Small firms get Credit Review Office on side

The Credit Review Office is lobbying Government to significantly extend the limits to which SMEs can appeal regarding refused funding.

Currently, the Credit Review Office — which was established in 2010 to monitor credit flow to SMEs — can only assess cases where firms feel they have been unfairly refused credit of up to €500,000.

Speaking at the Small Firms Association’s annual conference in Dublin yesterday, the Credit Review Office chief, John Trethowan, said that, with so few lending banks in the Irish market at present, upping the scope for firms to appeal to his office could be a vital additional benefit to them.

He added that his office is targeting a rise in the monetary limit of appeals from €500,000 to €3 million.

Also addressing yesterday’s conference was ESRI economist, John FitzGerald, who warned that a failure to deliver a fit for purpose banking system, within the next six years, poses one of the biggest risks for Ireland’s economic growth.

“If credit isn’t available, recovery will not happen,” Mr FitzGerald told delegates.

In a short broad economic outlook, Mr FitzGerald said that recovery in the eurozone economy, in the next year, could mean that Budget 2014 is the last severe adjustment necessary and the Government may not need to meet its additional €2bn cuts in 2015.

However, he noted that if the European economy remains stagnant for the medium-term, severe budgets will be the norm here.

But, Mr FitzGerald said, while there is a real possibility of a “zombie” Europe developing economically, it was more likely that the EU will recover — meaning Ireland could then see rapid growth a year or two after.

Meanwhile, in opening Enterprise Ireland’s Euro- SME 2013 conference, in Dublin Castle yesterday, Research and Innovation Minister Sean Sherlock said that innovative SMEs are the key to growth and job creation in Ireland.

He noted that Ireland has championed an increase in the target for SME participation in ‘Horizon 2020’ — the EU’s research and innovation programme — from 15% to 20%.