Enterprise Minister to urge agencies to cut red tape for SMEs
Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke is to meet with the heads of 19 agencies and offices under his remit today to instruct them to reflect on their processes and the obligations they put on small businesses.
They will be called on to significantly simplify their policies, slash red tape and make any forms or statutory applications much more accessible, reducing and eliminating unnecessary steps.
The agency heads will be told that only vital information should be asked for, proportionate to the size of the business and risk involved, for example, when it comes to applying for a grant or renewing a business license.
The Government has previously announced an "SME test", whereby State bodies are mandated to do a risk assessment to ensure any new measures do not have a disproportionate impact on SMEs, and mitigation measures put in place if they do.
The agencies will now be asked to display how they have reviewed and simplified their regulations each year in a separate section of their annual reports.
Mr Burke has written to agency CEOs, after reviewing some of their processes, which he thinks are too excessive and off-putting for SMEs.
The Department of Enterprise has the most agencies of any department under its remit, including Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, the Company Registration Office, the Health and Safety Authority, the Workplace Relations Commission, and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, all of which have a significant reach into the SME sector and influence on Irish businesses.
Last week, Mr Burke met with the General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) Owen Reidy amid claims by unions that the Government is backsliding on workers' rights.
Mr Reidy said that delays relating to the living wage, sick pay and pension auto-enrolment were disgraceful and warned that it could result in industrial unrest.
Amid concerns about high business costs, a plan to replace the minimum wage with a new living wage has been delayed by three years to 2029, and a decision on whether to abolish youth sub-minimum rates has been deferred.
A plan to increase workers' statutory sick leave from five to seven days has been paused, and the start of pension auto-enrolment has been moved from September 2025 to January 2026.
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