Business supports must cater to companies of all sizes to encourage enterprise growth – Byrne

Business supports must cater to companies of all sizes to encourage enterprise growth, the Fine Gael Seanad Finance Spokesperson has said.

This week in the Seanad Limerick Senator Maria Byrne raised the issue of businesses, which due to their size, may miss out on crucial supports.

Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) mainly deal with companies with ten employees or fewer while Enterprise Ireland mainly deals with companies with 30 or more employees, and Senator Byrne is highlighting the companies caught in the middle.

Senator Byrne said, “Local Enterprise Offices are a fantastic resource for businesses and having served on the Limerick City Enterprise Board for 15 years, I saw first-hand just how crucial their financial supports and range of advice are to businesses.

“The LEOs mainly deal with companies of ten employees or fewer so they really are aimed at small and micro businesses. For companies with 30 or more employees, Enterprise Ireland provide valuable supports. Many businesses have started small and grown into multi-million-euro turnover enterprises thanks to supports from the LEOs.

“It has come to my attention however that some companies with more than ten but fewer than 30 employees do feel squeezed in the middle and I would like to see more supports and services made available to them. As the party of enterprise and job creation, Fine Gael really values the small and medium businesses that are so crucial to creating employment and developing local economies all across the country.

“Fine Gael wants to encourage small businesses to be ambitious and grow. We don’t want a situation where anything might present an obstacle to growth, for example if a company was concerned it might lose crucial supports if it grows beyond ten employees.

“I raised this concern with Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Damien English, in the Seanad this week, and I was pleased to hear that the Government is very aware of this grey area and determined that these businesses will not be forgotten.

“The SME task force set up last year by the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar, contained a priority recommendation to ensure that there is a comprehensive and joined-up range of enterprise responses for all SMEs by the State, public bodies and our enterprise agencies. As part of the development of the new Enterprise Ireland strategy, which is currently under way and due soon according to Minister English, we are also examining how best to broaden assistance to ambitious entrepreneurs and businesses, with the potential to scale and grow both on domestic market and internationally.

“I will continue working with the Tánaiste and Minister English to ensure that the Government works to prevent any potential gaps in assistance to help the business sectors of our economy which have the potential to grow and create employment,” Senator Byrne concluded.