John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Since coming into office the Government has had a clear focus on assisting SMEs which make up over 99% of businesses in the enterprise economy in Ireland and account for almost 70% of people employed to establish, expand and export, with a view to driving economic recovery and creating jobs across the country. One of the priorities of the Government has been to identify and act on the impediments to the ability of small and medium enterprises to increase employment.

The advisory group on small business which I established in June 2011 reported on 23 November that year. The report identified a number of impediments ranging from weak demand, access to finance, labour costs and flexibility, the cost of doing business, competitive practices, access to public procurement, mentoring, management development, debt and insolvency to easy access to information. These impediments have been the subject of a range of actions within An Action Plan for Jobs. They include: a first stop shop through the local enterprise office, LEO, network; more accessible supports for recruitment such as JobsPlus and JobBridge; new instruments for access to finance; enhanced support in developing new markets overseas and through global sourcing; and access to information and support.

In addition, new legislation has provided for the streamlining of company law to make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to form and operate. We have also reformed the wage setting mechanisms by removing the inflexibilities which prevailed. Legislation to strengthen competition and consumer law, including, in particular, the introduction of powers to regulate practices in the grocery sector is going through the Oireachtas.

A further major source of jobs growth in the SME sector is start-ups. The establishment rate of new businesses fell by 30% in the crash. A key challenge we are addressing is to create an environment in which more start-ups will occur, survive and grow to scale. The recent forum on entrepreneurship is a major contribution to this objective. As a follow-on to the forum, the Department shall shortly publish Ireland’s first policy statement on entrepreneurship.

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