The Beast from the East and Storm Emma are now behind us and thanks to contingency plans and better preparation we did not experience the same level of accidents and injuries as with other bad weather events in the past. The financial damage to the economy and small business could, however, be in the hundreds of millions with commercial activities either disrupted or businesses closed entirely for at least two and a half days. It will be difficult, to say the least, to recuperate these losses.
Once again, an extreme weather phenomenon has highlighted the challenges that small businesses in Ireland have to face. A poor road and public transport infrastructure that is very vulnerable to bad weather is only one of the broader issues. The insufficient broadband coverage in Ireland outside of the bigger urban areas means that working from home in situations like that isn’t really an option. And whilst Project Ireland 2040 reads really well, government needs to act now and proceed with the procurement process for the National Broadband Plan. In relation to the ongoing issues around rising insurance costs, we will keep a close eye on how insurance companies will deal with the snow and flood related claims. Please contact us should you experience any difficulties, so we can raise the issues on your behalf at government level.
Climate change means that unfortunately we will experience more ‘Ophelias’ and ‘Beasts’ in the future. If you have not already done so, know is a good time to put in place an employer policy on absence due to bad/inclement weather or business crisis planning. The SFA has a sample inclement weather policy which businesses can avail of here.
As always, we’d love to hear from you about any queries you may have, issues you wish to have raised with Government or other stakeholders and your ideas on how we can improve the business environment for us all. Please contact me on tel: 01 605 1602 or e-mail: sven@sfa.ie or tweet: @SFA_Irl or visit: www.sfa.ie.
This week we pause our weekly GDPR tip to announce some key highlights from the 2017 Data Protection Annual Report. Read on to check out the highlights along with Helen Dixon’s message in relation to GDPR.
The SFA is concerned that there are many misconceptions around probation among member companies. For this reason, next week’s Business Bytes seminar will show you how to manage a difficult probation, ensuring that you do not fall foul of employment law. The seminar will also cover absence management/sick leave as this was the number one query from SFA members in both January and February this year.
This week we look at a case study in the 2017 Data Protection Commissioner Annual Report. It looks at the use of CCTV footage in a disciplinary process. Read on and learn from this example of what to do when the privacy rights of an employee clashes with the legitimate interests of a business…
Cork has been named the best small city in Europe for business friendliness by the Financial Times’ fDi magazine. The magazine also ranked Cork as one of the overall top 25 European cities of the future 2018/19, coming in above global cities such as Copenhagen, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Zurich.
Spotlight on the Employment and Investment Incentive Scheme (EIIS), which provides tax relief on investments in small companies. This article provides information on the scheme and advice on how to avail of it.
On 28 February, the Government published the ‘Roadmap for Pensions Reform 2018-2023’. The roadmap contains plans that will have significant implications for small business. The Small Firms Association has lobbied on these issues for decades and this lobbying will now intensify.
Manual handling is an essential element of the day-to-day work of many small businesses. This half-day course is just one of the SFA training courses coming up as part of our ‘Training that counts’ suite. All programmes are delivered by expert trainers with many years of industry experience.
With responsibility for strategy and overall management, lobbying, media and business queries. Sven is the chief spokesperson and government and media liaison.
With responsibility for policy and lobbying, "Better Business" magazine, surveys, committee representation, business queries and SFA events, including SFA Annual Lunch, SFA Annual Conference and Business Bytes events.
With responsibility for SFA National Small Business Awards, member networking events, webinars, communications, marketing, sales and membership queries, websites and social media.
The SFA is part of Ibec clg which is registered in Ireland. Registration No. 8706 Directors - Edel Creely (President), Paraic Curtis, John Kennedy, Anne Heraty, Gerry Collins, Larry Murrin, Liam O’Donoghue, Danny McCoy, Patrick Manley,
Cathriona Hallahan,Frank Gleeson,Kevin Toland,Brian MacCraith,Siobhan Talbot, Tony Smurfit,Alastair Blair, Pat McCann, Liam McLoughlin
