Enterprise Boards Disillusioned by Government
Enterprise boards disillusioned by government Three out of four Dublin County Enterprise Boards have no more funds to support new
start-ups.
The Department of Trade and Innovation was made aware of the dire shortage of enterprise
money in June and as of yet have not acted on the pleas of Enterprise Chiefs to increase the
budgetary requirements for all the enterprise boards.
One Chief Executive of Dublin’s four county boards, has said that his board ‘has allocated over
€1m which cannot be dispersed because no money is available to them’ Speaking to Focusme
magazine the Chief Executive went on to say that ‘The dept of trade and Innovation has been
aware this would happen for some time and the government don’t realise that initial investments
usually break even. This is the first time in fifteen years that this has happened to enterprise
boards. It is economic madness not to invest in small/micro businesses.’ As if to compound the problems further, Boards across all counties have had their workforce
cut. An embargo has been put on the hiring of new staff which means if an employee of the
board leaves the position cannot be filled causing yet more strain on the board itself. This also
means that it is next to impossible for applications to viewed quickly and efficiently, many
applicants are waiting months for their applications to be viewed. 1/3
Enterprise Boards Disillusioned by Government
The Clare County Enterprise Chief executive Eamonn Kelly said that ‘Embargos and Lack of
finance has made life next to impossible for county boards. We work 65-70 hour weeks, which
puts a great strain on home life, but the people need the service. In the past number of months
there have been a huge number of applicants and that’s without adding the DELL workers
application into the mix. We have tried to bring the situation to the Dept of Trade and Innov and
the Dept of Finance, but sometimes it feels like a waste of time.’
Other boards have said they are not undaunted by the situation and say they are beginning new
strategies which will include fastrack loans, Building Society loans and continuing work with
FAS.
We cannot allow this country to fall back into a social welfare State; the government must be
looking to the future to provide Irelands economic answers, judging by this announcement that
clearly is not happening.
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Enterprise Boards Disillusioned by Government
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