The restaurant sector is one of those under pressure where owners will be hoping to benefit from the new Government supports. The package of measures for Small and Medium Enterprises announced by the Government this week is of course welcome, but it is hard to see how it will make a significant impact given the scale and nature of the problems facing the sector.
The PwC numbers chime with anecdotal evidence of a large number of pubs and restaurants closing since the start of the year. But the numbers do not capture the many small businesses that are currently teetering on the edge of insolvency or those that decided to shut up shop before they went bankrupt.
The measures will give some additional headroom to SMEs that are struggling but remain fundamentally viable. Likewise, other measures such as raising the threshold for the lower rate of employers’ PRSI and possibly delaying the introduction of additional statutory sick days and increases in the minimum wage would help, though they would have a cost to the employees affected.