Bruton pledges €100m for small firms

A €100 million fund to help small business start-ups will be a priority for Fine Gael, enterprise spokesman Richard Bruton said this morning.

Launching the party’s proposed measures to help small businesses, Mr Bruton said there had been “a silent haemorrhage of small businesses” in Ireland in the last few years.

“There has to be special measures designed to protect small businesses, which are the life blood of our country,” he said.

The launch was held at Manning’s Café & Bakery on Thomas Street in Dublin. Donning aprons and hats, Mr Bruton and John Perry, the party’s small and medium enterprise spokesman, stood behind the counter and posed for photographs before outlining their policies.

Mr Bruton said the €100 million micro-finance fund would be managed by Enterprise Ireland, but distributes through business support groups.

He also said banks had “forgotten how to lend to small businesses” and so they would introduce a temporary, partial loan guarantee scheme to insure they could be financed.

They would also cut employers PRSI for lower-paid jobs for the first three years and reduce VAT on new labour-intensive businesses, such as catering and domestic builders.

They would also establish a new regulatory body to help small businesses who were currently “burdened” with regulations designed for “big business”.

“Red tape is an area a lot of businesses struggled with we want to address that,” he said.

Upward only rent reviews were “not appropriate in the current rent environment” and the party would legislate to change that and, if necessary test its constitutionality. “It is the creativity and the ingenuity of our own people that will get us out of here,” Mr Bruton said.