Hair and beauty industry supports new SME Recovery Plan

The Hair and Beauty Industry Confederation (Habic) and the Hairdressing Council of Ireland have announced their support for the newly launched SME Recovery Plan.

SME Recovery Plan is a platform for developing a national recovery plan for the Irish small business sector, which has and will continue to be disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 crisis. The initiative will also allow the sector to identify policies and interventions that will help a broad population of SMEs. 

Chaired by John Moran, former secretary general of the Department of Finance, the plan focuses on the key policy interventions that are required to stabilise and recapitalise the small business sector so that employment and economic activity can be restored. Other organisations endorsing this new initiative include Isme, Irish Hotels Federation, Restaurants Association of Ireland and Retail Excellence Ireland.

“Almost 10,000 hair and beauty businesses nationally closed their doors in mid-March due to Covid-19,” Habic said in a social media post. “SMEs nationally have sacrificed their business in the interest of national health. SMEs have carried such a weight burden of this pandemic and face such uncertainty, yet today the supports currently offered by the Government are debt-focused and far below the EU average. If SMEs fail, the knock-on consequences for a society that is so deeply reliant on SMEs will be devastating to our economy. Yet this is avoidable. Thousands of SMEs nationally will fail if there is not proper and immediate intervention from the Government.”

The Irish Hairdressing Council said that the Government must show solidarity with small businesses by agreeing on a comprehensive recovery plan for the SME sector, worth €15bn, including compensation for losses. It welcomed the suite of additional measures announced by the Government in recent weeks, but stressed that more needs to be done.

“SMEs in Ireland, including hairdressers, account for 99% of active businesses, 65% of employees here and two-thirds of tax revenues and, as such, need to be seen as central to the economic recovery, particularly in regional and rural areas. Government must recognise that SMEs are vital and we require a bailout and need to see a boost to demand following the crisis.”

According to council president Sean Taaffe, forcing SMEs to take on more debt will only delay inevitable problems for many businesses, and a compensation fund to help companies is therefore needed.