I want to raise the issue of many of our restaurants and cafés around the country that are closing their doors. Many more are at tipping point. A restaurant near me, Budds of Ballydehob, put out a post about this on social media, and the outpouring of support was immense. As the Taoiseach knows, in towns and villages in Cork South-West the café might be the heart of the community where people gather. It provides employment. There are so many benefits outside of it being a café that are difficult to put into words. The impact on our towns and villages when these places close is absolutely devastating. That was evident during the crash, when our main streets were left desolate and hollowed-out. Opportunities for local employment really vanished with that. Some towns never recovered, although the hospitality sector was key in our recovery from the crash in general. We just cannot see a repeat of this. I know that the Government allocated €1.2 billion to the temporary business energy support scheme, but only €145 million of that was spent. What measures is the Government looking into to address this issue?

The cost of doing business in Ireland is very high and it is rising. We acknowledge that. Some of that is down to increased labour costs, increased energy costs, the increased cost of supplies and also the withdrawal of some temporary supports for businesses that simply cannot go on forever.

There are things the Government can do to help. We will inject over €250 million in the form of grants into small businesses between now and 31 March to help them with cashflow. We are also looking at what we can do around tax warehousing to give businesses a little more time to pay their taxes. They do have to pay their taxes, but this is to give them a little more time to do so. The Deputy makes a very valid point. Where a business may be the only café in a town or small village, is more than just a business competing with other businesses and has a particular social value, we need to look at our social enterprise model there in order to make sure we can help those businesses in a different way. It is a different story if it is three or four pubs competing in a town and one closes. When an enterprise is the only enterprise in the town and is a gathering point and a community hub, that is quite different.