The Government has a multitude of agencies and organisations geared with the task of helping out business start-ups.
But eight months into the lifetime of this Government, we have to ask what these bodies are actually doing to maintain existing employment, let alone creating an environment in which SMEs might prosper.
Three years ago, the German government availed of employment subsidies to assist many crisis-hit companies, so surely a similar stimulus should be provided here?
But that alone is not enough in an Irish context. Existing companies who wish to maintain staff numbers at a level which allow it to stay in business, need more help.
Credit from banks, again promised by the Fine Gael/Labour coalition, has not been as free-flowing as committed to prior to the election.
How can this be when, as the interviewed David McWilliams notes on pages 26 and 27, most of these banks are now in the ownership of the taxpayer?
