Irish SMEs Emerging from the COVID-19 Crisis

Since the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11^th, 2020, SMEs have faced some unprecedented challenges, and have had to “adapt to survive” over the last 18 months. Many SMEs have risen to this challenge and have diversified and evolved in response to harsh lockdowns, strict health guidelines and restrictions.

However, companies have not been able to do this alone and they have had to rely on a range of support services to do so. The Irish Government have made available a range of grants and supports over the past year, and these supports are changing all the time. A full directory of these supports are available for viewing here

In a move to lend further support to SMEs, the “Small Company Administrative Rescue Process (SCARP) Bill” was passed on the 13^th July 2021 signalling good new for small businesses who find themselves in difficulty. This legislation aims to provide an important framework to help viable companies stay in business as the Irish economy emerges from the pandemic.

The SECure Project, with its SME Early Crisis Toolkit, is also working to help SMEs in crisis. The project aims to help SME owners to identify and analyse Early-Warning-Indicators of business crisis and to develop suitable measures to prevent or overcome the crisis. For more information on the SECure project please go to the following link https://www.smecrisistoolkit.eu/news/ to subscribe to the Newsletter, and follow SECure on social media for regular updates.