ISME's latest Government Satisfaction report shows a rise from 2% to 4%,which marks the fifth consecutive satisfaction improvement.
Key areas covered by the ISME report include "Banking", "Business Costs", "Jobs", and "Overall Satisfaction".
With the Irish economy near full employment, the "Jobs" and "Economy" ratings both increased from 5% to 8% and 9% to 10%, respectively.
Small and medium sized enterprises hold banking and access to finance as a large concern, which is evident in the reports's decreasing "Banking" score from -46% to -50% and the increasing, but negative, "Business Costs" score of -56% to -50%.
Overall, small enterprises are most satisfied with the government with an increase of 2% to 8% due to the heightened satisfaction in the Service, Manufacturing, and Wholesale sectors.
This quarter, medium sized enterprises reported the largest drop in government satisfaction from +67% in the fourth quarter of 2017 to 7% in the first quarter of 2018 withthe Construction sector the most dissatisfied.
ISME CEO Neil McDonnell welcomes the improved results but stated, "Today's report, while showing an overall improvement rating, also highlights ISME dissatisfaction with the government's handling of business costs and banking."
