"Retail Ireland again urges the Government to urgently reform arbitration procedure in the event of a landlord-tenant dispute at the time of rent review," he said , "and build on the decision to ban upward only rent reviews by addressing unsustainable rent costs. "If this is not done many more retail staff will join the 30,000 retailer employees who became unemployed in 2009."

 

He said that many leases and rental agreements were put together during the boom years and bear no relationship to the current economic and trading conditions. Retail firms were up to very recently faced with the added difficulty that the law prevented rents being cut in any reviews of many of these lease agreements.  New legislation changed that position last year, but it only applies to leases taken out after the law came into force in December. Earlier this month, the 3G chain confirmed the temporary closure of all its stores in Ireland. 3G Mobile had 27 stores nationwide and employed 160 staff.

 

A statement from 3G Mobile chief executive Tony Boyle said the move to permanently close down the business was unavoidable, blaming "extremely high rents and inflexible leases at a time of difficult economic conditions". The chain had stores in many leading shopping centres as well as prime city centre locations such as Henry Street, Dundrum shopping centre and the Stephen's Green centre in Dublin, Merchants Quay in Cork and Shop Street in Galway city. Mr Boyle also said that, as a result of the liquidation, Ulster Bank had been asked to appoint a receiver to 3G Mobile's distribution company

Sigma Telecom, putting 115 jobs in jeopardy.

 

Sigma Telecom, which distributes mobile, fixed and broadband products, was 3G Mobile's main creditor and guaranteed a number of its leases. Mr Boyle, who also heads Sigma Telecom, said that Sigma Wireless Communications, which provides communications products for the emergency services and was 3G's biggest customer, would not be affected by the closure of the company. 3G Mobile bears no relationship whatsoever with the 3 mobile phone network, which is owned by Hutchison Whampoa.