'SME confidence up' but uncertainty about economy at seven year low
Business confidence is on the up among small businesses, with uncertainty about the Irish economy at its lowest level in almost seven years, a recent study has shown.
The latest quarterly SME Business Trends survey, released by the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME), shows improvements in 11 out of 12 economic indicators.
Mark Fielding, ISME chief executive, said small businesses are cautiously optimistic about the future as the country enters the post-bailout era.
But he said that while uncertainty about the economic environment has fallen, it still remains a considerable concern for many business owners.
“Owner-managers are still concerned about economic uncertainty and the upturn is not being felt equally across all sectors,” Mr Fielding said.
“Retailers, in particular, are not benefitting from the reported increase in domestic demand and current sales have dropped.
“Unfortunately, this precarious situation means that jobs will be lost in retail due to government inaction.”
The survey was conducted in the second week of December with 1162 SMEs.
Key findings include:
- Business Confidence has increased from -5% to +42%
- Business Expectations have gone from 0 to +52% in the space of a year.
- Economic uncertainty is now at the lowest level since spring 2007 but continues to be the biggest concern for employers.
- Sales expectations last month were a positive 28% but this confidence was not felt across all sectors. In retail, sales expectations dropped to -35% from -23%
- Investment remained static at 26%, a sign that businesses are still unable to gain sufficient access to credit to expand and grow their businesses.
- Current and future employment experienced relatively strong increases, in line with current and future sales.
It comes as a separate survey from the Ireland France Chamber of Commerce (IFCC) showed the majority of members reported an increase in business activity over the last three months.
Some 73% said activity levels were higher, while 65% said revenues had increased in the past three months compared to the previous quarter.
IFCC members include Air France, Alstom Ireland, BNP Paribas, Mazars,Renault Ireland, and Sanofi.
Jim Rice of Schneider Electric, president of the Ireland France Chamber of Commerce said, the findings were “uplifting”.
“Added to the increase in business activity, it is very assuring to see positive forecasts for the coming months,” he said.
“As a bilateral trade organisation, it is encouraging that nearly a quarter of respondents have experienced an increase in incoming business from abroad.”
4% of Irish primary & 28% of secondry schoolchildren never get any parental help with homework
Two thirds of primary school children are assisted daily by their parents with homework, but 4% of primary school children and 28% of secondary school children never receive any.
The majority of primary school children are assisted on a daily basis by their parents with homework, new figures by the Central Statistics Office show.
The CSO survey Parental Involvement in Children’s Education reveals that more than two thirds (69%) of children at primary level are assisted daily by a parent. However, 4 per cent of primary school children and 28 per cent of secondary school children never receive any assistance at all with their homework.
Parents in Ireland generally feel capable of assisting their children with homework, with 59 per cent saying they would be ‘very confident’ about doing so. This confidence appears to be linked to the ‘ educational level of the parents themselves; in families where the mother has a third level degree or above, 72 per cent of parents feel very confident about assisting secondary school children with homework.
However, language can create a barrier for some parents trying to help their children with their studies. Some 61 per cent of parents whose first language was English or Irish felt ‘very confident’ about assisting with their children’s homework, but just 47 per cent of parents whose first language was not English or Irish felt very confident about assisting their children with their studies.
The vast majority (93 per cent) of pre-school and schoolchildren (aged 3–7) are read to by their parents, and 71 per cent of those are being read to on a daily basis.
Internet access
The study also found a high level of internet use for educational purposes in children completing schoolwork at home.
Some 71 per cent of schoolchildren with a parent in employment use the internet outside school to access school learning material. Meanwhile, 59 per cent of school children with parents who are both unemployed or not in the labour force, and 55 per cent of school children with parents who are both not in the labour force, access the internet for the same purpose.
87 per cent of parents said they aspire to having their children remain in the education system to attend college or university – but just 82 per cent of parents believe their children will actually do so.
Loving thy customer is key to Ryanair’s new digital makeover
I have only once flown on a Ryanair flight and that was enough to put me off for life. Second only to the pain-inducing prospect of enduring a United flight across the Atlantic, it’s top of my list of airborne things never to do again.
So when I see tales like the one that broke before Christmas of yet another example of the budget airline’s budget approach to customer relations, it comes as no surprise.
This particular incident – broken by the UK tabloids – sees Ryanair having to apologise to a passenger after one of its stewards apparently exploded in “an expletive-filled rant” over a bag of frankly over-priced cheese and crackers.
According to The Sun newspaper – I know, I know – , the passenger handed back the snack after being told it would cost him £4.20, to which the steward is alleged to have replied that this was the price to be paid for the company’s cheap flights.
Rude and unpleasant
OK dokey. But it’s one in a long line of incidents that has resulted in Ryanair’s appalling reputation for poor service.
A recent Which? survey found that the airline was distinguished by its “rude and unpleasant” staff and an “aggressive and hostile” attitude towards customers, and ranked it at the bottom of 100 UK brands in terms of customer service.
But until recently it’s seemed that the airline has effectively embraced this ‘bad ass’ image as part of its corporate brand, egged on in the public eye by the outrageous comments made by its CEO Michael O’Leary, whose bon mots include dismissing customers as “idiots”, calling people that forget to print their boarding pass “stupid” and telling anyone looking for a refund to “**** off”.
But while that must all have been jolly good, headline grabbing fun on a ‘no publicity is bad publicity’ self-deception basis, two recent profit warnings have been enough to cause some pause for thought.
In a new year message on YouTube, O’Leary says he now wants to improve the Ryanair customer experience, backing up his ambition to:
Some of these improvements will be fairly basic changes that would make a big difference – and as O’Leary has pointed out, cost very little to change:
- A 24-hour grace period for minor errors on bookings
- A second, free, small carry-on bag
- Lower boarding card reissue fees
- The cost of turning up with a bag to be put into the hold of the aircraft will be cut from €60 to €30.
- Allocated seating will be made available to all customers from February 1st
- Improved family and business services in the spring.
Others are part of a more ambitious digital strategy to modernise the Ryanair processes:
- A new Ryanair.com home page,
- A My Ryanair passenger registration service
- Country-specific websites.
- A new booking service via smart phone
- Smart phone boarding passes from April
- A new Ryanair app in May.
O’Leary is also now encouraging customers to engage with the airline via its Twitter account or the Ryanair website if they have ideas to improve the airline’s service. He said:
“Our primary focus this winter will be to significantly invest in, and improve, the Ryanair.com website, our mobile platform and our interaction with passengers using social media.”
Less is more
We’ll also be seeing less of O’Leary himself – or that’s the theory. The airline announced in October that it will be appointing a new director of customer sales and marketing who will take over as the public face. That face has yet to be unveiled.
The first fruits of this kicked in at the end of December when the My Ryanair customer registration service went live, enabling customers to create personal profiles and store their details online.
Whether this is the start of a genuine digitally-enabled revolution remains to be seen…
Verdict: It’s remarkable what a bit of red ink looming on the balance sheet can do to attitudes towards the customer.
While I still wouldn’t set foot on a Ryanair plane if I had any say in the matter, it is at least encouraging to hear the right sort of noises coming out of the airline at least.
Let’s face it – the ‘low price means we don’t have to try’ joke was over.
Cost-conscious prices needn’t mean bad service. Look at Virgin America. (And with the launch of Little Red in the UK by Virgin, I suspect Ryanair bosses have done just that!)
What now becomes the challenge for Ryanair is changing the culture. The new raft of digital customer experience thinking is all good and well and to be applauded.
But it’s not much good being able to book an allocated seat via your smart phone if some potty-mouthed trolley dolly’s going to kick off at you once you’re on board the flight.
We surely all learned the basic lesson years ago: you can’t buy CRM off the shelf; you can only buy software. (Or subscribe to it now, of course, to be strictly accurate!).
As many learned to their peril over a decade ago, spending millions on Siebel licences is money down the drain if your basic attitude is still that your customers are a flaming nuisance. You’ve got to want to like them first.
And that’s the hard part for a lot of organisations.
Onus on Irish residents for leaks and ‘water fix’ plans
Homeowners hit with enormous water bills because of leaks will have to identify the problem themselves to avail of a “first fix free” scheme.
People will have just a year to identify a problem with their supply which is resulting in very high bills, after which they will be obliged to pay for repairs themselves.
The Government believes as many as one in in ten homes – or more than 100,000 properties – will need leaks repaired when water charges are introduced from October 1 next.
PROBLEMS
But Environment Minister Phil Hogan has confirmed that the Government’s ‘first fix free’ policy will place the onus on homeowners to identify a problem and will only apply for 12 months after charges are introduced.
If problems emerge after that it would be up to the homeowner to fund the repairs, he said.
He also said €30m would be set aside to fund repair works, and that problems would be identified by homeowners who received bills that were larger than expected.
Average bills, while not yet decided, are likely to be up to €350 a year based on the UK experience.
Mr Hogan also revealed further details of planned reforms to the water sector including changes to planning rules which will oblige all new buildings – including private homes – to be fitted with rainwater harvesting systems to help reduce demand.
In many cases, homeowners will not be aware they have leaks as the water can be found under gardens and may never appear on the surface.
Most leaks are found around the stopcock of fittings, but they could also be in the pipe which would require the pavement or garden to be dug up and the pipe replaced. Older houses, serviced by metal pipes, are more likely to leak.
20% of Ireland’s tax cheats are ‘too poor’ to pay up
20% of tax cheats has escaped paying any penalty despite defrauding the State of millions of euro.
A total of 124 evaders tracked down by the Revenue Commissioners escaped paying more than €21m in tax, interest and penalties because they did not have any money.
And another €9m found as a result of audits, but where the identity of the offender was not published, was also written off because there was an inability to pay.
Revenue said that their officials carry out investigations to satisfy themselves that the cheats are genuinely unable to pay.
If this is the case, they are not subjected to any further action – such as prosecution in the courts.
But figures confirm that 21% of all published settlements with the Revenue Commissioners are never paid.
The only way this money might be recouped in the future is if the tax evader comes into money through a windfall such as a lottery win, an inheritance or an up-turn in business.
Data from the Revenue Commissioners shows that in 2012, settlements totalling some €98.46m were published in state gazette ‘Iris Oifigiuil’.
All the settlements were for amounts of more than €33,000 and where penalties imposed exceeded 15pc of the tax due.
AGREEMENT
They were only published after a Revenue investigation into the financial affairs of the individual taxpayer or business. The settlements were not reached voluntarily.
Of these, just 79pc – almost €58m – were paid in full, or agreement reached to repay the amounts over time – up to a maximum of three years.
Another €19.5m was sent for enforcement and recovery, where goods were seized, but the remaining €21.04m was written off due to an inability to pay. Average bills for the 124 evaders who escaped paying the money back amounted to almost €170,000 each.
Another €9m was written off, which was discovered during audits, but were not above the threshold allowing publication. The number of taxpayers involved is not known.
Revenue defended its decision not to take further action against the evaders that it had uncovered.
It said it continued to monitor individuals involved and could potentially recoup the money at a later date.
“If information subsequently comes to Revenue’s attention and the tax becomes collectible, for example if an individual is left a large sum of money in a will, wins the Lotto, or their business improves, it (the settlement) will be reinstated and Revenue will pursue collection of the tax in the normal way,” it said.
But the lack of punishment was criticised by Fianna Fail finance spokesman Michael McGrath, who said offenders should be held accountable.
He said Revenue “should be pursuing individual cases through the courts.”
52 Antarctic researchers rescued from ice-bound ship
(left pic) The first group of passengers are airlifted out & (right pic) members of the crew and passengers stamping out a landing site for the helicopter.
Rescuers in Antarctica have safely transferred all 52 passengers stranded on the ice-bound research vessel Akademik Shokalskiy.
The Australian rescue operators said the scientists and tourists were now all aboard the ship Aurora Australis.
They were flown there in groups by a helicopter from a Chinese ice-breaker.
The Shokalskiy has been trapped since 24 December. Its 22 crew are expected to remain on board to wait until the vessel becomes free.
The Shokalskiy was trapped by thick sheets of ice driven by strong winds, about 1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart – the capital of the Australian state of Tasmania.
The vessel was being used by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition to follow the route explorer Douglas Mawson travelled a century ago.
‘White-knuckle ride’
“We’ve made it to the Aurora australis safe & sound. A huge thanks to the Chinese & @AusAntarctic for all their hard work!,” expedition leader Chris Turney tweeted.
The helicopter belongs to the Chinese icebreaker, Xue Long, and each flight took about 45 minutes, round-trip.
The BBC’s Andrew Luck-Baker, who was on board the Akademik Shokalskiy, says the 15-minute one-way flight was a “white-knuckle ride”.
The passengers were taken to an ice floe next to the Aurora Australis and then ferried on to the ice-breaker by a small boat.
Our correspondent says the Russian crew staying behind could be on the Akademik Shokalskiy for weeks before the pack ice clears.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s (Amsa) Rescue Co-ordination Centre, which was overseeing the operation, had earlier said it was unlikely the rescue would go ahead on Thursday as hoped because of the sea-ice conditions.
But it later reported: “Aurora Australis has advised Amsa that the 52 passengers from the Akademik Shokalskiy are now on board.”
The passengers are not expected back in Tasmania until mid-January.
Several attempts to break through to the ship by sea – by the Xue Long, Aurora Australis and French-flagged L’Astrolabe – failed because of the thickness of the ice.
Andrew Luck-Baker says the Aurora Australis, although big, was simply not up to the task and there is speculation two larger vessels may be coming to the area in the weeks to come.
Despite being trapped, the scientists continued their experiments, measuring temperature and salinity through cracks in the surrounding ice.
One of the aims was to track how quickly the Antarctic’s sea ice was disappearing.
The ship had plenty of stocks and was never in danger.
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