The Chairman of the Small Firms Association, Dr Aidan O’Boyle, in his address to over 750 members at the SFA Annual Lunch, has called for “a new dynamic approach” to creating and retaining jobs in the economy and giving confidence back to consumers, “without this confidence and resultant expenditure we will never tackle the jobs crisis which afflicts us.”O’Boyle stated that there sometimes appears to be a lack of urgency on Governments behalf in addressing business growth and job creation, “An Taoiseach and his Government must ensure that the promises made are delivered on and that the policies and actions geared to delivering growth and jobs are acted on with a real sense of urgency.”
Dr O’Boyle called on the Taoiseach to give fuel to small businesses – the engines of recovery - and to deliver a Government backed loan guarantee scheme, as has been successfully done in Northern Ireland some 12 months ago. “Time is running out - we need action. Since September 2009 we have been told by Government that such a scheme was under detail study – the reality is that unless the lending risk to the banks is reduced by the introduction of a loan guarantee scheme, many small businesses will not survive.”
Dr. O’Boyle called on the Banking sector to return to the old policy of relationship banking with small firms at a local level and for the banks to once again play a key role “in supporting and encouraging small businesses in their local areas.”
Addressing the issues of costs, O’Boyle said that our record to date in reducing costs has “not been good – one of the main culprits has been costs under Government control – we need to tackle these costs now with renewed vigour.” One area that requires greater focus was the restructuring of the funding mechanism for local authorities, to ensure that the user-pays principle will apply in future and that “small business should no longer be the 'fall guy' picking up the tab when central funding is cut,” said O’Boyle.
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