Confidence in economy ‘poor’
These were among the findings presented at this year’s Small Firms Association Conference held under the theme ‘Restoring Consumer Confidence’ and opened by the Minister for Small Business John Perry TD who pointed out that the Government listed restoring the “sustainability to the public finances”, the “repair of the banking system” and the “return of the economy to stable growth” as being among the Government’s objectives for our €90 billion domestic economy.
He pointed to the Government’s launching of a €500 million Jobs Initiative in May 2011 and continnuing dialogue with small firms provided through The Advisory Group for Small Business.
The first Progress Report on the Action Plan, published by the Government last April, showed that 80 of the 83 measures due for delivery across the whole of Government in the first Quarter of 2012 had been implemented, he stated. ?He also referred to the various initiatives taken by his colleague the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan to make the banks fit for purpose resulting in the Temporary Partial Loan Scheme and the Microfinance Fund which should be up-and-running by the third quarter of the year.
