Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 30 September 2026
57. Deputy Micheál Carrigy asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment whether he has considered recognising SME retail with under 100 employees as an energy intensive sector and extending eligibility for energy-intensive supports to include retailers; and if there has been consideration in the upcoming budget to implement supports for retailers of this size such as (details supplied). [69274/26]
View answerThe 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 Minister 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, 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.
The Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs), located within the 31 Local Authorities, provide a wide range of high-quality business and management development programmes and productivity supports in the areas of Green, Digital and Lean. These supports are intended to help small businesses improve productivity, adopt new technologies, enhance sustainability and remain competitive, and are therefore available to small businesses across a broad range of sectors including retail.
The Green for Business programme offers qualifying SMEs access to two days of intensive mentoring including a sustainability audit and action plan, designed to help "green" their business. The Energy Efficiency Grant (EEG) follows on from a Green for Business, GreenStart or a SEAI Energy Audit recommendation and aims to reduce the impact of enterprises on the environment thereby increasing the agility and resilience of these businesses. 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.
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 Final Report of the Cost of Business Advisory Forum, which was established as a commitment under the Programme for Government to examine the factors contributing to the cost of doing business in Ireland and to identify practical measures to improve competitiveness, was published in August.
This independent report provides an important evidence base on the cost pressures facing businesses and identifies a number of issues that warrant further examination. Addressing these actions will require sustained engagement across Government, agencies, regulators and stakeholders to advance short-, medium- and long-term actions that can reduce the cost of doing business, improve competitiveness and support sustainable enterprise growth.
My Department will shortly follow up with relevant Departments on progressing implementation of the Forum’s recommendations. To support this process my Department has established a progress tracker to monitor implementation, which will assist in identifying emerging issues. This is particularly important as the industry Forum will reconvene in January 2027 and review progress made to date. It is anticipated that this meeting will include discussions based on the expected cross government response, which will also determine actions regarding the tracking and future circulation of the implementation progress.
The Programme for Government 2025 also makes several commitments relating to retail crime, many of which will be dealt with in the context of a new Retail Crime Strategy.
The Department of Justice, Home Affairs & Migration is in the process of drafting a Retail Crime Strategy and work is well advanced. It has engaged with Retail Forum members and other retail stakeholders to understand their experience of retail crime and its impact on their business, staff and customers to help inform the development of this strategy.
