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Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland

Why isn't this government support for SMEs working?

Microfinance Ireland has approved just €3 million from a €90 million lending budget.

A GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED scheme that was supposed to provide €90 million in loans to small and medium enterprises has lent just €3 million since its launch in 2012.

The Microfinance Ireland scheme provides loans of between €2,000 and €25,000 to what it calls “commercially viable proposals that have been declined credit”.

However, despite much fanfare when it was launched in 2012, the scheme has approved just €3.022 million across 192 loans from a total of 475 applications, and attracted much ire from employer bodies.

Low demand blamed

MFI acknowledged today that it “would like to see more applications”, but blamed the low rate of demand for its service among borrowers for its poor performance to date.

In a statement, a spokesman said: “Our lending activity is demand-driven, and demand among borrowers has been lower than was originally anticipated.”

However, Patricia Callan of the Small Firms Association suggested that MFI had its messaging wrong from the start.

She said that the fund should be actively targeting start-ups and unemployed people, rather than established businesses. She also criticised the fact that applicants must be rejected by a bank before applying to MFI.

“The fact you have to go to a bank and be rejected is a hindrance. People want to be able to go and apply directly for these grants.”

She said that many small business people weren’t aware of the scheme thanks to poor communications and badly thought out strategies.

“Microfinance in principle is a good product – the budget should easily be exhausted, but are they getting the message out? I don’t think people even know if they exist.”

Great expectations

When the scheme was launched in 2012, Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton promised that 5,500 micro-enterprises would be able to avail of the scheme over its ten year lifespan.

At the launch, Bruton said that “the Government is acting to ensure that a much wider range of businesses who are refused credit by the banks have access to microfinance lending”.

The scheme is due to be reviewed this October, after it has been in operation for two years.

The original chief executive of the company, Adrienne Murray, left MFI earlier this year for personal reasons. Her replacement, Michael Johnson, is a former CEO of the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Enterprise board, will take up the position later this month.

The Government wants to hear from cash-strapped SMEs>

Restrictive, badly marketed and poorly explained: Government finance scheme for SMEs is not working>

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18 Comments
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    Mute Fintan O'Halloran
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    Aug 12th 2018, 8:35 PM

    I’ve heard it all

    836
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    Mute John Mitten
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    Aug 12th 2018, 8:41 PM

    @Fintan O’Halloran: not much that can actually be added to your comment. Over the last few days the claims have been out of this world. We have a man winning because he was promoted. Then a women because she informed her new employer she was 9weeks pregnant 1 week in to employment and was let go. But the promoted one is the best. I pray these are all satire

    375
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    Mute fintolini
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    Aug 12th 2018, 9:03 PM

    @John Mitten: Most new roles have a probationary period, 6 months and its for both employee and employer to ensure the role fits etc.
    Surely one of the parties could have realised in that time period that something fundamental wasn’t right. A process that encompasses a PIP rarely leads to satisfaction on both sides, perhaps if they looked at the actual cause of the issue, they could have moved him to a more suitable role and allowed another person who was more suitable for the role a chance.

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    Mute Hans Vos
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    Aug 12th 2018, 9:03 PM

    @John Mitten: one month in employment not one week.

    15
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    Mute John Mitten
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    Aug 12th 2018, 9:10 PM

    @Hans Vos: read the article again. It states 1 week.

    41
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    Mute Hans Vos
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    Aug 12th 2018, 9:30 PM

    @John Mitten: yea you’re right. Mea culpa!

    14
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    Mute John Mitten
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    Aug 12th 2018, 9:38 PM

    @Hans Vos: none of these should have got a cent. I really hope courts over rule them.

    45
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    Mute Al Madzer
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    Aug 12th 2018, 9:57 PM

    @John Mitten: I think it’s a recommended payout. It’s not enforceable and usually the complainant has to go to court to attempt to get the money.

    18
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    Mute Bart
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    Aug 13th 2018, 9:08 AM

    @fintolini: ha ha ha, probation is for employee benefit, ha ha ha

    3
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    Mute Gareth Cooney
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    Aug 13th 2018, 11:57 AM

    @John Mitten: plus the lady who sued for reading and responding to emails at home after work she was awarded €6k and appealed for more and won an additional €1.5k

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    Mute Jim
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    Aug 13th 2018, 2:36 PM

    @Fintan O’Halloran: muppet

    1
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    Mute Stephen East
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    Aug 12th 2018, 8:43 PM

    My god…..a legal article we can actually comment on

    336
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    Mute John Mitten
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    Aug 12th 2018, 8:48 PM

    @Stephen East: dreams do come true

    99
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    Mute Shawn O'Ceallaghan
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    Aug 12th 2018, 11:16 PM

    @Stephen East: not really a legal article. Its a recommendation court basically. Bank can refuse to pay and it would mean fun at a civil court level

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    Mute Martin Flood
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    Aug 12th 2018, 9:20 PM

    So he gets rewarded for being thick?

    332
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    Mute G Fitz
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    Aug 12th 2018, 10:52 PM

    @Martin Flood: I don’t think he was thick, maybe lazy?

    95
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    Mute ManUtdMan
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    Aug 12th 2018, 11:22 PM

    @G Fitz:Treated a serious position as a plum job, sacked & still worked out a way of getting paid from a bank. This boy ain’t thick lads.

    149
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    Mute Ciaran O Shea
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    Aug 12th 2018, 8:41 PM

    You can sue for anything in Ireland!!

    246
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    Mute John Smith
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    Aug 12th 2018, 9:21 PM

    I thought this was Waterford Whispers for a moment…

    183
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    Mute ciaran kehoe
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    Aug 12th 2018, 9:47 PM

    Who actually appoints these people who are on these committees making crazy decisions like that one. He gets awarded because is not up to the job & won’t take his training seriously. He would probably also have also won a case if he had not been promoted. Who in their right mind would want to be an employer in this country when no matter what you do employee’s win cases like this. The people making these awards are the ones not up to the job

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    Mute Fat Face 99
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    Aug 12th 2018, 8:43 PM

    ‘His representative said he should have been demoted’

    I’m guessing that would have been worth more than €6600 for him……….

    141
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    Mute Niall
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    Aug 12th 2018, 10:28 PM

    Well, I suppose he did work for a business that got 85billion from the taxpayer because it failed.

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    Mute Terry Cahill
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    Aug 13th 2018, 9:31 AM

    @Niall: I can’t see the name of the Bank anywhere … did I miss it ?

    11
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    Mute Maria
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    Aug 12th 2018, 9:58 PM

    Is it only me but why are their name’s never released? If I was an employer I would want to know the outcome of this case.

    67
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    Mute Martin Flood
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    Aug 12th 2018, 10:12 PM

    @Maria: Exactly. And make sure he’s never promoted, just in case.

    57
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    Mute Patrick O'Farrell
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    Aug 13th 2018, 12:37 AM

    I’d love to know which bank. I spent 15 yrs working with a large national bank and it was there I learned that AEDS (Arse Elbow Differentiation Syndrome) was rampant in management in Irish banks. If you played the game you got promoted but if you dared question you were as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit. Nothing has changed in the Irish banks, they reward incompetence and dishonesty and penalise honesty and engagement.

    103
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    Mute Tracey Coleman
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    Aug 13th 2018, 7:48 PM

    @Patrick O’Farrell: Performance Improvement Plans are used in PTSB.

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    Mute James Noel Bradley
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    Aug 12th 2018, 8:39 PM

    Good for him

    35
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    Mute Pixie McMullen
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    Aug 13th 2018, 12:39 AM

    I’ m just wondering who gave him a job with a significant pay rise, and does he know what he has let himself in for.

    32
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    Mute Jun Stone
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    Aug 13th 2018, 5:59 AM

    @Pixie McMullen: maybe, just maybe the bank were unreasonable and there’s nothing wrong with the guy, after all he has a new job with more money, you wouldn’t know what was at play here.

    21
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    Mute George McCarthy
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    Aug 12th 2018, 8:52 PM

    Why are these payments so low????

    34
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    Mute John Mitten
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    Aug 12th 2018, 8:59 PM

    @George McCarthy: As payments for stupidity go this is high.

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    Mute Gasher
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    Aug 13th 2018, 6:15 AM

    So basically a man applies for a job that he hasn’t got the skills/qualifications for and the sues his employer because HE was incompetent!!!!
    During the interview, I assume there was one, I would imagine he told the interviewers that he was the best thing since sliced bread.
    This country is heading down the drain.
    By the same token Leo could sue the state, saying that he was promoted to the top job by Enda, while Enda knew he was incompetent and hadn’t got the skills to carry out his duties. This would then set a precedent where Simon Harris, Paschal, Eoghan and a few more could sue the state to top up their giant pensions and golden handshakes.

    38
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    Mute James Darby
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    Aug 12th 2018, 10:17 PM

    He’s obviously not so stupid after all, he’s just got over 6 grand for nothing.

    71
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    Mute Rory J Leonard
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    Aug 12th 2018, 11:07 PM

    @James Darby:

    Sounds like this reasonable man quickly determined that the climb up the greasy pole to a more senior management role, and presumably additional pay, was not worth the effort and not all it’s cracked up to be, and decided to slide back down again to a quieter less stressful life. I can see the injustice here!

    He’s right to not let them take the pis.

    17
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    Mute Gareth Cooney
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    Aug 13th 2018, 12:11 PM

    @Rory J Leonard: he’s gone on to fly a plane for Ryanair.

    1
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    Mute Joseph Dempsey
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    Aug 13th 2018, 5:53 AM

    Interesting the Journal permitting comments on this case and yet not permitted on at least 10 other WRC cases over the past few weeks?

    24
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    Mute Dave Slater
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    Aug 12th 2018, 9:57 PM

    The Peter Principle.

    22
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    Mute Seán Kinsella
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    Aug 13th 2018, 7:11 AM

    It’s not work I’m after, it’s employment, your honour.

    20
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    Mute Dan
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    Aug 12th 2018, 11:29 PM

    I should be making a fortune then…

    11
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    Mute Gerard Heery
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    Aug 13th 2018, 7:44 AM

    If that’s the case all the government are entitled to it

    5
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    Mute Raymond McGee
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    Aug 13th 2018, 12:16 AM

    It is a legally binding decision by an individual WRC adjudicator but it can be appealed by either party to the Labour Court, a 3- person tribunal, whose decision is final

    5
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