Nearly a quarter of Irish businesses have ceased trading temporarily, new figures reveal
Almost a quarter of Irish businesses have ceased trading temporarily while almost half had availed of the temporary Covid-19 wage subsidy scheme according to a new business survey from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The online survey was sent to a sample of 3,000 businesses. Statistician, Colin Hanley, said 23.3% had ceased trading temporarily, 0.6% had ceased trading permanently, and 76.0% continued to trade.
"However, Covid-19 has impacted sectors differently: In Construction, 70.8% of enterprises had ceased trading either temporarily or permanently, while in Accommodation and Food Services 88.1% had ceased trading.
Of the Government supports available to businesses, 47.1% said they had utilised the Revenue Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme, while 51.6% stated that they had not availed of any supports.
Separately, the government is being urged to include alternative lenders alongside the pillar banks as channels for the expansion of the Government’s lending support for SMEs.
Linked Finance, a peer-to-peer lending platform said it is vital to ensure funding is deployed rapidly, and that this will be helped by leveraging the strong SME relationships held by several non-bank lenders.
The company's Chairman Michael Cawley wrote to the Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe TD to outline the company’s concerns and request a meeting to discuss how SME lending supports can be improved.
Linked Finance believes the current approach is not working because on the demand side, the administrative burden required of firms to qualify is excessive. On the supply side, the extent of Government guarantees is insufficient for lenders to be willing to deploy capital given the extent of uncertainty out there.
Niall Dorrian, Chief Executive of Linked Finance said: “The clock is ticking for Irish SMEs and it’s vital that the Government moves quickly to expand the lending support it can provide.
Alongside an expansion of capital guarantees should also be the broadening of the channels through which funds are offered to include lenders like Linked Finance.