Since the last local and European elections in 2019, businesses have had to deal with a once in lifetime pandemic, the ins and outs of trade post-Brexit, soaring fuel costs amid the first war in Europe in a generation and the bite of inflation.James Coughlan is Director of Astropark, a company that runs astro pitch facilities across Dublin."My wage bill will increase by €90,000 each year for the next three years - that is €270,000 in total - how do I fund that?," he asked.
"Frankly, a lot of the Government imposed costs on the SME community have arisen since the budget last October which effects 2024 onwards," he said. We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Ms Kelly said small businesses should be putting election candidates under pressure to secure more support."The rates SMEs pay for their storefronts is a huge cost for them, and we need subsidies to help them grow and develop online schemes - to get their websites up to scratch, to have some sort of marketing help when it comes to content even recording videos on social media.
"The volatility within the utilities is still there and costs are still very high and interest rates are still very high," he said.