This article is from page 2 of the 2014-04-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
THE recession may slowly be releasing its grip from Clare’s county town as live register figures for March show that the number of people signing on in Ennis has reduced to their lowest level in more than five years.
According to figures obtained from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the number of people signing on the live register in Ennis last month was just 4,975 – the lowest level recorded in the county town for any month since January of 2009.
These figures represent a market reduction of 560 people or 10.1 per cent compared with March of 2013. The number of people currently signing on in Ennis is also 1,064 people, or 17.6 per cent, fewer than in March of 2010 – the worst March on record.
These recent improvement were also replicate in other parts of the county but the overall figures would suggest that the improvement is taking place in Ennis quicker than in the rest of Clare.
According to Ennis Chamber of Commerce, a number of new jobs could be created in Clare right now, if credit was made more easily available to businesses.
“We certainly feel that there are businesses in Ennis who could expand if the situation with credit was normalised. We need to see some sort of connect between the finance aspect and the supports available. While we believe that there is no point in giving credit to businesses that are not viable and would not work even give credit, there needs to be some sort of support there to make credit available to businesses who have a justifiable plan,” said Rita McInerney, CEO of the Ennis Chamber of Commerce.
“Sometimes there is a bit of a disconnect. You can have a business that, if given the right advice and support, would be in a position to justify receiving credit and moving the business forward. If a business is refused credit from a bank, the question that should be asked is why it was refused. The bank might think that the business is not viable but if might also be the case that the business just need more planning and help to show that they are viable.”
Overall figures for Clare show that 9,023 people signed on the live register last month – a drop of more then 800 people on the same month last year. The number signing on reduced by 200 in Ennis with Ennistymon also performing well, with a drop of 80 people last month.