The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISMEs) Tuesday called on the government to use the upcoming budget to ‘come clean’ on threats of cost increases in minimum wage, parental and paternity leave, which they say is stifling job creation in the SME sector, Business World reported. They referenced the latest monthly unemployment figures which show that 206,500 people are signing on, a slight increase of 400 in the month. The standardized unemployment rate has remained at 9.5% for the third month. ISME CEO, Mark Fielding said, “This administration has scored badly on dealing with business costs. At a time when we have negative inflation, low interest rates and decreasing oil prices, our domestic costs have continued to increase”.
