With new CSO figures showing that retail sales outside the motor trade are still falling, Mayo Fine Gael TD John O’Mahony has warned that more businesses will close and more jobs will be lost unless the Government develops a national jobs and competitiveness strategy.
“The CSO figures are good news for the motor trade, but terrible news for every other retailer. If you strip out the motor trade, it’s obvious the retail sector as a whole is still struggling to survive. The volume of non-motor retail sales last February was 3.1 per cent lower than February 2009, and the value of retail sales was down 7.4 per cent. Overall, retail sales are now lower than they were in 2005 but the cost of doing business is still much higher,” said Dep O’Mahony.
He added that hundreds of retailers have been forced out of business and thousands of jobs have been lost since the start of the recession. Retail Ireland is warning that 40 per cent of retailers expect to lay off staff, with more than half of retailers experiencing serious problems in the recession. Some 14 per cent of retailers have predicted compulsory redundancies within three months.
“It’s time the Government set up a national jobs and competitiveness strategy,” added Dep O’Mahony.
“Fine Gael has done the hard work and put together a comprehensive set of job-creation and protection proposals, four of which could be implemented immediately. It’s time the Government took notice.”
The proposals include cutting the jobs tax (employer’s PRSI ); reducing rents by abolishing ‘upward only’ rent reviews and establishing a register of rental agreements; totally overhauling the JLC wage-fixing system and cutting government costs by five per cent and reducing utility bills. These proposals are set out in Fine Gael’s new Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2010.
