Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 September 2022
82. Deputy Charles Flanagan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he has engaged with energy-intensive industries and large multinational corporations regarding the difficulties they are facing in addressing rising energy costs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47409/22]
View answerOfficials from my Department as well as Ministers of State and I personally have ongoing engagement with the business community. This engagement has been particularly useful in understanding the impact of rising energy costs on businesses, including for energy-intensive industries, large multinational corporations as well as Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), and these issues have now been addressed in this week’s Budget.
My Department has taken a leading role in the Government response to this issue, working closely with the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, which coordinates the whole of Government response via the Energy Supply Emergency Group on which my Department is represented. In particular, my Department convenes the Business Energy Users Sub-group which was set up to assess the impacts of rising energy costs on businesses and to help inform the Government response. This includes business representative groups, as well as officials from my Department and the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, Enterprise Ireland, and IDA Ireland. The group has met on three occasions to date and most recently met on the 8th of September to update members on the response so far and hear views of members.
Other fora where the cost of doing business and energy costs in particular have been discussed with the business community include:
- the Labour Employer Economic Forum on the 7th of September which I attended along with the Taoiseach;
- the SME and State Bodies Group on the 13th of July which I chaired with the Minister for Finance;
- the Enterprise Forum which I chaired on the 29th of June;
- the Retail Forum chaired by Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail, Damien English on the 8th of June; and
- the Hospitality and Tourism Forum chaired by myself and Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin TD on the 12th of September.
As Budget 2023 makes clear, my Department and the Government are committed to providing appropriate supports to businesses to deal with the energy-related and other challenges arising from the Ukraine crisis, and I will be continuing to engage with business stakeholders in this regard.
