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Government 'charade' in ISME crosshairs over late payments

The waiting period for payment climbed again in the last three months, with big business abuses and government indifference blamed.

SMALL BUSINESSES FACE a wait of 63 days for payment on average, new research from the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association has found.

The waiting period is up during the second quarter of the year, with an average of 60 days recorded during the first three months of 2014.

The small business lobby group said that the Government was failing to meet the challenge of ensuring small businesses are paid on time.

Long term payment arrears are also becoming more common, with 28% of companies now waiting three months or longer for cash to land, up from 25%.

Extreme cases also showed incremental growth, with delays of 120 days and more up 1% to 6% overall, and a 2% increase to 16% in businesses waiting longer than that.

Munster is the worst geographic area for timely payments at 66 days on average, while Connaught is the best at 51.

‘Charade’

ISME chief executive Mark Fielding called on the Government to “stop the charade of the ineffectual late payments legislation and take a much stronger hand in ensuring that SMEs in Ireland are paid on time”.

This Government is forever spinning the yarn that they are ‘SME focused’, while their inaction on late payments would state the opposite. They allow big business and government agencies to continue to abuse their dominant position.

Pointing to the finding that only 2.5% of SMEs feel that they can charge interest on late payments, he said many small business owners feel threatened by large businesses which will stop buying from them if they take action.

He called for the introduction of a phased transition to mandatory 30 day payments, but said that he held little hope of the current Government delivering on it.

“Even the attempt by the Department of Jobs to improve matters through a Fair Payment Charter has collapsed due to lack of support from the big business and semi-state lobby group IBEC.

Read: Half of Irish companies forced to sack workers because of late payments>

Read: Small firms being ‘strangled’ by late payments – SFA>

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6 Comments
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    Mute Mick McGuinness
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    Jun 10th 2024, 2:59 PM

    So they did well at local and European elections, but that doesn’t be the same for general election. The arrogance grows strong as Yoda would say.

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    Mute D F
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    Jun 10th 2024, 3:06 PM

    @John John: 62 days and he is still counting

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    Mute Duffman
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    Jun 10th 2024, 3:07 PM

    @Mick McGuinness: winners are entitled to be arrogant, Shinners however, lol

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    Mute Frank Cauldhame
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    Jun 10th 2024, 3:24 PM

    @Mick McGuinness: Just like in 2019, FF/FG won 52% of the seats in the local elections, in the general election that followed FF and FG lost so much ground from the previous years local elections that they had to form a coalition for thge first time in their history, sworn enemies, so on that basis you definitely cannot take anything for granted in politics.
    People should not waste their votes, the turnout at these elections was abysmal.

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    Mute Ian
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    Jun 10th 2024, 3:25 PM

    @Duffman: winners? FG and FF had a poorer showing in these local elections compared to 2019. Whereas SF increased their seats compared to 2019.

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    Mute Kevin Kerr
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    Jun 10th 2024, 3:40 PM

    @Ian: Yes, Mary Lou was absolutely delighted with the result yesterday – “It has not been our day but we will have our day … we clearly have lessons to learn”. You need to compare this result with expectation, not with the abysmal showing of SF back in 2019.

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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Jun 10th 2024, 3:50 PM

    @SYaxJ2Ts: There’s an easy metric: did David Cullinane shout ‘Up the Ra!’ at any point?

    If not, SF’s showing was poor.

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    Mute Duffman
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    Jun 10th 2024, 4:11 PM

    @Ian: still more than SF, granted numbers are not the Shinners strong point lol

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    Mute Sean Money
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    Jun 10th 2024, 2:59 PM

    This will come back to bite them, they should take advantage now of the voter apathy.

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    Mute 9QRixo8H
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    Jun 10th 2024, 3:12 PM

    Patriots on here gone EXTREMELY quiet who kept repeating how they and everyone were going to vote for Ireland First / Führer Party / white Nationalism party / Irish people because something got to do with their failed referendums and migration. Well “mass immigration” FFG will romp home at the GE. The far-right no-seats parties have gone VERY quiet on their socials as they didn’t win a seat.

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    Mute Ian
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    Jun 10th 2024, 3:27 PM

    @9QRixo8H: You could almost hear a pin drop they’re gone that quiet. Meanwhile, over on the cesspit that is The Gript, the comments sections are hilarious! They’re crying foul and rigged elections hahahaha those people are utterly deluded.

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    Mute 9QRixo8H
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    Jun 10th 2024, 4:01 PM

    @Ian: the ethnoNational party in total got 0.3%. The Führer party got 0.5%. Ireland First got 0.2%. Imagine that! Yet going by the comments on here they were due to get 110%. So much for the “openborders” the “unvetted” and “mass immigration” blah blah blah. The führer is dead.

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    Mute Gareth
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    Jun 10th 2024, 4:03 PM

    @9QRixo8H: Well they did win a few seats and, more importantly, ate into SF support. All but guaranteeing two things. Another FF/FG led government and and the continued rise of the far right. FF/FG have willingly allowed the far right to grow to keep themselves in power and undermine SF. Just another example of irreparable damage they’ve done to this country.

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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Jun 10th 2024, 4:12 PM

    @Gareth: ‘FF/FG have willingly allowed the far right to grow’???? How could they stop haters and racists from being haters and racists?

    If the far right have taken votes from SF, it just goes to show that SF wasn’t really the left-wing party it claimed to be: it was far too reliant on the easy pleasures and prejudices of nationalism.

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    Mute 9QRixo8H
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    Jun 10th 2024, 4:19 PM

    @Gareth: the top performing Far Right party got 0.5%. Hardly ate into SF or FFG’s support.

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    Mute John Reynolds
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    Jun 11th 2024, 11:58 AM

    @9QRixo8H: brilliant piece of work by Simon Harris removing asylum seekers from ipo and canal area then sending 50 of them back to ni then cutting their money everyone fell for it his far right stance won the day

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    Mute Athena
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    Jun 10th 2024, 6:18 PM

    How come 26 EU countries, most of which held elections after us on Friday have their results done and dusted?
    What is the hold up with Irish results?

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    Mute aeX06eDn
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    Jun 10th 2024, 3:21 PM

    Simon has the bit in his mouth now lol.

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    Mute Damien Leahy
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    Jun 10th 2024, 8:02 PM

    I really hope they do, could be the biggest blindside ever

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    Mute John Reynolds
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    Jun 11th 2024, 11:55 AM

    We won’t go into power with fg we won’t call an early election

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