Mayo business sector 'in the eye of a storm'

“County will lose 50% of its small enterprises if crisis continues” - councillors articulate fears

Businesses across Mayo are ‘in the eye of a storm’ over spiralling fuel and other costs.

Achill Councillor Paul McNamara, a business man by profession, has expressed fears that up 50% of small enterprises in the county will be ‘wiped out’ if the economic situation prompted by the latest Gulf war continues.

The Fianna Fáil representative stated: “To me, the government is allowing this to happen.

“They are not stepping up to the table to protect small businesses in their time of need.

“We have nothing in any plan for this disaster at the moment because nobody saw it coming.

“Businesses have been receiving letters in the post about price increases of up to 15 per cent and 20 per cent.

“No small business can sustain those type of increases and we are going to lose them.”

Independent Ireland Councillor Chris Maxwell shared the growing concerns.

“I am fearful for the farming community during this crisis as they are one of the key businesses in this country, and they won’t be able to sustain the price increases from agricultural contractors,” he said.

Speaking at a meeting of Mayo County Council’s economic and enterprise development strategic policy committee, the Louisburgh-based representative argued rural Ireland is in serious trouble at the moment and it needs as much support as they can get from government.

He continued: “I ask all councillors and TDs from government parties to please seek a substantial cut in the price of fuel.

“Hopefully this crisis is only for a couple of months, but during this time substantial support is needed for farmers, hauliers, and small businesses.”

John Magee, head of the Mayo Enterprise Office, agreed rising fuel costs have only added to the costs that businesses have faced in recent years.

He elaborated: “The last couple of weeks has seen a significant rise in fuels costs.

“However, the rising costs for business have been there for several years now. That has been the underlaying thing that we have been hearing on an ongoing basis.”

Mr. Magee explained: “Inflation associated with the supply chain kind of kicked off during Covid, but in recent years inflation hasn’t gone away.

“We are being regularly told by clients that new machinery that they have ordered takes up to six months to be delivered, whereas 10 years ago that machinery was delivered in six weeks or two months.

“That reflects that supply chains are still under pressure.”

Examine competitiveness

Mr. Magee said that businesses are examining their own competitiveness during this period of economic uncertainty.

He outlined: “In terms of the international economic uncertainty and the trading uncertainties, the most efficient ways that businesses can look at staying competitive in the context of these rising costs base is to look at their own competitiveness internally.

“We do a lot on that side of things, and we have a ‘Lean for Business’ programme and a ‘Green’ programme and these programmes can help businesses save time, energy and money, and they are the key things that we are hearing on a day-to-day basis.

“There is only so much you can do with the external costs, but we are cognitive of those internal costs - and that is something that we work with businesses on.”

He said that going forward carbon reduction will be equally as important as job creation.

“Everybody knows the challenges in the context of sustainability and decarbonisation.

“Since the start of the National Enterprise Policy the key metric has been the number of jobs created in a county in any given year,” he said.

“We are now moving towards a scenario whereby we are getting verifiable data in relation to carbon reduction and that will be equally as important as job creation.

“At a local level, we will see what small businesses are spending on energy and the kind of energy that they are using.

“We can have somebody enter that small business for a couple of days and look at their operations and identify where greater energy efficiency is possible.

“There is also an energy efficiency grant of up to 75 per cent of eligible costs, capped at €10,000, towards the cost of putting in place more energy efficient equipment or technology.”

* Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.