Throughout this country we are very fortunate to have a great presence of small and medium enterprises in villages, towns and rural parishes. I welcome the very significant contribution those enterprises, whether it be in hospitality, retail or manufacturing, make to employment, the economy and the overall well-being of areas such as counties Cavan and Monaghan. Typically, owners of such enterprises work extremely diligently and hard, and with great commitment to keep the businesses going and to retain and where possible create new jobs. Businesses say to me very clearly that they need help now to offset additional costs that have arisen in recent years and that they will not be in a position to keep their doors open if costs are not reduced without delay. The increased cost of business grant was announced in budget 2024, which is welcome, but it needs to be rolled out at a very early date, as envisaged. I hope it will be rolled out seamlessly and that it will be business- and customer-friendly.

As a society, we cannot countenance the loss of such businesses that in many instances are the lifeblood of and central to our local communities.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I am very aware of the pressures that some small and medium-sized businesses are under, in particular in food hospitality and in certain types of retail. That is why we insisted at budget time that we would set aside more than €250 million to support 143,000 businesses across the country. That is 95% of all rate-paying businesses. They will get a cash injection or grant in the coming weeks to recognise the fact that we hear the pressure that they are under and while we do not want to entirely compensate for the increased cost of doing business, we will certainly make a contribution in recognition of that.

We are looking at other policy initiatives that we can adopt as well for those sectors that have particular pressure points. I hope I will be able to bring some ideas in that regard to the Government in the coming weeks.