One-stop knowledge base

When it comes to arguing the case for policies to support small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ireland, Dr Aidan O’Boyle comes from the unusual position of being able to see things from three different areas of experience: researcher, public policy exponent and entrepreneur.

O’Boyle has a PhD in clinical biochemistry and spent his earlier years in research. He went on to work in the public policy arena with the IDA, Irish Export Board and Confederation of Irish Industry. Then, in 1992, and at the age of 46, he joined his twin brother Peter in Aalto Bio Reagents and became an entrepreneur.

Employing 10 people at its operation in Rathfarnham, Aalto Bio Reagents sells in-vitro diagnostics reagents to kit manufacturers in Europe, the US and Japan.

O’Boyle is no stranger to the impact of global economic uncertainty on small firms — he notes that his company is “running to stand still” as the euro/dollar exchange rate moved from 84 to over 140 in the space of four years, halving its sales income.

O’Boyle’s years at the support agencies have not made his views biased, it seems — while praising IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland at the Committee of the Regions Conference, he also expressed some concerns: “The success of IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland speaks for itself. Foreign direct investment now
accounts for three quarters of manufacturing output and half of total employment in manufacturing and internationally traded services.

“What does concern me, however, is the absolute plethora of business support groupings that now exists, many of which were established under a variety of different EU programmes. How do I as a burgeoning entrepreneur know which of these groups is the one which can help me?”

In line with a recommendation of the Small Business Forum and a commonly held European view, O’Boyle says it’s time to introduce some form of one-stop shop or knowledge base that would enable new entrepreneurs to more readily access the information and support they need.

He reckons it is clear from the economic slowdown that we must now focus more clearly than ever before on how to get more people into work, which means encouraging more start-ups of innovative, small firms. To this end he’s calling for the urgent publication and implementation of an EU-assisted National Entrepreneurship Policy, as espoused by the Small Business Forum and the European Charter for Small Enterprises.

“This will mean convincing all the main stakeholders to see the true value of commercial enterprise. I don’t believe the value of enterprise and, in particular, small enterprise has yet seeped into our national consciousness,” he said.

“Let’s get enterprises directly linked with schools in their areas and have a meaningful dialogue between business people and pupils and teachers to plot a way forward.”

At the conference, O’Boyle asked why his company is burdened every year with ever-increasing levels of commercial rates, user and development charges that quite often bear no relation to the individual services provided to it or the rate of inflation pertaining at the time.

“At a time when the need for competitiveness has never been clearer and when the level of competition continues to grow, we really need to address this issue and to ensure the local authority only collects its fair share of local authority funding from business,” he said.

“Payment should be on a user-pays principle and this should apply to all users, both consumers and enterprise. If this means the introduction of a local area tax applied to all goods and services provided in the county, so be it.”

One of the most important objectives of the SFA is to urge the Government to reduce the regulatory burden on small enterprise. To demonstrate his irritation with the situation, O’Boyle provided a sample list of work his staff carries out to meet some of the legislative requirements. This included the Vat Information Exchange System [VIES] quarterly submission, which takes two hours to complete, the VAT 3 return, which takes up to two hours and has to be submitted every two months, as well as complex questionnaires from the Central Statistics Office.

In conclusion, O’Boyle urged stakeholders not to be slow to change. “Despite the current downturn, I believe we have a wealth of young talent, both local and immigrant. We need to be sure that as a nation we put in place and, more importantly, support the policies necessary to ensure small enterprise support and development into the 21st century. To achieve this, input will be needed at all levels of society – both local, national and European.”

Dr Aidan O’Boyle is joint managing director of Aalto Bio Reagents and a council member of the Small Firms Association.

This article first appeared in the Irish Business Review newspaper supplement in the Irish Independent.