President of Accounting Technicians Ireland, Eithne O’Sullivan, has said that ‘misplaced paranoia’ among the the banking sector when it comes to small business is pervasive.
Noting that SME’s account for well over 90pc of all businesses and over 70pc of all employment in Ireland, Ms. O’Sullivan said that the boom to bust saga that Ireland has experienced had at least one very positive effect in the establishment of larger numbers of indigenous SMEs, many of which have remained as a bedrock of our domestic economy
Ms O’Sullivan also went on to say that the average rate of loan application rejection in Europe is 21% while here in Ireland it remains at 48%, more than double the European average.
“The SME sector must of course take its share of correction from the previously credit rich environment that existed, however it is very important that SMEs should not be discriminated against by a banking sector that has now become inert in this space due to a misplaced paranoia around smaller scale businesses.”
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