Small businesses help drive our economy
Sir — Conor Skehan apparently sees ‘nativist tendencies’ in the enterprise policies of our political parties. However, the actual nativism is among our largest trading partners in the US and UK. Ireland needs a response.
ISME doesn’t see industrial policy as a binary choice between big business or small business. For us, it is a union of big and small. Many of our service SMEs are almost entirely dependent on multinationals for their custom.
Ireland’s pivot from a sheltered, protected domestic economy in the 1950s to an open trading economy from the 1960s was central to stopping mass immigration, and increasing our national prosperity. But the policies adopted since then have been optimised for the tiny percentage of quoted, large and exporting companies. The vast majority of domestic firms cannot avail of the KEEP Scheme, Knowledge Development Box, SARP, and R&D Tax Credit etc.
Conor seems to forget that Ryanair started out in Waterford with one plane, and Kerry Group started out with eight small farmers’ co-ops, and Portway and Chanelle are exemplars of small, family-owned businesses that have survived, scaled, and thrived. But there are far too few Irish companies scaling in this way. Far from nativism, the need to protect our FDI base while also growing and developing our family-owned small enterprise base is a political recognition of the systemic importance of SMEs to our economy and society. We lag behind our EU, and especially German, cousins in this regard, Neil McDonnell, chief executive ISME,
Kildare Street, Dublin the Black Death had struck in 1348, this bubonic plague would haunt Machiavelli for the rest of his days. During his long career as a diplomat, philosopher and government adviser, he would witness at least five more major epidemics in Florence. For Machiavelli, and the people of Florence, what terrified the populace was not knowing what caused the recurring epidemics.
Such uncertainty made treatment difficult, if not impossible. It was recalled that during the Black Death the well-to-do fled cities for the country, but not so the poor, who either stayed at home in isolation or went out and enjoyed themselves. In his book, The Prince, he warned governments of the need to suitably contain the tension between the social classes. He warned of the dangers of factions causing civil unrest, the consequences of which would be disastrous. Machiavelli often used the metaphor of disease, pointing out it weakens, or kills a human, and so violent class struggles ate away at the body politic. He was also aware that in times of plague, or continual epidemics, that liberty was most in danger.
Machiavelli suggested the governments should not try to be virtuous and he outlined three precepts. The first was to be economical with the truth... In 1383 the government stressed that the shortage of grain should be kept a secret. The second step was to keep expenditure to a minimum and thereby reduce public resentment. Care should be taken that the expenditure did not burden the people with excessive taxes in the future. The third step was given that people were not frightened enough of the spread of the pandemic to stay at home, the government’s only chance of combating infection was to punish infractions so severely that they would be terrified of disobeying the rules.
The Florence government was guided by Machiavelli’s advice, so that when a repeat plague struck again, they were prepared. As we face similar socio-economic challenges, Machiavelli’s ideas remain as pertinent as ever.
Hugh Duffy,
Cleggan, Co Galway