Small firms give guarded welcome to govt deal
The Small Firms Association (SFA) today gave a cautious welcome to the Programme for Government agreed by Fine Gael and the Labour Party saying there it had "good and bad issues".
SFA welcomed the commitment to support job creation and a review of welfare rates in line with the new wage environment, however Director Avine McNally criticised the proposal to reverse the cut in the minimum wage.
"The reversal of the minimum wage rate to €8.65 is not in line with the current economic environment and the challenges which small firms are facing," she said.
"Labour costs are one of the few cost factors within a company’s control. This is why we have seen and will continue to see small businesses in certain sectors struggling to survive and jobs being lost.”
The SFA welcomed the commitment to a partial Government-backed loan guarantee scheme, saying it should assist those viable companies who currently are unable to access credit to survive, grow, retain jobs and create employment into the future..
On the introduction of a Strategic Investment Bank the SFA stated that the “devil will be in the detail” and until further information is available it would be difficult to ascertain if this will be of assistance across all small business sectors
McNally said that many small firms would be disappointed that there was no commitment for a reduction in local authority rates or a reduction in employers PRSI, but welcomed that some other business costs such as commercial rents would be addressed, as well as the introduction of a voluntary commercial debt plan and reform of the bankruptcy legislation.
