ISME, the Irish Small & Medium Enterprises Association has today released its ‘Report card on Government’ after its first year in office. The results of a survey of over 600 member companies confirmed that overall the performance of the Government in relation to issues affecting small and medium businesses leave a lot to be desired.
The survey was carried out in the week ending 23rd March and scored the Government on four issues, jobs, banking, business costs and the Troika. The respondents were asked to rate the Government’s performance on a five point scale from very satisfactory to very unsatisfactory.
| Very Satisfied
|
Satisfied
|
Neutral
|
Unsatisfied
|
Very Unsatisfied
|
NET
|
|
| JOBS
|
0%
|
11%
|
24%
|
31%
|
35%
|
-54%
|
| BANKING
|
0%
|
4%
|
17%
|
33%
|
45%
|
-74%
|
| TROIKA
|
1%
|
23%
|
30%
|
24%
|
21%
|
-21%
|
| COSTS TO BUSINESS
|
0%
|
3%
|
18%
|
41%
|
38%
|
-76%
|
Commenting on the results ISME CEO, Mark Fielding said, “the twin issues of access to finance and escalating business costs continue to plague the SME sector and are not receiving the attention from Government that they deserve, as is evidenced from this survey. The Jobs Initiative, long on aspiration and short on immediate actions still has a long way to go to address the problem of unemployment. This Government must quickly come to the realisation that the solution to the jobs crisis is predicated on tackling business costs and access to finance, then and only then will jobs be created.”
“While still not a glowing endorsement, almost a quarter of the respondents are satisfied with how the Government is dealing with the overall fiscal situation, under the tutelage of the Troika. However, in this area also an improvement is required when it comes to dealing with the overgenerous ‘Croke Park agreement’.
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