The Small Firms Association has said that a lowering of the cost of employment along with strong political leadership is required for economic recovery.
The scheme, which provides credit to job-creating SMEs struggling to get finance, was welcomed by a number of groups and described as “long-awaited” and good for small businesses.
A survey has found that some Irish SMEs don’t use social networking site to promote themselves – and some are even still using faxes to get the word about about their services.
Many SME owners feel powerless in the face of banks, writes George Mordaunt, but if they educate themselves with the revised code of conduct they might find the breathing space they need.
SME owner George Mordaunt says banking staff should be trained to deal with stressed out and indebted customers who feel under attack and at the end of their tether.
AFTER A DECADE of inflation and high costs, prices in Ireland are moderating, that’s the good news from a new report by the National Competitiveness Council. The report says “since January2008, Ireland has regained some of its lost cost competitiveness as domestic inflation remains below
that of our main trading partners and as the euro has weakened.”
This report highlights tangible improvements in the cost of doing business in Ireland and outlines significant falls in property and energy costs. However, the report does say some costs continue to increase or remain relatively high. Property, broadband and legal fees are cited as being costly by the (NCC).
Although energy costs for business decreased by 24% in 2009, Ireland is still the sixth most expensive country of 14 the report benchmarked.
The report also said that mobile phone costs for business were down significantly and that Dublin has become more competitive.
For consumers the report found that Ireland is still expensive when it comes to buy groceries it is the second most expensive in the EU.
However, the average Irish employee must work a shorter amount of time than those in most other benchmarked locations to earn enough to buy branded consumer goods such as an iPod Nano or a Big Mac.
THE FIRST REPORT from the Credit Review Office (CRO) says that banks are not holding credit back from SMEs. Head of the CRO, John Trethowan, said that after two difficult recession years, many SMEs and farms had eroded their business capital leaving banks with diffiicult decisions on the level or risk they should assume.
Mr Trethowan said that there was evidence of a lack of experience among staff in banks who had to help SMEs to complete their loan applications, but he found no “policy or guideline” to suggest banks were withholding credit from these businesses.
Separately, BOI and AIB published plans proposing to lend €6 billion over the next two years to SMEs. The plans have been submitted to Brian Lenihan’s office as per NAMA requirements, and they have been reviewd by Mr Trethowan from the CRO.
The CRO was set up by Minister Brian Lenihan in March to check that the credit system is operating effectively for SMEs, including sole traders and farmers. Since its launch, the CRO website has had 2,650 visits from 2,029 different users.
