Galway Independent Column - July 14th 2010

In a recent survey of Galway Chamber Members, results of which will be published in the coming weeks, ‘Access to Credit’ was ranked as the second most important in a list of fifteen ‘Pressing business issues’ facing members. The importance of this issue to business in this country is underlined by the fact that Minister for Enterprise Trade and Innovation Batt O'Keefe TD supported by Junior Minister Dara Calleary will be in Galway this week to embark on a fresh round of meetings with the business community around the country on the issue of bank credit availability.

The purpose of the meeting is for Ministers O’Keeffe and Calleary to hear at first hand the views and experiences of local businesses on access to bank lending. This full exchange of views aims to facilitate a greater understanding of the issue at both regional and national levels, giving an indication of how matters have changed since last year, when Minister O’Keeffe met with the group in the first instance.

Galway Chamber will be represented at the meeting by our President Paul Shelly with members of the Chamber Council in the SME sector, who will put the experiences and views of Chamber members to the Ministers and who will continue to press for easier access to credit for SMEs.

The Ministers must be made fully aware that credit difficulties have made successful businesses go to the wall since last year and while we welcome An Taoiseach’s global message this week of Ireland ‘turning the corner’ with the launch of his €500 million ‘Innovation Fund Ireland’ in New York, Galway Chamber will continue to lobby strongly for our members in their particular areas of need. This meeting with Ministers O’Keefe and Calleary is part of that process.

Galway Chamber continues to be committed to make Galway a better business environment for our members and with this in mind we are supporting a range of activities that will allow our members to access extra help for their businesses. One of the ways in which we’re doing this is by facilitating projects under the Labour Market Activation Fund operated by the Department of Education and Skills.

For many businesses the ability to hire new employees to tackle a specific project or to deal with outstanding work is not a runner while financial pressures remain. The Begin Again programme being offered by ICBE, Irish Centre for Business Excellence, initiated by the Labour Market Activation Fund, allows employers to take on an experienced and qualified individual for work experience.

This experienced and qualified individual who has been made redundant (for at least 3 months) will undertake placement experience for 12 weeks at no additional cost to the business. The individual placed in the company retains all Social Welfare benefits while gaining valuable experience and furthering his/her networking activities. To ensure both the company and the individual maximise this opportunity both mentoring support and training will be provided. This would appear to be a win all round situation so if you’re a business owner or unemployed (for at least 3 months) and want to learn more about this programme contact Paula Crowley on 091-755736/paula@leapadvisors.ie.