Ms Catherine Collins:

We have a national and local radio campaign with three to four bursts a year. It is, unfortunately, very expensive to do a lot of such advertising. Interestingly, most of the calls we get tell us that they heard it on the radio. What we have found is that if people are looking for finance, they tend to hear the advertisement. If they are not actually in the market for finance, however, the radio advertisement is white noise in the background and they do not take it in. It is quite hard to get that message across. We drill down beyond that and try and work with the various trade bodies.

We also advertise online and in the trade magazines. We work closely with the three trade bodies, as well as the other SME initiatives the Government has put in place. A gang of four of us provide a roadshow, talking to local chambers of commerce and the local enterprise offices. Our key focus is the accountancy bodies and the advisers to get information out to them because they can then tell their clients about it too. A comprehensive amount of work is being done in this area. We will go out with Microfinance Ireland and the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland to talk about the credit guarantee scheme and the supporting SME’s online tool. We will do an hour-long presentation to SMEs to show how all these tools can be used together to provide a more powerful access to finance. That is what we are doing on the communications front to get the message out. However, it is a hard message to get across.

Many of those who call the helpline tell us the banks did not tell them about the Credit Review Office. They tend to read the first line in the rejection letter that they did not get the facility. They may not necessarily drill down to the end to see the reference to the Credit Review Office or see our green brochure enclosed.

Sometimes things get lost in translation.