Budget 2013 Enterprise: SMEs tentatively welcome steps to stimulate business

Small business associations cautiously welcomed the government proposals to stimulate small businesses, but they said the elimination of redundancy rebate was a backwards step.

Small businesses remain the lifeblood of the Irish economy with more than half of the private sector workforce employed in non-exporting small and medium enterprises (SME).

The Small Firms Association (SFA) and the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME) both welcomed the changes in the start-up corporation tax, cash receipts for Vat and the doubling of the research and development credit, as well as the foreign earnings deduction.