The head of the Credit Review Office has criticised the Irish Small and Medium Enterprise over its Credit Watch survey and comments made about his office.
In a statement, John Trethowan said he had reviewed the survey and had concerns about how this research was being undertaken.
He said the survey appeared to have “a number of design flaws and in particular is missing some essential qualifying questions to produce a statistically valid outcome”.
There was no control sample population in the survey, and without having any idea of the sample population, the response rate could not therefore be determined, Mr Trethowan said.
Moreover, reporting of only those who respond heavily skews the findings to the negative, he said.
The Credit Review Office was very disappointed by the lack of support it receives from ISME, the statement said.
Mr Trethowan was unhappy that ongoing comments by ISME in the media seem to undermine the Credit Review Office by impugning its reputation, the statement said.
Earlier, ISME released its Bank Watch survey in which it sharply criticised what it claimed was a lack of financing available to small and medium enterprises.
In a statement accompanying the survey results, ISME said that “as demand for SME credit increases, the level of available finance continues to deteriorate, with 58% of companies who made an application to their banks in the last three months refused credit.”
"The results of today's survey make an absolute joke of the claims of the bankers representatives and their cheerleaders in the Credit Review Office that bank lending is readily accessible but the demand for SME credit is reduced,” said ISME chief executive Mark Fielding.
In his statement this evening, Mr Trethowan said he had been empowered by the Minister for Finance through legislation to intervene directly in individual cases to assist borrowers with viable borrowing propositions.
He said the CRO had secured credit for over 50% of the SMEs/Farm cases on which it has issued appeal opinions.
In addition the Credit Review Office helpdesk has assisted many businesses in resolving their credit issues without recourse to the formal process.
