Wanted: Fit-for-purpose SME investment scheme

It is time to put the Employment and Investment Incentive Scheme out of its misery.

It was introduced by the Government in 2011 as a means of connecting individual investors with SME companies for the purpose of growth and expansion. It has failed, and a new version of it is urgently required.

The scheme was invented as a replacement for the Business Expansion Scheme (BES) which had worked reasonably well as a source of company funding. IBEC states about €44m was raised on average each year between 2003 and 2007 to help promote and stimulate company expansion using BES. The investors, in exchange, received a tax break for providing low risk capital to private companies.