This week’s Small Business Show looks at developments for rural communities and whether consumers can work with more austerity budgets and still be expected to spend in order to buoy the economy.

ON this week’s show Kehlan is joined by Avine McNally from the Small Firms Association and Orlaith Carmody from mediatraining.ie to discuss this week’s news. We also drop in on the National Student Enterprise Awards in Croke Park, Dublin and talk to the business which is looking to keep your rubbish and recycling in your bin.

This week's show includes the usual news round up for SMEs and features a special report on a protest in Dun Laoghaire which has gone viral. Kehlan also heads to Loop Head in Co. Clare to talk with Laura Foley of The Long Way Round Walking Tours and to Tralee to talk to Doireann Barrett about her company The Gluten Free Kitchen Company.

Small firms are reporting they are confident about their prospects in 2014 according to the Small Firms Association (SFA) business sentiment survey.

The unemployment rate has continued to fall slightly, reaching 12.4%, official data has revealed.

A Siptu economist has said it is unclear how much the fall in the unemployment rate announced today is due to new jobs, training or emigration.

The outlook for Irish SMEs is improving, but concerns remain, writes Geoff Percival

The Government’s first post-bailout economic plan has been met with a mixed response, with the Small Firms Association claiming it is short in detail.

THE Government’s Medium-Term Economic Strategy 2014-2020 is due to be presented to Cabinet this morning and it is expected to be published later today.

There are 25,700 fewer people claiming benefits compared with Nov 2012, according to the latest Live Register figures.

The number of people signing on last month fell to just over 390,000.

The strengthening of the power of the Credit Review Office has been hailed as a potentially key breakthrough in small firms’ ongoing battle to access funding.

SMEs should be able to apply to the Circuit Court for examinership — thus reducing such costs by around 30% — by the end of the year.

Bank of Ireland and AIB remain on track to achieve their €4bn SME loan approval targets for 2013, but of the amount sanctioned to date only 34% qualifies as new lending, the Credit Review Office has stated.

Nearly a quarter of small businesses are unaware of their powers to penalise late payers by charging interest on outstanding payments, while less than 10% have actually used such powers, according to a new study.

The Small Firms Association has described the 0.7% rise in the rate of inflation for July as "concerning".

The unemployment rate is now at a three-and-a-half-year low, but experts have warned this could be attributed to high emigration rates and not an increase in jobs.

Over half of small businesses say they expect their businesses to grow in the coming year.

Confidence among the small business community continues to improve according to a new survey, with 80% of respondents saying they will invest in their company over the next two years.

Half of Irish employers are treading a legal minefield by failing to put policies in place to regulate social media use in the workplace.

Small business sentiment is improving, according to the latest findings by the Small Firms Association.

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.

Business groups have demanded that the Government put private sector firms at the heart of economic recovery.

Investment in small businesses is the only way to solve the unemployment crisis and return the country to sustainable growth, the Small Firms Association has claimed.

Sixty five per cent of small firms will retain current employee numbers this year, according to the findings of a jobs sentiment survey carried out by the Small Firms Association.

One in four small firms are expected to up their job count this year, but one in 10 expect head count to fall, the first quarterly 2013 Jobs Sentiment Survey by the Small Firms Association has found.

The Director of the Small Firms Association, Avine McNally, said that while today’s inflation figures show a monthly decrease of 0.5%, the inflation rate year-on-year clearly shows a rise of 1.2% in January.

The number of people claiming the dole increased by more than 19,000 between May and June.

The number of people on the Live Register rose again last month, latest figures published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) have revealed.

Many SMEs are still struggling to put in place required policies and standards set out under employment law, according to a new survey.

The number of women out of work for more than a year has soared by a fifth.

Last month saw a slight drop in the number of people signing on, according to new data.

DOLE queues shortened slightly last month with the number of people signing on down 3,300.

Dole queues shortened slightly last month with the number of people signing on down 3,300, a new report reveals.

The Small Firms Association has issued a gloomy outlook for job creation.

The Small Firms Association is today urging shoppers to buy Irish on the first major shopping day of the Christmas season.

The Government was urged today to restore public confidence to boost the domestic economy

THE Government was urged today to restore public confidence to boost the domestic economy.

LOW confidence levels led to tempered consumer prices and zero inflation during June, according to the Consumer Price Index for June, issued yesterday by the Central Statistics Office.

The annual rate of inflation remained unchanged in the month of June at 2.7%, new figures today from the Central Statistics Office showed.

ECONOMISTS have warned that more job losses are “inevitable” as Live Register figures for May show the highest monthly increase since July last year.

The number of people signing on is continuing to climb, with 457,948 people on the Live Register in June.

An additional 1,100 people signed on the Live Register in March, figures from the Central Statistics Office revealed today.

PAY levels in Ireland’s small firms have fallen by 5% compared to 2008 levels, a new survey by the Small Firms Association (SFA) has found.