Small and Medium Enterprises
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-19
============================================================

Rose Conway-Walsh (SF), Mayo

The question that must be asked is this: what is happening here at home? When we look globally, the Minister has named all of the initiatives he is doing but why are Irish business leaders growing even more pessimistic about the future? Confidence in projected revenue growth dropped dramatically at the end of last year, from 79% to 59% in just three months. When businesses were asked about increasing head count in 2026, the figure dropped from 59% to 46%. These figures are not abstract statistics; they signal the slowing of growth, reduced hiring and growing uncertainty across local economies. We need to look at this and we need more actions.
SMEs and family-owned businesses are the backbone of our economy. They sustain communities, provide employment in rural and urban Ireland and drive innovation and local enterprise. The programme for Government recognised the need for a comprehensive review of SME cost structures. Businesses are now urgently waiting for that to make a real difference in their businesses and in keeping their doors open.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-19