Image: Leon Farrell Image: Leon Farrell BUSINESS OWNERS ARE still digesting the government’s ‘Road Map for Reopening Society and Business’ and the package of recovery measures, announced over the bank holiday weekend.
“We did takeaway coffee for the first two weeks. But at the end of March when the stricter restrictions came into effect, that was the point that I decided that I’m not risking anything and to close down.” SMEs are defined as firms that employ up to 249 people. According to the most recently available data from the Central Statistics Office, they employed over 68% of the Irish workforce in 2017 and made up an overwhelming 99% of all the firms in Ireland.The aim is to support below-market-interest-rate lending to small and medium enterprises for terms ranging from three months to six years.
In the North the grants are £10,000 for SMEs and £25,000 for the Hospitality, Retail and Tourism sector“It’s great that these loans are there and easy to apply for and the interest rates are supposed to be below the commercial rates. That is brilliant. But if I have to get a loan just to cover the operational costs and I have to pay interest rates on that, I still see it as a burden,” Visnyei said.
Just before the business restrictions were put in place, he was getting his Brazilian jiu-jitsu gym in Dublin, Celestial BJJ, off the ground. Daly is concerned about the closure of small, specialist businesses like his migh mean for the landscape of the fitness industry in Ireland if only large, cash-rich gym chains are left standing in the wake of the pandemic.