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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 21 Feb 2018

Vol. 965 No. 8

Topical Issue Debate

School Patronage

The need for diversity and pluralism within the education system is critically important. Parents and children should have a right to access education that reflects their ethos and value system. It is a healthy society that provides and embraces that level of diversity and that diversity is a threat to nobody. At this stage in our development as a society, nobody opposes diversity and pluralism within the education system in Ireland.

However, the provision of multidenominational and non-denominational education in this State has happened at a snail's pace and this has caused massive difficulties for parents and children. I attended a public meeting in Trim this week at which there was noticeable shock and anger among parents regarding what has happened to the plans for the development of their own school in Trim. The Minister must admit that the process of providing multidenominational education has been cack-handed at best.

Since becoming a Deputy, one thing I have noticed is that decisions are often made by one section of a Department but those decisions do not necessarily have the plans, support or resources to happen properly. One often sees a decision made and something started but when it comes to implementation, the project quickly runs into significant problems. In my view, this is what is happening with the five Educate Together schools that have had a Departmental half-stream limit imposed upon their next school year.

Let us consider Trim, for example. Trim is a growing commuter town in Meath. It is well provided with Catholic, Protestant and community schools and the past four years have seen the addition of the Educate Together school. That school is going from strength to strength, with great teachers and great education. It has added to the diversity and the pluralism within the town and its extensive hinterland because it is the only school of its type for many miles around.

It is my understanding that all of the schools were in demand in Trim. There has not been pressure on school numbers in the schools in Trim. Because it is a growing town, it is expected that capacity will soon run out. Yet when I tabled a parliamentary question with regard to this, I learned that the decision was based on the view that there must be adherence to the balance of pupil numbers in other schools. That is a major difficulty. In fact, I believe that the source of this particular problem is a decision by the Department not to fund the necessary provisions for these five schools, especially the school in Trim.

If one considers the current situation in Trim, the school is operating in a former golf club building. It has a small sliver of grass for the kids to play on. They also play in the car park of the school. As demand is rising, the school has applied for two prefabs to be added. However, when set up, those two prefabs will eat into the kids' play area significantly. Despite all of this, demand is still rising and if the Minister does not implement his ban on bringing a full class into the school, those prefabs will be full.

What went wrong here? Why did the Department not follow through on its promise to provide proper facilities and resources for the school, and when will that happen?

I thank Deputy Tóibín for raising this because it is an issue that needs some understanding. The background to this issue is that in 2012, a group was formed to examine patronage. It recommended that the demand for patronage diversity should be met in areas of stable population by divesting patronage of existing schools where there was evidence of parental demand for change. This was a process of divesting patronage. As a result, surveys took place in 43 areas of stable growth. The demand was identified in 28 of those, including Trim. Trim Educate Together national school, ETNS, was established as a four-classroom school. This had its origins in a report on pilot surveys, which indicated that at least half a single-stream school, comprising four classrooms, was required to accommodate parental demand in the area.

Under the patronage divesting process, a school could be opened where a school building became or was due to become available as a result of amalgamation or closure of an existing school. That was the context in which this was to be done. In some areas, in responding to demand for diversity where existing patrons were unable to make school properties available, the Department also included an examination of properties held in public ownership. In the case of Trim ETNS, a property is being made available under the redress scheme. This will be refurbished to provide four classrooms and ancillary accommodation for the school.

All schools, irrespective of their location, have to operate within their available accommodation and manage annual pupil intake accordingly. The initial establishment of Trim ETNS as a four-classroom school, and the need to be cognisant of managing the available accommodation, has been reflected in the Department's engagement with the patron body, which is Educate Together. When the school raised the issue of expanding its enrolment, my Department invited Educate Together to submit a case for this to the Department. A case has been submitted by Educate together to further expand Trim Educate Together national school and four other schools under the patronage of Educate Together which opened under the same patronage divestment process. The four schools concerned are located in New Ross, Castlebar, Tuam and Tramore. These proposals are currently under consideration.

My Department is also carrying out a nationwide demographic exercise at primary and post-primary levels to identify the areas of demographic growth and determine where additional school accommodation is needed to plan for school provision nationwide. This work is almost complete. In this context, the outcome of the nationwide demographic exercise will provide input into consideration of the case submitted by Educate Together.

In response to the Deputy's rightful concern that the divestment process has been proceeding very slowly, I note that I am instituting a new patronage reconfiguration process. It is hoped this will accelerate the delivery of multidenominational and non-denominational schools to reach the target of 400 by 2030. Unlike the previous process, this plan will focus on live transfers in order that a school which transfers under this process will not be reliant on temporary accommodation. This new process aims to speed up matters. Deputy Tóibín rightly noted that Trim is a growing area and obviously, the demographic assessment will have to determine whether that is creating a demand for additional space. I reiterate we are evaluating the request by Educate Together.

To put this in a broader context, where one school in an area is very popular and another is not so popular, we do not fund the expansion of the popular school when the less popular one has a lot of empty places. That has been a general policy position. It is where there is need for spaces that we make provision for a new school. The Deputy will know that every single primary school that has been sanctioned in recent times has gone to a non-denominational patron. That is the model within which this has been carried out. We are hoping that the new patronage approach will speed this up because, as he says, there is an expressed willingness on all sides to see the transfer of patronage. Making that happen is the challenge.

There is some confusion here. Obviously the decision was made to create diversity in the town of Trim with the addition of another option for parents and children. Some level of demographic research must have informed that decision. The Minister mentions the idea of demographic research as though it is a new thing. He speaks as though it struck the Department in the past few weeks that it must be done. Demographic research is carried out within the Department on an ongoing basis. For the Government to decide to set up a school on the basis of no demographic research is a nonsense. Of course the school was set up on the basis of demographic projections into the future.

There is a further difficulty here because in all the conversations the school, the board of management, the principals and Educate Together have had with the Department, it was never discussed that there would be a half-stream limit on the school or that there would not be a normal stream within the school.

The Minister said that the school is applying for additional enrolment but it is not. The school is looking to enrol a new stream every year. There is no change in its approach.

Let us call a spade a spade. This half-assed decision to force a half stream cap on the school is based on funding decisions made within the Department. The Minister is correct that a school building was divested on Patrick Street, Trim, to be made available for Educate Together, but, as late as last year, the Department was saying plans were ready to kick in for the refurbishment of that building to make it accessible to the school. If the school is set up and the resources for it to function are provided, that cannot be that difficult.

The school was identified in an area where there was not demographic pressure. These specific areas did not face demographic pressure and the idea was to divest an existing school through an amalgamation, with a transfer to a new patron. That was the context in which this project was developed; it was not included in the expanding areas, in which case all new schools are entirely non-denominational. Thirty have gone non-denominational in the past few years. This project was being done in the context of divesting an existing school to facilitate a new patron. The current school was established as a four-classroom building. St. Mary's does not have enough accommodation for an eight-classroom building. The refurbishment is being done in the context of a four-classroom building, which would not meet the needs of an eight-classroom school. However, I understand that what has happened is that there is more demand to enrol in the school than would be met by a four-classroom building. The demand for additional places will have to be assessed by the Department.

We will examine the demographics to establish where there is now a demographic pressure that was not there at the time the project was approved. We will also examine the case being made by Educate Together. This is not a case of someone trying to pull the rug from under someone else. The project was developed in a particular context and the weakness of that process is evident. It required closures and amalgamations to trigger it and it has not produced a flow. We are now trying a different approach involving the live transfer of a school in total to a new patron, which does not require divestiture, closure or sale or acquisition of property. That is the process for the longer term patronage diversification that we are trying to pursue but I will consider the issue raised by the Deputy.

Schools Building Projects Status

This is another school-related issue. St. Joseph's primary school in Kilcock dates from the 1950s. It was the first new national school in the town for some time. When the school was built, the population was 1,000 but it is now almost 6,500. However, the school buildings are unchanged from that time. I would like to give credit to the many parents who have contacted me in recent weeks. They are alarmed, concerned and confused about what will happen next with the school project. I acknowledge the presence of Councillor Paul Ward in the Gallery. He represents Kilcock and he has been involved in the campaign for the new school. I also give credit to the principal, Ms Ann McQuillan, her staff and management team who have made Trojan efforts over the past ten years to manage within the existing school structure, which is antiquated, outdated and undersized relative to the school population.

The school comprises four permanent classrooms in one building and nine prefabs, which equates almost to a 2:1 ratio of prefabs to permanent buildings. That makes the case strongly for a new building. The request was initially approved in 2007 by the Department and, in 2012, the then Minister, Ruairí Quinn, announced that the project would proceed and that construction would commence in 2014 or 2015. Planning permission was granted in 2015 on that basis but there were delays, leading to stage 2b approval finally issuing last year. The next logical step is to proceed to tender and then to construction with a view to the new school building finally opening.

The campaign dates back to 2007. More than ten years of effort has been put in by the school community and the town to get to this point, including significant local fundraising for ancillary supports to keep the school going in its current state in the meantime. They were, therefore, alarmed and concerned when they were told in correspondence prior to Christmas that there was no guarantee that the school would be included in the capital programme for 2018-19, which has thrown a spanner in the works. There is dismay, concern and confusion regarding the implications of this. The project has been agreed since 2007, and allegedly fast-tracked since 2012, but as it proceeds through the various stages, it suddenly has a question mark over it for the first time.

Nine out of 13 classrooms are located in prefabs. The population of Kilcock is expanding rapidly. There are multiple developments under way along the Meath-Kildare border on the approaches from both Maynooth and County Meath. The current and future educational needs are evident.

Not only that, the school has managed, in spite of all the challenges to accommodate two autism spectrum disorder, ASD, classes, on which it should be commended, but they are also based in prefabs. The Department guidelines provide for sensory rooms and gardens, break-out rooms and general purpose play areas which are best practice for such units. The school has been unable to provide them but I commend Ms Ann McQuillan and the management team on providing ASD education anyway. The school has made its best effort. It was built for 150 pupils but it now has 355. All the efforts of the school, community and management team must be met by the Department. Will the Minister clarify the next steps in this process? Will he confirm whether the school is included in the capital programme for 2018-19? Will he confirm whether the tender is due to issue? When will the school building commence?

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter. I can well understand the frustration of parents waiting for a school. That demonstrates the wider context in which the previous discussion took place. There is huge pressure on capital budgets to meet expanding needs when we are in the fortunate position of having increasing numbers of children entering our school. The major building project for St. Joseph's national school is at an advanced stage of architectural planning: stage 2b - detailed design. This includes securing the statutory approvals, as the Deputy said, such as planning permission, fire certificate and disability access certificate, and the preparation of tender documents. These have all been completed and the design team has submitted written confirmation that it is satisfied that the tender documents are complete, correct and in compliance with the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2014 and the Department's tender documentation requirements.

This project is included in the six-year programme announced in 2015 to go to tender and construction. The project brief is for a new build 16-classroom school with a special needs unit. The Deputy will be aware of the funding pressures on the capital programme and the need to focus resources on the provision of additional school places to meet demographic needs. The Department's budget for 2017 was €693 million, of which €531 million was expended on the schools capital programme. This included 46 major projects. The next stages are commencement of a pre-qualification process, progression to tender and construction. They have to be decided within the context of the funding. We have to make sure that if we release projects, they are in line with our funding profiles. The position is that officials from my Department will revert to the school regarding a timeframe for progression of this project by the end of next week.

I thank the Minister. I welcome the timeline and that there will be confirmation by the end of next week because the school authorities are in limbo at the moment.

I would be happier if the Minister was to tell me that the correspondence which will arrive next week will be good news. Knowing they will be told something is useful but knowing they will be told something that will advance the project would be ten times better. Can the Minister clarify whether the school is in line for the new building? It is ten years in the making and it has gone through all the different stages. It has been approved again and again, planning permission has been granted and in 2015 it was agreed for the capital programme. Are we going to stall in 2018 or are we moving forward?

I welcome the fact that there will be an update next week but I would be grateful if the Minister would indicate what it might be. Otherwise the parents will have another week or fortnight of anxiety. This topical issue matter is the time and place to make it known.

I understand the Deputy's point and I am always keen for projects to be released. However, I have to be careful and to make sure my officials are satisfied that the commitment they make is robust, so I have to allow them time to finalise their thinking. We are setting a firm timeline for completing this work.

Death of Mr. Aidan McAnespie

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, to the Dáil Chamber. On 21 February 1988, 30 years ago today, Aidan McAnespie, a young nationalist and Gaelic football player, was shot dead as he made his way to his local Gaelic football club grounds at Aghaloo, Aughnacloy, County Tyrone. He had just passed through the British army checkpoint on foot when a single bullet, fired by a British soldier in the watchtower structure above and behind him, robbed him of his young life and robbed his family of a dearly loved son and brother. The McAnespie family grieve to this day.

This was no accidental discharge, a view since expressed on behalf of even the PSNI. Aidan McAnespie was told repeatedly as he passed through that checkpoint, going to and from his work in Monaghan, that he would be shot. He feared for his life and, as time would confirm, with good reason.

At the time of Aidan's murder I was a Sinn Féin councillor for north Monaghan. During the previous year, 1987, Aidan McAnespie came to our party office in Monaghan and recounted to me the details of the threats to which he was being subjected. I sought to assist him but the avenues open to me were limited due to section 31 censorship and the refusal of Government Ministers, the predecessors of the current Minister, to meet or engage with Sinn Féin elected representatives. I sought and secured a meeting with Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich at his residence in Armagh and he took up Aidan's case and lobbied extensively on his behalf. The cardinal later officiated at Aidan's funeral mass and once again affirmed his personal belief in, and solidarity with, this young innocent member of the wider nationalist and Catholic community north of the Border. Today, only the most bigoted of anti-nationalists and anti-Catholics would deny the truth of Aidan McAnespie's murder.

I and countless others have lobbied throughout the intervening years for the Government to release the Crowley report into the murder of Aidan McAnespie, principally to the McAnespie family. The Crowley investigation was established by the Government here in Dublin. Deputy Garda Commissioner Eugene Crowley anchored the process and, over a period of time, met witnesses to Aidan's death and others who had relevant information regarding Aidan's experiences at the Aughnacloy British army checkpoint.

I was one of those who presented before the deputy commissioner at that time. While I have no personal recall of any reference to anonymity or confidentiality when I attended the Crowley investigation, I can accept that it could have come up in the case of other witnesses. Those were very different times. They were clearly dark and dangerous times and, following the murder of Aidan McAnespie, a whole community that straddled the Border was deeply affected. Some, especially those who travelled through the Aughnacloy checkpoint daily or regularly, were fearful for their safety.

I suggest that, 30 years later, we are in a very different time and place, that those fears no longer exist and that there is certainly no justification for them. Accordingly, I ask the Minister to proactively establish the number of witnesses who presented to the deputy commissioner or who forwarded written evidence, and if he will establish the number to whom some form of a confidentiality understanding applied. I ask him to undertake to contact each of them to establish if, 30 years later and in very different times, they are now willing to allow the release of their evidence as part of the overall Crowley report and to allow it to be given to the McAnespie family in line with its wishes.

I thank Deputy Ó Caoláin for raising this matter on this poignant day, the 30th anniversary of the killing of Aidan McAnespie. Deputy Ó Caoláin recalls being a Sinn Féin councillor at the time. I was a Member of this House on that day and what happened was a devastating tragedy for Aidan McAnespie, his family and the entire community in Aughnacloy and beyond, even into Deputy Ó Caoláin's own county of Monaghan. His death was needless and I am very conscious of the continued suffering of his family.

Given the widespread public disquiet at the death of Aidan McAnespie, the Government requested that an inquiry be carried out into the shooting and surrounding circumstances. The then Deputy Garda Commissioner, Eugene Crowley, was appointed to conduct this inquiry. However, because of fears that many people in the local community expressed to him as to their safety and security, they co-operated only and explicitly on the basis of an assurance of absolute confidentiality and that what they related to Deputy Commissioner Crowley was for the Government only.

This report was submitted to the Minister for Justice in April 1988. To seek to release the full content of the Crowley report, even at this stage 30 years later, would be a breach of trust of the Irish Government to those parties. In 2002, the Government approved an outline summary of the Crowley report’s conclusions and it was provided to the McAnespie family. At that time, detailed consideration was given to producing an edited or redacted version of the report that would be meaningful, would not compromise confidentiality and could be provided to the family. However, given the nature of the report, it did not prove possible to do so. I have recently arranged for further copies of the limited summary and the post mortem examination report prepared by Professor John Harbison to be provided to the McAnespie family through their legal representatives.

Deputies will appreciate that the Government must have full regard to the expectations of the many people who contributed in good faith to the Crowley inquiry on the basis of a specific guarantee of absolute confidentiality and to the persisting obligation in that regard. Regrettably, under these circumstances it is not considered possible to publish or further disseminate the report in its entirety. It is a source of regret to me that this will inevitably be a disappointment to Aidan McAnespie’s family, who suffer from his tragic loss to this very day. However, the Irish Government is fully committed to the consensus that has been achieved in the 2014 Stormont House Agreement on the framework of institutions to assist families access information about the deaths of their loved ones as a result of the conflict in Northern Ireland. The full implementation of that agreement has been hampered by the lack of a resolution on re-establishing the Executive in Northern Ireland. I have listened to what Deputy Ó Caoláin said regarding the witnesses and I will reflect on what options might be viable to further assist the McAnespie family.

I thank the Minister for his reply but, like the McAnespie family, I am disappointed. I extend my solidarity to John McAnespie and to his family on this very poignant day for all of them. John is the father of Aidan. He is now in his mid-80s and he has lost his wife and a very precious daughter in the years since Aidan's murder.

I will focus only on what I have already said to the Minister on the witnesses who came before the former Deputy Garda Commissioner Eugene Crowley. As I have already indicated, I was one of those witnesses. I was familiar with the story of Aidan McAnespie up to the time of his death - the continual harassment, the threats he was subjected to and the real fear he had which he recounted to me and to many others. I do not recall Deputy Garda Commissioner Eugene Crowley extending the offer of confidentiality or any other form of words in the context of confidentiality in my case, nor would I have sought this. Will the Minister please heed the appeal in my earlier contribution and establish the number of witnesses that actually presented? Will the Minister establish the number of those for whom that confidentiality arrangement applied? I suggest it is a smaller number than many might expect. I do not, however, take away from the fact that it was important for those to whom it did apply. I do not take this away at all because I realised then and understood, and I still do, the real fear that was within my community at the time, especially in relation to that checkpoint and its regular use by some. In all sincerity I say to the Minister that it is worth undertaking a proactive engagement with the list of those to whom that arrangement applied. I warrant that in these very changed times of 30 years later that the greater number, if not all of those, would withdraw their understanding and allow for the report to be published and presented to the family, helping bring about closure for the McAnespie family and their terrible, tragic story.

On this, the 30th anniversary of the tragedy, I offer my condolences and those of my Government colleagues to the McAnespie family and in particular to Aidan McAnespie's elderly father. It was a tragedy for his family and for the wider community. Dealing with the legacy of the Troubles on this island is a difficult and complex task without any immediate or easy solutions. The Deputy will recall that the Government, the British Government and the parties in Northern Ireland worked together over an extended period in 2014 to establish the Stormont House Agreement. I was personally involved in that process as the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade at the time. Among other elements that agreement sets out a series of measures to put in place a structured framework to deal with Troubles related deaths, where there are unresolved issues, and to seek to provide more information to victims and to victims' families where that is possible.

I assure the House that the Government remains fully committed to playing its part in implementing those measures and that work is ongoing to seek to achieve that. The re-establishment of the institutional framework provided for under the Good Friday Agreement remains central to these efforts. I hope that once the measures provided for in the Stormont House Agreement have been put in place that these will provide an opportunity for the families of the many persons killed during the Troubles to seek to access further information about those deaths where they wish to do so.

I have listened to Deputy Ó Caoláin and I would be happy to engage further to see how we can advance the process but having regard to the strict obligation that I have around the undertakings that were given on the occasion of the inquiry, which has been referred to by Deputy Ó Caoláin.

It is appropriate for all Members in the House to echo the Minister's and Deputy Ó Caoláin's expressions of sympathy to the entire McAnespie family on the heinous murder 30 years ago of Aidan.

Retail Sector

Deputy Kate O'Connell will raise the issue of the closure of the iconic retail outlet that was Waltons. Is it still Waltons?

Yes it is still Waltons.

If the Deputy feels like singing she could sing an Irish song, if she has time.

I will not do that today, but with an extra minute I might. I thank the Ceann Comhairle.

I thank the Minister of State at the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy John Halligan, for coming in to take this Topical Issue, which concerns the closure of Waltons music shop in Dublin city centre and the moving of its business to its Blanchardstown branch, having first opened its doors on North Frederick Street in 1922. It is many a block of rosin, a bow or a string I bought there in my time.

The decision to move was due to "ever rising costs of doing business in the city centre". This has been extensively covered in the media recently. I believe that physical, bricks and mortar retail shops are paying a disproportionate share of the overall basket of levies or costs placed on a physical business such as the commercial rates and VAT when these costs are compared to those of the online competitors. While some may be subject to rates for a warehouse the online competitor does not have to pay high street rates. In the case of a company based outside Ireland, for example, those rates would never hit Ireland's coffers.

We are not dealing with a level playing field. The burden is unfairly distributed on to the high street shop. The concept of rates sprang from a time long before online business existed and before online sales were even conceived. Rates are based on the principle that all retail transactions happen in a face-to-face environment. Obviously the traditional retailers need to embrace the changing environment but this legacy issue, this money that is going off their bottom line, puts them constantly on the back foot because their online competitors are starting off from a higher financial base. The high street businesses and those in the local villages are automatically at a disadvantage.

People's choices should not be inhibited. There is no doubt that many people will continue to shop online as they are entitled to do, and I hope that they do, but the choice of the retailer comes into question in this regard. Surely the choices are being made for retailers when there is a competitive disadvantage for the physical shop.

We must also consider the huge social and interpersonal value in having shops in a community. Members talk at length in the House about the value of pubs and post offices to the community. There is a dividend also for the community in supporting our retailers. Notwithstanding this there is also the importance of local employment. This matter is not about subventing the retail sector: it is about trying to help retail in this environment. I am not speaking of large companies: I am referring to the shops such as Waltons and the family businesses that have been in existence for some time. We can see the huge body of evidence from recent years that these businesses are not able to be sustained.

It is also very important to have a good mix of retailers on our streets. Anybody who has walked up Grafton Street recently can see the proliferation of large international companies coming in which are able to pay these rates. What has the Minister of State done and what is he doing to address these challenges to mitigate the loss of important contributors such as these retail outlets to the fabric of our towns and cities?

I thank Deputy O'Connell for raising this very important matter. I too was disappointed to hear of the difficulties experienced by the iconic Waltons music shop. It is very famous for its musical instruments, but particularly famous for sheet music. Musicians would come from all over the country to buy there.

I recognise that retail is hugely important in the fabric of towns and communities the length and breadth of Ireland. Almost one in seven people in employment in Ireland is working in the retail sector and the vast majority of these are in small businesses.

The Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, as the chair of my Department’s retail consultation forum, is engaging with retailers and retail representative bodies on the current key issues facing the sector, of which there are many. Through the forum, we are working on initiatives to both support retailers to build online capability and to enhance their cost competitiveness, and also to address the need for renewal of our town and village centres.

In 2017, the forum’s retail and town centre renewal working group published "A Framework for Town Centre Renewal", a reference document for stakeholder groups that sets out the key characteristics of a successful town centre and which identifies existing supports and best practice examples from around the country. It includes an action plan for town centre renewal which is intended to be a blueprint for towns and villages and to guide them through the three stages of town centre renewal: stakeholder engagement, carrying out a town centre health check, and preparing a town centre plan. Initiatives such as this are providing local groups with practical tools to make their town and village centres better places in which to work, shop and live.

It is important to note that the retail sector is currently undergoing a period of change as traditional modes of trading are accompanied by significant growth in online retailing, as we are all aware. The habits of consumers are changing and online retailing is rapidly becoming the norm. This rapid digital transformation of the retail sector and the competition from sophisticated international business models is a challenge to the domestic retail sector that needs to be turned into an opportunity. The internationalisation of retail means that Irish shops can now compete for business in a global market. Our support to the sector includes a focus on building digital capability within businesses in order to develop a competitive online offer to win back domestic sales and compete in the global marketplace.

The Deputy may be aware of the trading online voucher scheme, delivered by the local enterprise offices, LEOs, which was introduced in 2015 to provide training and matching funding to microbusinesses seeking to trade online. It is a very good scheme. It is a voucher scheme for businesses which have no more than ten employees, have less than €2 million in turnover, have been trading for at least two years, and are located within a local enterprise office's area. It is a pretty good scheme which appears to be working well. More than 1,200 vouchers were approved in 2015, some 1,140 in 2016, and a similar amount in 2017. Results from businesses in receipt of the voucher show that their sales increased by 20%, which is a dramatic increase.

To build on this, my Department is exploring the development of a pilot programme for the retail sector to support small and medium-sized retailers to scale up their domestic and international online trading activity. Through the retail consultation forum, a working group on skills for the retail sector is also looking at initiatives to assist with building digital skills capability in retail businesses. However, I also note that Walton’s music shop, which the Deputy referenced in her question, already has an online presence. In this regard, as a Government we must be mindful of the other issues, besides competition from online retailers, that are leading to businesses closing their high street premises.

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. He said that the trading online voucher scheme which is being run through the local enterprise offices is a very good scheme. Having talked to people on the ground about it, my understanding of the way the matched funding works is that the business comes up with €2,500 and the LEO gives them another €2,500. However, speaking practically, a business has to have €2,500 to begin with. There is also a lot more to online business than just the website, and I am not kidding about that. The maintenance of it is also an issue. If one multiplies 3,480 by €2,500, one is left with a large sum. Has anyone done an assessment of whether the scheme is working? It is my understanding, from talking to small businesses that fall into this category, that people are paying the €2,500, going on the course and getting a website, but they are then left hanging in the sense that they do not know what to do next. Although I totally get that retail businesses must adapt or die, I am not sure that we are getting bang for our buck in respect of this investment. Are we looking at the outcomes of this investment or do we just have many small businesses which have online presences but which are not actually trading online?

To refer back to the voucher scheme, it does offer financial assistance of approximately €2,500. It might be slightly more than that. I am not too sure. However, along with the financial assistance, it also offers advice and help to put businesses online. There are experts available to give advice to businesses. All I can say to the Deputy in respect of the voucher scheme is that it seems to be working pretty well and that the numbers involved have been increasing year on year. An assessment was carried out in respect of businesses which have participated in the scheme. As I told the Deputy, this assessment showed that their sales increased by 20%. I know that there is a lot more we can do, and we are attempting to do more. The Minister, Deputy Denis Naughten, selected Roscommon for a series of regional workshops on online trading for business owners. It is planned to take place in the next 12 months and will work its way around the country. It will be working with the local enterprise office in Roscommon.

I share the Deputy's concern about the impact of online retailing and other emerging factors on the high street, but we need to remember that, first of all, buyers and consumers look for easy access, product availability and value for money. This is all to do with competition. It is very difficult for us as a Government to take one side or another in a competitive section of the economy. I admit and accept that, as I said in my opening remarks, one in every seven people in employment in Ireland is working in the retail sector, the vast majority of these in small businesses. There is no question that we have to do what we can as a Government to help and support small businesses. We have introduced the Brexit loan scheme, we have retained the 9% hospitality VAT rate and we continue to reform the income tax system to put more money into people's pockets. There are efforts being made. All I can tell the Deputy on the voucher scheme is that it is working exceptionally well. Many businesses have taken it up but I accept that there is a lot more to do.

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