I thank the Cathaoirleach and the Acting Leader. I just want to reiterate first of all what Senator Robbie Gallagher said when he mentioned legislation that we decided on, and we all agreed on to be accepted in the referendum that was approved. It seems disingenuous that we are revisiting that legislation in such a short time period.

I want to raise something that is affecting every town and is certainly affecting even my own family, which is the slow squeezing out of the small Irish business owner. I saw a post last week in The Irish Times about a café owner whose café is charging €4.25 for a latte. He did the economics on it and it showed that he is making 18 cent on each cup of coffee. The reality is that the margins are very thin and the margins are tight. The cost of insurance has exploded. Commercial rates and wage costs are rising. Everybody deserves a standard of living but small employers are trying to absorb all of this perfect storm of rising costs. They are trying to stay faithful and loyal to staff they have had for many years. I know because I recently closed a business of my own. I had kept it going because it was in the family for many years. Pride kept it going. It was there since 1967 but you realise there is only so much you can subsidise and it is a bit ridiculous doing it out of your own pocket when it is not making money. The worrying thing is that I believe we are losing the backbone of Ireland quietly. It is being done one business at a time. It is the local baker, the hairdresser and the café owner. We are the people who sponsor the local football team, the local field day etc. The people in the small businesses in Ireland feel abandoned. I know it is hugely important to support foreign direct investment such Pfizer and Intel, etc., but small and medium-sized enterprises employ hundreds of thousands of people across this country and are the social glue of our towns and villages. We need to seriously examine what we are doing for small businesses because when they disappear, it is not easy to get them back. If they are going, the community will go with them. Ireland cannot become a country where we only support larger corporations.

Hear, hear.