262. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment the key measures taken to support the retail sector since January 2025; his priorities for same for the rest of 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53461/26]

The Government acknowledges the contribution of the retail sector to the economy of every city, town and village in Ireland. The sector provides highly important employment with over 220,000 people directly employed in retail.

The Programme for Government is clear on the intention to support small businesses and as the Minister of State with responsibility for retail, I am aware of the issues facing retailers.

The broad range of supports for the retail sector, including training programmes and funding to help retailers adapt to new challenges and opportunities in retail, can be found on the National Enterprise Hub. The NEH is an all-of-government service staffed by expertly trained advisers and is focused on helping businesses to access a range of Government supports. The hub brings together information and resources of over 250 Government supports from 32 different Departments and State agencies.

Two such supports are the Energy Efficiency Grant (EEG) and the Grow Digital Voucher. Both the EEG and the Grow Digital Voucher are available to all eligible business with up to 50 employees, regardless of sector.

The EEG now offers grant assistance of up to a maximum of €10,000 with a 75% contribution rate from Government for a broad range of measures to support the investment in technologies and equipment identified through the Green for Business Scheme. The Grow Digital Voucher offers up to €5,000 to small businesses to invest in technology such as online booking systems, stock control, AI, cyber security, and payroll software. These grants are designed to enhance the productivity and competitiveness of small businesses.

In 2024, the Government introduced the Increased Cost of Business (ICOB) grant and the power up grant scheme. In total these grant schemes have paid out over €410 million to businesses in 2024 and 2025 and were specifically aimed at SMEs in the retail, hospitality and beauty sectors.

The Cost of Business Advisory Forum was established in June 2025 as part of the current Programme for Government’s commitment to reduce business costs and alleviating regulatory burdens. Retail representative bodies have made regular submissions to the Forum and have highlighted the real-world impact of increased cost pressures and regulatory burden; and the effect these demands have on the operational capacity and competitiveness of retail SMEs.

The Forums consultative phase has now concluded, this independent report and its recommendations are being finalised and will be presented to Government in late July. These recommendations are considered to address issues that merit a changed approach, and those steps that can be taken to mitigate these issues to ensure businesses including retailers, navigating today’s economic landscape, remain a competitive, resilient, and supportive environment for enterprise.

In addition, the Retail Forum allows key issues of relevance to the retail sector to be discussed, with a view to identifying practical actions which could be taken by Government, or by industry itself, to support the sector with particular emphasis on achieving sustainable jobs growth in the sector. The work of the Forum is driven by its members and the issues that they have identified as being critical to examine to support sustainable jobs growth in the retail sector.