A new campaign, which includes ISME, Retail Excellence Ireland and a range of other trade and employer representative organisations, is calling for immediate and essential reform in the key areas of the national minimum wage and taxation.
The new SME Alliance is also seeking recognition for SMEs and employer representation at the Labour Employer Economic Forum (LEEF) and on the Low Pay Commission.
As well as ISME and REI, organisations who have initially signed up to the campaign are the Irish Hairdressers Federation, the Restaurants Association of Ireland, the Irish Hardware Association, Nursing Homes Ireland, the Hair and Beauty Industry Confederation, the Vintners' Federation of Ireland, the Convenience Stores & Newsagents Association and the Music & Entertainment Association of Ireland.
The SME Alliance has called for a range of measures to be introduced by the Government as it warned that retailers have been decimated by a combination of several rising costs and ever increasing crime and anti-social behaviour.
These included changing the calculation of the minimum wage to reflect the fact that 48% of the workforce are employed by the public service or multinationals with far higher salaries, applying the 8.8% rate of PRSI to the entirety of the National Minimum Wage - currently €495.30 a week - and reducing the standard 23% VAT rate to its historical 21% rate.
It also said the food service and grooming sectors "require" the permanent establishment of a 9% VAT rate.
Neil McDonnell, the chief executive of ISME, said that the Draghi Report on EU competitiveness, which was published last week, stated that more than half of SMEs in Europe flag regulatory obstacles and administrative burdens as their greatest challenge.
"This is a clear wake-up call for the Irish Government which needs to recognise that while small employers are the backbone of the Irish economy, many are close to breaking point with the amount of extra cost and regulatory burden imposed on them," he stated.
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Jean McCabe, CEO of Retail Excellence Ireland, said that after receiving a huge windfall from Apple, the Government now has the means to provide the kind of support that could be the difference between survival and liquidation for many businesses around the country.
"The retail industry has been decimated by several rising costs including the minimum wage, statutory sick pay, insurance premiums and general inflation, and are dealing with ever-increasing instances of crime and anti-social behaviour. Every week we are seeing shops go out of business and people losing their jobs," she said.
"We are not in a recessionary environment, so the onus is on the Government to give the industry the support it needs to navigate this particularly difficult time," she added.
