Galway Independent Column - 23 February 2011

As part of our preparations for the upcoming general election Galway Chamber has published an extensive Election Manifesto setting out the priority issues facing our Members and the broader business community.
The manifesto document has been sent to all candidates in the Galway West and Galway East Constituencies and to the Party Secretaries of all the political parties.
Over the closing days of canvassing we will be voicing the main points of the Manifesto directly to candidates and via the media and in this way we hope to influence the upcoming programme for Government.
Each member of Galway Chamber also received a copy of the Election Manifesto document and now we would greatly appreciate feedback. The endorsement of the document by Members will strengthen our key message that business/enterprise/jobs must be at the core of policy making by the incoming Government. By way of receiving this feedback we have issued a short survey to all members by email. It only takes a minute to complete.

Feedback from members is the backbone of our lobbying activity on your behalf. We received the following from a long time member of Galway Chamber when he received our Manifesto:

‘As Managing Director of an SME I hope that whatever government is voted into office will be pro business and will quickly take decisive steps to ensure that Ireland continues along the path to improved competitiveness which most SME’s embarked on in 2008.

I also hope that the new government will recognise the need for new and existing businesses to survive and thrive as the SME sector has a key role to play in providing much needed employment and taxation revenue if it is given the chance to do so.

Specifically I would like to see a new government take the following actions within its first twelve months in office:-

1. Instruct the Irish headquartered banks to make a certain amount of funds available to profitable SME’s whose future is threatened by serious cash flow difficulties. These instructions need to be backed up by meaningful sanctions such as a withholding of financial support to banks which refuse to assist viable businesses with short term cash flow challenges.

It is nothing short of a scandal that we are seeing profitable SME’s closing because of cash flow difficulties. Many of these companies could have been saved had the outgoing government made it a condition of rescuing the banking sector that these same rescued banks had been compelled to make funds available to viable businesses with cash flow difficulties.

2. Take positive steps to facilitate entrepreneurs to set up new ventures in sectors where there is a reasonable possibility of success. There are openings in the ICT, financial services and medical devices sectors and in the green technology sector which should be actively encouraged.

3. Amend the absurd bankruptcy legislation which unreasonably punishes company directors whose businesses might have failed due to market forces. As well as being unjust this deprives the economy of the expertise of directors who should be afforded the opportunity to get back into business rather than suffering the stigma of being branded a bankrupt for 12 years. As a society we need to accept that some businesses do fail and business people should not be scapegoated because their companies have had to cease trading. Instead I would argue that these directors should be afforded the opportunity to learn from their failure and make a fresh start. Changing the bankruptcy legislation would help to remove the unnecessary stigma associated with business failure and this would encourage more people to take the risk of starting a new business.

4. Amend the social welfare rules which punish people whose businesses have failed by depriving them of normal unemployment benefit entitlements– this is an unjust and foolish way to punish people who took risks and provided employment and taxes in the economy

5. In general terms the new government should commit itself to increasing awareness that Ireland needs to have a thriving private sector in place before it can provide the range full of services citizens have a right to expect in a properly managed economy. It is alarming to hear so many people talking about their entitlements without having any sense of awareness of how these ‘entitlements’ are actually paid for.

6. The process of wage and salary determination needs to be revisited. There can be no doubt that the so called ‘partnership process’ lost its way in the past ten years and resulted in grossly inflated expenditure which was financed by taxes ensuing from a short term property bubble. It is a scandal that the SME sector had no say in the partnership process – if it had an input I am confident that the high level of pay increases and the notorious benchmarking fiasco would not have been allowed to happen.

7. The new government needs to urgently tackle the issue of government induced inflation. Two obvious costs is the issue of energy costs where the ESB monopoly and cost structure has to be addressed and also the area of commercial rates where businesses are now paying considerably more money for a significantly reduced service than they were getting ten years ago.

8. The new government should propose a referendum to write an article into the constitution prohibiting any future Irish government from spending more than it takes in taxes. After the austerity that the citizens have had to put up with since 2008 this referendum is necessary so that the country can never be run into the ground again

This list is not intended to be exhaustive but I do think most businesses would be satisfied if the list of proposals were acted on in the next twelve months.’

This is what the Election is all about from a business point of view. This is why our members are our strength. Make your vote count for business on Friday.