A WATERFORD business owner has called for more Government support for small businesses whom are currently "on their knees" due to continued closures and mounting debts.
Marie Guiden, who owns a small Waterford security business with her husband, said there appears to be no actual plan to actively help those who are struggling - and small businesses are "dying".
"Businesses are closing now every single day," she told Damien Tiernan on Deise Today.
"It's shocking the amount of people that are on their knees. The Government have to do something. What is the plan for working class people? Leo Varadkar said before that his party are for people who are getting up early to go to work. We're doing everything right but we're still being punished."
Marie said her small business is currently closed and she had her husband are both getting the Pandemic Unemployment Payment...a total of 650 per week between them both.
She said they have two teenagers at home and Marie's mother also lives with them.
She said for the first lockdown last year, the family had been able to avail of a mortgage break.
However, for this third lockdown, their bank are not offering mortgage breaks, and so her family are struggling to make the PUP stretch to cover their home mortgage, a business loan that they had no choice but to take out in the first lockdown as well as food and bills.
They were currently dipping into a small amount of savings to pay the mortgage as they didn't want to fall into arrears.
Marie said like many other small business owners, she and her husband are taking in less than one wage per week now in terms of income level but their outgoings are exactly the same as previous.
She described how "people can't breathe" because of the financial stress they are under currently and it's all very well that Government are recognising that there are problems but she wanted to know what exactly was the plan to help them.
She said she completely understood the need for businesses to close to protect public health but there needed to be more effort put in for the many that are struggling.
You can listen back to Marie's interview by clicking below here...
Listen back to Monday's Déise Today in full below.
