pressure. Closures of restaurants, pubs and cafes are happening at an alarming rate as we speak. More than 280 of these businesses have closed in the last number of months and records show that 48 closed in November 2023. I am inundated with businesses throughout west Cork and our country contacting me to tell me they are on the verge of closure with higher supplier costs and the value added tax, VAT, rate increase to 13.5%, which is the third highest hospitality rate in Europe and has taken them over the edge. The Government is talking about making changes to the debt warehouse scheme, but this is another nightmare that these businesses have not even factored in yet. To save these businesses and jobs, which are haemorrhaging this very day, will the Government accept that it got it seriously wrong and revert back to the 9% rate of VAT immediately and announce a rescue package for the thousands of struggling businesses all over the country?

I thank the Deputy. As I think I said earlier in reply to another Deputy, the Government appreciates that a lot of businesses are under pressure from rising costs, particularly those in the hospitality sector. There is help on the way in terms of a €250 million in grants that the Government will be pumping into small businesses before the end of March to help with bills and cash flow. The debt warehousing scheme remains in place. Also, we are seeing energy prices falling for business, which is encouraging too.

I do need to be straight about this, however. We have a lot of businesses that in the past three or four years have become largely dependent on Government support, whether that was in the context of Covid-19, when we helped to pay the wages and the overheads, the temporary business energy support scheme, when we helped to pay the energy bills, or the temporary low VAT rate of 9%. These things cannot go on forever. We are going to monitor the situation very carefully because we will have to see if there is a fall in employment, which we will have to respond to, or if the number of business closures is above the long-term trend average, which is 50 per 10,000.