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Sat, 13 Jan, 2024 - 01:00

There are any number of good questions which can be put to Chinese premier Li Qiang during his visit to Dublin next Wednesday.

Why does his country continue to help Russia to replenish its armouries for use against Ukraine by providing a ready and willing market for Vladimir Putin’s oil?

Up by around 25% since the invasion began. It would be interesting to hear the answer to that one.

Or we can ask for reaction to the results of the election in neighbouring Taiwan, where some 19.5m people are going to the polls on Saturday.

While China is likely to be testy on this subject — its president, Xi Jinping, is committed to absorbing the island nation into his territory — it’s unlikely that they would use a visit to Farmleigh House to send any meaningful signals to the rest of the world.

Ireland is the only EU member state to maintain a trade surplus with China. It was the fifth-largest exporter from the EU in 2022, predominantly driven by our replacement of the US as the largest supplier of electronic chips since 2018.

Microchips are essential for a wide variety of modern technologies, from smartphones and electric cars to fighter jets and guided missiles.

While this business is sensitive to political headwinds, we may be on more fertile ground, as Tánaiste Micheál Martin hinted as he spoke to the Irish Examiner in Bogotá, Colombia, when we ask China to assist in heading off the threat posed to Ireland by the harmful drug fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid up to 40 times more powerful than heroin and has contributed to the deaths of more than 100,000 people in the US.

China is a primary source of the precursor chemicals which are used in its manufacture and US president Joe Biden has already received assurances that Beijing will help with a crackdown. Ireland will seek a similar commitment.

Mr Martin said he is “very worried” by fentanyl, while welcoming the recommendations — yet to be implemented — that there should be a more health-based approach in general to drugs issues.

However, he added: “I think we have to be strong in dealing with drug traffickers and strong in our interventions on opiates.”

Mr Martin may have read the comments of the mayor of Amsterdam, who said the Netherlands could become a “narco-state”, and calling for more international collaboration on policy.

Femke Halsema said that the “illegal drugs trade has become more lucrative, professional, and ruthlessly violent. The effects have been disastrous.”

She warned that prohibition, criminalisation, stiff penalties, and sentences for users were failing to control supply. Our current approach, she added, is like “mopping with the tap running”.

Certainly, there is plenty of evidence that once extensive drug use is established, highly punitive measures cannot turn the tide.

One of the countries where punishment is draconian is Iran, where drug users can expect execution or life imprisonment. The number of addicts, predominantly using opium, has doubled to nearly 3m in just under a decade. It is one of the highest per capita rates in the world.

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Businesses being squeezed until the pips squeak

It was just a week ago, on the foot of comments made by the disillusioned former cafe owner Richard Jacob, in the Irish Examiner, that we warned about the increasing burden of costs imposed, for social and political reasons, upon the nation’s smaller enterprises and entrepreneurs.

Since, a 60-year-old Chinese restaurant, Tung Sing, on Cork’s St Patrick St, has closed “due to constantly increasing costs and operating expenses”.

And, in a seismic announcement, one of the best-known restaurateurs, Claire Nash, who opened Nash 19 more than 30 years ago, has ceased trading, with the loss of 20 jobs.

Liquidators have been appointed to Ms Nash’s company, Mac Man Ltd, which was trading as Nash 19, and a creditor’s meeting is due to take place early next month.

Ms Nash, whose business survived several floods, a recession, and a pandemic, said: “I just can’t believe that it has come to this.

“The cost of doing business is unmeasurable, it is out of control, and it has led me to the end of the road.”

With her departure, local food producers have lost a formidable champion. She was a key personality in the city’s ‘long table’ midsummer event, and in the Cork on a Fork food festival.

Ms Nash also spearheaded the ‘eat on the street’ initiative, which transformed Prince’s St into a destination outdoor-dining venue after the pandemic.

But when business costs, especially energy, surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ms Nash said she “lost the joy of running a restaurant”.

Nash 19 on Cork's Prince's St has ceased trading. 'The cost of doing business is unmeasurable, it is out of control, and it has led me to the end of the road,' said Claire Nash. Picture: Larry Cummins

Adrian Cummins, chief executive officer of the Restaurants’ Association of Ireland, which represents 3,000 businesses that employ 150,000 people, said energy prices, the Vat increase, the minimum-wage rise, and supplier costs have crippled the sector.

“I haven’t seen this scale of closures since the economic crash in 2012,” Mr Cummins said.

In his article last week, Mr Jacob described the “ticking time bomb” of the Revenue’s May 1 deadline for repaying tax debt and wage subsidies warehoused during the pandemic.

The affected businesses will need to have 20% ready to be repaid by May Day and a credible timetable for the return of the rest.

When the Vat rate on hospitality reverted from 9% to 13.5%, a strain of public opinion was unsympathetic to the arguments of the sector. This was in part due to some eye-watering prices being charged by hotels, which appeared anxious to make up for time and profit lost during the lockdowns.

However, other factors at play have been largely overlooked. The economy did not bounce back in the manner predicted, and we have been experiencing a cost-of-living crisis that has made everyone more cautious.

The tempo of towns and cities, and their service industries, such as bars and restaurants, has been affected by working-from-home trends and measures to deter cars.

The rhythm of life has changed, but one thing that hasn’t is the Government’s appetite to raise taxes and distribute largesse.

Some traders estimate that it costs them 40 days of staff benefits before an employee earns a single cent for them. That sound you can hear is businesses being squeezed and the pips beginning to squeak. We can expect it to get louder by the summer.

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Irish Examiner view: We should support South Africa