Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 1 March 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
Challenges Facing Small and Medium Enterprises: Discussion
Mr. Simon McKeever:
We are a bit behind as a Government and a nation because the CSRD is the next Brexit, Y2K and general data protection regulation, GDPR, event. It is Brexit level. In our psyche nationally, we are in 2017, pre-Brexit. It is going to have a massive impact from the end of next year. I am concerned when I hear people talking about it because they say it will only affect large organisations with more than 500 employees. Our banks have more than 500 employees and 90% of their loan books are small businesses. They cannot report properly on the CSRD unless they are getting the information from small businesses. This directive is going to have a massive impact. We set up a new training body, the Institute of Sustainable Trade, to help companies get ready for it. It is going to take the level of effort across government, business organisations and civil society we saw in Covid-19 and Brexit to address the issue. It needs to be led by the Government. I do not think the Government is on message at the moment. It needs to be much further out there than it is at the moment. It is going to be massive.