9,000 FIRMS AT RISK CALL FOR MORE SUPPORT
SOME 9,000 businesses could close for good following the Covid-19 crisis, lobby groups have told a special committee.
Neil McDonnell, the chief executive of Isme, the smalland medium-enterprise body, said its members need better Government support.
‘We surveyed people on a sentiment basis around mortality and if anything close to the 6% that say they are done within a month, if that was to happen, you could be looking up to 9,000 SMEs,’ Mr McDonnell told the Dáil’s Special Committee on Covid-19.
Mr McDonnell also criticised the Government’s business supports, including its restart grants for firms.
‘What has gone into the sector by way of assistance is a drop in the ocean by contrast with what is coming out of the sector in tax,’ he added.
Earlier lobby group Ibec (Irish Business and Employers Confederation) called for clarity from the Government on the two-metre social-distancing rule, warning that uncertainty will ‘compound economic and social destruction’.
Isme and Ibec represent thousands of Irish businesses.
Ibec’s chief executive Danny McCoy also called for the removal of quarantine restrictions in place for people arriving in Ireland from overseas.
Mr McCoy told the Special Committee on Covid-19: ‘Significant measures will need to be taken to protect the livelihoods of households and businesses, get people back into jobs, and bring forward maintenance and investment projects from an extended capital plan.
‘For now, the immediate actions required from Government are: the removal of the quarantine restrictions; replacement of the two-metre social distancing to a onemetre requirement; and an extensive and systematic Covid track and trace programme.
‘Uncertainty around the timing and application of rules will compound economic and social destruction,’ he added.
‘Measures need to be taken’