Businesses Remain Dissatisfied with Government S Handling of Business Costs

P R E S S R E L E A S E

Friday 1stDecember 2017

BUSINESSES REMAIN DISSATISFIED WITH GOVERNMENT’S HANDLING OF BUSINESS COSTS

• Medium sized enterprises most satisfied with government
• Handling of business costs still a concern
• Retail sector least satisfied with Government performance
• Improving business costs is key to our competiveness

ISME, the Irish SME Association, published the results of its latest Government Satisfaction report today (1st December).SMEs overall satisfaction with the Government experienced another slight improvement on the previous quarter. The Association welcomes the fact that this is the third consecutive improvement this year. Business costsremain a key area of concern for SMEs, alongside Government’s handling of the banking situation. As we head towards the prospect of hard border, improving our competiveness is key to business growth.

ISME CEO, Neil McDonnell commenting on the results stated“Business costs continue to be a concern for many SMEs. Prices in general (CPI) are inflating very little or deflating. However, Government-influenced costs continue to inflate because the state will not tackle vested interests”.

He added,

“Our national competiveness is disimproving at the very time when we are about the form a land-border with a lower-cost, non-EU country. We have dropped from 23rd to 24th in the World Economic Competiveness Forum rankings. Today’s result show us the level of dissatisfaction SMEs have towards Government, if we are to tackle Brexit head on we must ensure our competitiveness is improved”

The survey was conducted in the second week of November, with556 SME respondents, 47% of whom employ less than 10; 47% employ between 11 and 49; and the remaining 6% employ between 50 and 250. Geographically, 31% are from Dublin; 56% are spread across the rest of the country; and 13% have multiple sites.

COMBINED RATING (-7% to -6%)

• The overall satisfaction rating has improved this quarter, but still remains in negative figures, improving from -7% (Q2’17) to -6% (Q3’17). Micro and small sized enterprises are least satisfied with the government at -11% and -8% respectively.
• Medium sized enterprise are most satisfied with government at +36%, an increase from +19% in Q2’17.
• The Retail sector is again most dissatisfied with government at -57%, while the Manufacturing sector is most satisfied with government at 14%.

• Construction’s perception of government performance declined this quarter from +9% in Q2’17 to -46% in Q3’17, while Wholesale and Services are at 0%.

JOBS RATING (From +13% to +11%)

• There has been a slight drop in the satisfaction ratings with the Government’s handling of the jobs situation, declining from +13% to +11%. This decline was anticipated given the nominal change in the monthly unemployment figures captured by the CSO recently. The jobs figure could be bettered, if government influenced costs were reduced.

BANKING (From -49% to -63%)

• The banking score continues to be negative. Until we move away from the unhealthy relationship we have with the three main financial institutions, negative scoring around banking will remain. In our previous bank watch survey, 39% stated they were refused a loan. Furthermore, the interest charged to SMEs is twice the EU average. Until we see positive change in these area, adverse scoring will persist.

ECONOMY (From +9% to +1%)

• This question examines how satisfied SMEs are with the Government’s handling of the economy;there was a decrease in the satisfaction of government’s handling of the economy down from +9% to +1%.

BUSINESS COSTS (From -60% to -54%)

• Business cost continue to be a concern for SMEs. Excessive business costs continue to have a major impact on businesses, this was reflected in our submission to the Oireachtas committee on business costs. The Association is concerned that the impact of a hard Brexit and continued labour pressures will affect our competitiveness. We reiterate our call for the Government to conduct a review of all business costs to bring them into line with our main export competitors.

ENDS

For further information, please contact

Neil McDonnell, Chief Executive

T: 01 6622755, M: 087 2995658

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Note to Editors:

* The satisfaction rating is made up from five specific questions on the Government’s performance in dealing with Jobs, Banking, Business Costs the Economy and Overall performance. The results are based on simple balances of the differences between positive and negative responses, for example the negative balance for Jobs means that a greater percentage of respondents were unsatisfied with the Government’s performance on the Jobs issue.