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BUSINESS SENTIMENT IS continuing to improve among SMEs in Ireland.
A new survey from the Small Firms Association (SFA) has revealed that 48 per cent of respondents expect the overall business environment in the next three months to be either ‘good or ‘very good’.
It also shows a 7 per cent increase from Q2 2013 in the number of businesses who rate themselves as “good” or “very good”.
The figure now stands at 49 per cent.
One-in-five businesses are hoping to increase their employee numbers this year.
However, director of SFA Patricia Callan said while the figure is positive, “nearly 7% of firms will reduce employee numbers in 2014 as business costs and low consumer demand remain challenges for many firms.”
“The survey shows that business conditions are steadily improving and points towards business and economic growth over the coming quarters. The weak performance of the wider European economy, however, remains a concern,” she said.
Other survey results include:
“Government needs to assist small firms to build on the improving prospects by creating a business environment conducive to small business growth,” Callan said.
“Policies need to be put in place by government that will assist this vital sector drive growth in the wider economy.”
Employment sentiment
A separate survey by Manpower found that staffing levels are expected to grow in eight of 11 industry sectors, and four out of five regions in Q3 this year.
The weakest labour market is expected in the Public & Social sector, declining by 7 per cent year-over-year, while most optimistic outlook of +10 per cent is reported by Mining & Quarrying sector.
Ulster has the most optimistic hiring plans, with the Dublin labour market remaining weak.
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I suppose they’re feeling positive, optimistic, happy, and maybe a little horny.
The main growth has been in debt collecting agencies and projected upturns in house repossessions!
Roll on the General Elections.
Certainly can’t agree with the sentiment expressed in this article. ..Far from a nationwide trend….I’ve just closed down an SME. ..in West of Ireland and there’s many more about to in my area…more businesses have closed in past 6 months around my area than any other time in past 7 years…
So SPIN is something we don’t need right now….
Great to see! Obviously a sign of the economic recovery taking its effect on small companies. Bet people will still continue to see Sinn Fein as the only party with viable economics though..
Seeing signs of economic recovery totally depends on which county you’re looking out your window from. It is not national.
There’ll be no need for SF economic nonsense policies with this kind of progress. Improvements in SME’s will feed into the domestic market generating employment, pay increases and consumer spending. A softer budget this year will support consumer spending too…
Look west of the Shannon , the Celtic Tiger never got its feet wet and rural Irish towns and businesses are still at rock bottom, maybe Dublin will see a slight improvement but the rest of the country is forgotton about by the Dail Muppets! And this from a Dub !
O’Reilly, I’ll have what you are smoking! You are deluded if you this there is any long term recovery coming with the policies of the gombeens in FG/FF. no chance.
Gus
It’s hard but this is yet more bad news for SF and their 15 spokespersons on doom & gloom.
Thankfully the economy is improving for all out sakes
James I really think you are clutching at straws,I really hope I’m wrong, I think it will be at least a generation or two before any marked improvement nationwide.
Gus if this was directed only at Dublin then they would of stated that. SFA members come from a range if different counties in Ireland. I am from a rural area in Tipperary and last year €12million was injected into the local enterprise board to assist SME’s .
Guess it helps who your local TD is ?
I run a small business and I can’t even see the tunnel never mind the light . Just spin and bull shit
You should pay more tax.
Another stupid survey that is done among SME’s that are members of the SFA. How else do they think their business will perform only improve when hundreds of small companies who provide competition to those in the SFA have been forced out of business by Receivers.
For anyone starting a new business old traps like the Subsequent Tenant Act could land you with a bill for rates of €50k before you send your first invoice. Local Authorities failed to do their jobs.Managers were professionaly negligent and walked away with large pensions after “forgetting” to collect planning contributions from developers.
Take a large hotel as an example. They were allowed operate in excess of 200 rooms for years and last month the Receiver got planning permission subject to planning contributions of €998,000 (call it a million)
How many more of these are overlooked?
In fact, here is a better question, if the revenue or councils can put a small man out of business for non payment of tax or rates, why are the companies set up by Receivers not made to pay the planning contribution in the example given? While that million is owed council officials are driving around demanding excessive rates from SME’s while creditors to the same hotel have lost their homes and livelihoods. The SFA need to trawl through planning applications in each local authority area and ensure that the millions owed by banks and their receivers are collected and distributed among start ups.
Sorry folks, for obvious reasons I can’t mention the hotel but if you go to the South Dublin Council website you will find details. Or if you are driving down the Naas Rd you will see protest signs from the creditors. Fact is, until the terms of planning permission are met (payment of 1m costs) the small companies who were put out of business will pay excessive rates to start up again to a council that is owed one million by the bank/receiver that put them on the road in the first place. If that makes sense !!
Maybe the elite middle classes should stop leeching off good working class people. SF will protect the working class from austerity and instead transfer it to the business class who punish the working class.
Now middle-class is elite? Not enough rich people to pay your way so now it’s the middle-class who are deemed to be elite. Ffs. And what exactly is it that these elite get from the working class? Last I saw its the middle-class tax that supports your working class…
A chara. Anyone who has more money then a working class person is elite. One area I disagree with SF on is that a wealth tax should be in earnings over 60k. The middle class elites pray on the labour from the low paid working class. They should contribute more for their treachery.
And how will SF protect this working class exactly?
The middle class and wealthy leech off the unemployed who are the back bone of society. Anybody with a job is a vulture and should be forced to pay their way, 80% tax or leave the country.
If you toned it down slightly you would sucker more people in to reacting. But even so I always get a good laugh reading your posts.
A chara. I said working class not the unemployed (who should be helped and supported). The working class are the back bone of society in that they work in the low paid sectors which the middle class and business elite need to keep their record profits. Regarding now Sinn Fein will help the working class they’ll stop the property tax and water charges, remove the USC, take low paid people even further out of the tax net. Reduce the lower rate of VAT, invest in training and education and impose a third rate of tax on the elites.
Constance
Move to Cuba you’ll be happy there or maybe Venezuela
A chara. No thank you. I love my country and want to help it.
The country a currently running at a deficit. If you remove the property tax, water charges, USC, remove more people from the tax net and reduce VAT this will only increase the deficit. How much extra tax do you think you can get from the wealthy to make up the shortfall. The only option then is to cut expenditure on essential services. Also if you continue to over tax the wealthy (the people who create the jobs) they will go elsewhere or just shut up shop.
Well moving to Cuba would be a big help
Don’t let them leave the country or nationalise their businesses. Also don’t pay the bondholders.
“leeching off working class people “? I started my own business 3 months ago and I now employ 4 people. Am I “leeching” off them by taking a risk with my own money to start a business which pays out to 16 local suppliers and employs 4 people? I work 14 hours a day, 7 days a week to make sure the business becomes sustainable so that my local suppliers and people who work for me get paid and will continue to get paid into the future. So how am I leeching off the working class again?
Comrade
Your subtle attempt to undermine SF is commendable. I especially love how you leave gaping flaws in your logic. I especially love your statement “take low paid people even further out of the tax net” Because as it stands they are hardly in the tax net. Which means they are a net consumer of state services paid for by the “elite” and topped up by borrowing. This is “slightly” at odds with the concept of the working man been the backbone of society.
What is most worrying is that despite your best efforts you are still getting “likes” on your rants. I think you should introduce the idea of Gulags for the “elite”. However considering the political views of the average reader on the journal, no doubt you would still have supporters.
I can’t wait for the new utopian Democratic Socialist Republic of Ireland!
A chara. How am I undermining SF? We are the most supported party in the 32 counties. I also never mentioned gulag so I don’t know where you are getting that from.
A chara. You leech off their labour. I bet you don’t pay them the same as yourself.
You’re absolutely right, I don’t pay them as much as I pay myself. They get paid better than many other employers would whereas I haven’t taken a cent for myself. What’s your point? What have you ever done to further your fellow countrymen and women, a chara?
My point is you rely on their labour to grow the business. They should be paid more than you because you need them more than they need you. I am a community activist. A chara.
Without my idea and risk taking they would still be unemployed. Without my vision and finances as to where the business will go in the future, it will fail. And I notice you don’t acknowledge the fact that I do pay than I pay myself. And I notice you didnt answer my question as to what it is you have done for your fellow country men and women. Anyway, a chara, one of us needs to go and do some work and the other needs to go back to watching Jeremy Kyle so enjoy your day time tv.
A chara. Less of these personal attacks on me from your self. I help my local community through my activist work against austerity. You leech off the poor working class. When SF are in charge we’ll take for the working classes fair share. I also don’t watch Jeremy Kyle as it’s British tele which mocks the most vulnerable.
If sf ever get into power I welcome the day they try to take anything off me. That will be amusing on all fronts! For the past 25 years, I have given my time voluntarily in the community, trained hundreds of volunteers for search and rescue, taken part voluntarily in many searches, rescues, and community events. I will wager I have done more for my community than you will ever do, a chara. And as for personal attacks, I think calling me a leech may have started the personal attacks, a chara.
Constance, if that is indeed your real name, if the ‘working class’ that you represent don’t want to be taken advantage of, let them set up their own businesses and run them along the lines of the business model you suggest. If your ideology is what Sinn Fein have planned for the country then the economy will be truly destroyed if they ever gain a position of power.
A chara. We will get power and rebalance society, not just the economy. Fair play in doing all that, but you are a business person so you are just pandering to them. You have nothing in common with the working classes who cannot access capital as the elite middle classes in the banks want to keep them down.
Constance, the only thing keeping you down is the chip on your shoulder.
Sorry Constance, a chara, I only started my business 3 months ago as I’ve already said, so for the 25 years of volunteering I was working class. You don’t have the monopoly on working class, you know. And I don’t have access to capital either, saved up my own money and put it into my own business. It’s called working hard and making it work. But I’m sure you will still have a problem with that.
Less of the personal attacks a chara. We will look after you when in charge.
Jeez Constance, for an “anti austerity campaigner” you’re fierce sensitive.
You’re right. I am sensitive to the constant austerity imposed on the working class by the elite middle class.
Ah you poor petal.
Your blatant contempt for the poor and working class will not be forgotten when SF are in charge. And it is happening, a chara.
Don’t mistake contempt for poor or working class with contempt for fools.
Less of these personal attacks a chara.
There you go being all sensitive again. What personal attack?
Calling me a fool. I haven’t made attacks on you.
Constance, a chara, read back on my comments, not once did I call you a fool.. If you want to assume you are, that’s your assumption, not mine.
‘Contempt for fools’ clear as day.
You really are a sensitive soul.
Yes. As I stated I am sensitive to the plight of the working class.
Yes, of course you are petal.
Thank you.
I just did my thesis on the SME sector. Why are my conclusions and research the exact opposite of this article?
Comrade
I never said you mentioned gulags, I only suggested that you should introduce the concept. After all you proposed curtailing citizen’s basic human right to leave the country. Now that we have abandoned democracy it’s only prudent to intern reactionary elements of the population that do not have the vision to agree with the new workers paradise. It would be for the greater good of society. We need to dismantle all the checks and balances that underpinned the old democratic order. After all to make an omelet you need to break a few eggs.
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