Business assistance bodies' narrow focus on employment and exports causing untold damage to small firms

1.19.37pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 22nd Sep 2006

Alliance Spokesperson for Youth Affairs, Ian James Parsley

Alliance Spokesperson for Youth Affairs, Ian James Parsley, has said the narrow focus of government agencies assisting small firms is causing harm to business in Northern Ireland.

The North Down Councillor stated: "The criteria used when offering assistance to small firms are like something out of the 1970s. The number of people employed and the percentage of services or products exported is a crude measure of almost no relevance to small firms now.

"What businesspeople want is barriers brought down, not put up. Government is supposedly investing in business units and in expert consultants, but is that really what businesspeople are asking for?

"What businesspeople want is decent start-up accommodation without having to find £30,000 to fit it out. They want subsidies to travel to major industry conferences and trade fairs, not some 'expert consultant' paid hundreds of pounds a day to tell them what they already know. And they want recognition that it is perfectly legitimate to run businesses which do not export, and which rely on external suppliers rather than employees.

"This is another example of the failure of business and Government to work together effectively. That is a gap we must seek to close."

ENDS