‘Lack of quality in sector and too few lending banks curtailing SME growth’

A lack of quality among Ireland’s small business community and a paucity of lending banks in the marketplace are curtailing SME growth, an ESRI-hosted conference heard yesterday.

While the ‘SME Financing’ conference heard results of new ESRI research — most notably that difficulty in accessing finance is only third on the list of priorities for small firms, behind falling demand and increased competition — delegates and speakers raised a number of other issues.

Delegates were told that while policy solutions for investment finance are a popular topic of discussion, more needs to be done regarding working capital finance.