16th February 2015
The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD today (Monday), together with the Minister of State for Business and Employment, Ged Nash TD launched a major new awareness campaign aimed at providing information to start-ups and SMEs of the more than 80 significant Government supports available to assist them in starting and growing their businesses.
Evidence repeatedly shows that Irish start-ups and SMEs have low awareness of the many often very beneficial Government supports available to them, with well over 90% of respondents in surveys saying they have low awareness of schemes and 80% saying they think more information should be made available.
Actionplanforjobs.ie is an initiative of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, led by Minister Richard Bruton, aimed at addressing that gap. The 12-month campaign starts today and comprises a number of different elements, all aimed providing simple information on available supports by driving users to the “Supporting SMEs” online guide:
- national and local radio advertisement campaign
- online advertisement campaign
- new website – actionplanforjobs.ie
9 business leaders and representatives are acting as ambassadors for the campaign, including
- heads of successful established Irish businesses (Sean O’Driscoll of Glen Dimplex and Heather Reynolds of Eishtec);
- young leaders of new Irish start-ups (Emma Rose Conroy of Euro Stallions, Dean Gamill of The Group System, Eamon Keane of Xpreso, and Rhona Togher of Hidden Hearing)
- heads of SME representative organisations (Patricia Callan of SFA, Mark Fielding of ISME and Ian Talbot of Chambers Ireland)
Launching the campaign today, Minister Bruton said: “SMEs employ 650,000 in Ireland, and start-ups account for two thirds of all new jobs growth. At the heart of our Action Plan for Jobs has been improving the supports available for these businesses, and we now have a broad range of supports available for these businesses, aimed at improving their access to credit, supporting their productivity and facilitating them in innovating new products and services. However as I engage with businesses up and down the country I repeatedly encounter the same problem – most businesses simply aren’t aware of the supports, often financially very beneficial to them, that are available.
“That is why we are putting real resources behind actionplanforjobs.ie, a year-long awareness campaign aimed at making a real impact in improving awareness among SMEs of the supports that are available to them. We have put these supports in place so that they are used, so that businesses use them to start-up, grow, and ultimately create more jobs.
“Every job created is a life back on track, as well as providing the increase in tax revenue we need in order to create a better country for people to live in. By making more businesses aware of what the State can do for them we can support more of them to start-up, grow, and create the jobs we need”.
Minister Nash said, “SMEs are the engine of our economy providing employment for people in every town and village in this country. I believe our job in Government is to assist them through tailored supports, services, advice and help. We now have a huge range of such supports aimed specifically at the SME sector and through the actionplanforjobs.ie website entrepreneurs and business people will be able to get more information on the supports directly applicable to them and then apply for them.”
“As the Minister with responsibility for the SME sector I would like to see more of our SMEs use these supports which often can have a beneficial impact on their own bottom line. Ultimately, we want to see these businesses not only survive, but thrive, and help us achieve our goal of returning the country to full employment by 2018.”
ENDS
For further information:
Press Office, Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation 01- 6312200 or press.office@djei.ie
Notes for Editors
See link below to website:
actionplanforjobs.ie
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