Bizstartup.ie - NewsThree Dublin CEBs without funds for start-ups - FG

According to the party’s enterprise spokesman Richard Bruton TD, Dublin City Enterprise Board and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown CEB are no longer issuing support funding. Meanwhile, South Dublin CEB has said its funds were ‘effectively exhausted’, while Fingal CEB says it has funds available for certain types of businesses.

“The future of the economy depends on people having the ingenuity and the courage to set up a new business,” said Bruton. “The banks won’t touch them and now we see the Government abandoning them also. This makes a nonsense of the Government’s claim that enterprise and jobs are at the heart of their strategy and policy.

“Existing small businesses can expand, innovate and provide much needed jobs across the country. However, instead of supporting new businesses, the Government has cut capital funding available to the County Enterprise Boards by over €7m this year alone.

“Of course, there are many tough decisions to make when there is significant pressure on the public finances, but there are also bad decisions. For the past 12 months we’ve seen good businesses going to the wall for the want of credit, while a failed banking strategy placed the nursing along of failed loans of the past as a greater priority than providing credit to business that can create a sustainable future.”