Deal or no deal? What parties are promising businesses

The manifestos are all published and finally voters can see the colour of the money of the parties competing for votes in General Election 2024.

After a challenging few years due to the Covid pandemic, Ukraine war, energy and cost of living crisis, business owners will be particularly interested to see what is on offer.

At the start of the campaign, we outlined the likely issues that would be raised by entrepreneurs, managers and workers on the proverbial doorstep.

Now, to save you having to, we've trawled the policy documents of the larger parties, to see how the election promises match up with the demands of firms, large and small.

ACTION ON BUSINESS COSTS

To address the issue of rising business costs, Fine Gael has unveiled a three-point package. It includes a temporary PRSI rebate for three years. There would also be a new permanent lower VAT rate of 11% for food and catering services, entertainment, hairdressing and beauticians along with a €50 gym membership tax credit to compensate for the VAT rate for gyms rising from 9% to 11%. And the party will set up a new energy cost grant scheme.

It has also made a raft of promises aimed at ensuring future new rules and regulations impacting businesses don’t all arrive at once. This includes applying an SME test to proposed new policies, reviewing existing regulations, phasing in new requirements and minimising compliance costs.

For its part, Fianna Fáil says it will introduce a successor to the Increased Cost of Doing Business/Power Up grants to help hospitality and retail businesses with high energy costs. It is also offering to establish a Cost of Business Advisory Forum to facilitate consultation and dialogue with business on the current cost environment including a review of all business costs and taxes. It says this body will be consulted before introducing new legislation or policies that affect small businesses.

The party is also pledging to set aside €300m for a Business Support Fund aimed at improving the viability of businesses in villages and towns. It has also promised reviews of the business and enterprise tax system to ensure simplification is prioritised and the frequency of SME reporting and paperwork requirements is reduced. And it says it would cut by 1.5% the rate of employers’ PRSI on minimum wage workers.

Like Fine Gael, Sinn Féin is planning a three-year PRSI rebate scheme that would target €640m at businesses who are hardest hit by increases in the minimum wage. Unlike its biggest opponent, the party says it will go lower on VAT, re-introducing a reduced 9% rate for parts of the hospitality sector at a cost of €605m.

The Green Party says it will introduce a rates rebate for small businesses depending on their size, while the Social Democrats would also apply a 9% VAT rate on food and beverages, examine possible PRSI reform and ensure legislation undergoes a regulatory impact assessment.

The Labour Party says, without specifics, that it will drive down costs for small businesses focused on energy and insurance prices. Aontú would reduce VAT for hospitality to 9% and ensure rates are reflective of the size, scale and profitability of a business, as well as increasing the Increased Cost of Doing Business fund to €450m.

INFRASTRUCTURAL DEFICIT

Bridging the gap around infrastructural deficits is a major priority for those involved in enterprise here who maintain the issue is constraining growth.

The parties have all heard and heeded that call and have devised a variety of plans to address it.

Fianna Fáil plans to use the €17.1bn in one-off cash from the sale of AIB shares and the Apple tax revenue to fund infrastructure development across five areas. €4bn, it says, will go to the Land Development Agency to assist with delivery of social and affordable homes, while €2bn will go to a new Towns Investment Fund. Another €2.5bn will go towards upgrading the electricity grid, €3bn on water infrastructure through Irish Water and €3.6bn will be spent on transport networks. Finally, it says €2bn will be used to develop digital technology for healthcare. Infrastructure delivery will fall within the remit of a new unit of the National Treasury Management Agency. In total it plans to grow capital spending by €106bn over the next five years.

A dedicated Department of Infrastructure, Climate and Transport is what Fine Gael is planning, on the other hand. It will merge three existing departments and streamline and unify all aspects of delivery, from planning to execution, using a specific leadership structure. Eirgrid, Transport Infrastructure Ireland and Uisce Éireann will also have to report into it on their capital plans. Overall, the party expects to inject €100bn into capital projects, an increase of 11% per year. The Apple tax money will be used to boost spending on housing, water, energy and transport, with a plan for the allocation of funds to be produced within 100 days of office. It will also refresh the National Development Plan.

Sinn Féin will also, unsurprisingly, use the Apple funds for capital investment. It is pledging €1bn of it for a new Community Investment Fund, €2bn on healthcare, €2.5bn on a Renewable Energy Fund and €7.6bn on public housing. A further €1bn would be spent on dealing with the legacy of defective blocks, fire and other safety defects. All told, it has pledged to spend an additional €41.8bn between now and 2030 on capital.

All the smaller parties also have their own housing plans. But the Green Party will also use €10bn of capital investment to deliver major public transport projects. The Social Democrats say they will invest to improve Ireland’s economic infrastructure, particularly telecoms, transport and ports.

Aontú will set up a commission to investigate reform of infrastructure planning and building process and invest €3.5bn in water and wastewater, as well as €1.25bn in the national grid. And Labour will deploy the Apple money on a state construction company, water infrastructure and serviced land, as well as for climate measures and health, in the form of a Sláintecare Transition Fund.

GROWING INDIGENOUS AND MULTINATIONAL FIRMS

Strengthening Ireland’s foreign direct investment offering is going to be of critical importance in the face of global threats to our competitiveness, the second Trump administration and other international uncertainties.

Meanwhile, indigenous Irish businesses are looking for help to grow and scale.

Sinn Féin says its priorities include continuing a secure flow of high-impact American foreign direct investments and FDI from new markets, with a focus on the EMEA region. On the domestic front, it suggests the establishment of a new enterprise agency, called Mol Gnó that would focus on scaling existing Irish firms. It also talks, without specifics, of scaling Irish SMEs through increased credit access and vital infrastructure, and mentions better access to microfinance, though doesn’t say how.

In its manifesto, Fine Gael sets out a large number of policies it claims will help the creation of the conditions to add 300,000 jobs by 2030. On keeping Ireland competitive, it says it will introduce an Action Plan for Competitiveness, that will "integrate wage policy, tax policy, education and training, energy and utility policy, and digitisation." It also says it will review business grants and tax incentives, develop a new life sciences strategy, work towards deepening the EU Single Market, promote new free trade agreements and reduce red tape for businesses and SMEs.

To help smaller companies, Fine Gael says it create a national start-up campus, establish a unitised private venture fund and reform capital gains tax. It also says it will boost Enterprise Ireland’s initiatives and target a 50% increase in large Irish exporters by the end of the decade, as well as aim for 2,500 additional Irish owned exporters by 2030.

Fianna Fáil in its blueprint says it will also look at reducing Capital Gains Tax and expanding Angel Investment through further (unspecified) reforms. The party would also set up a task force on productivity in the domestic sector and expand Enterprise Ireland. It has also set a target of doubling new exporters by 2030.

In a measure that would appeal to both indigenous companies and foreign multinationals FF also plans to expand and broaden the R&D tax credit to include innovation and digitalisation. The party also says it would ensure that a minimum of 60% of IDA FDI goes to regional locations.

The Labour Party document pledges to scale up financing through a new Strategic Investment and Development Bank and develop a community banking model for SME lending. It too promises changes to the R&D tax credit and a promotional plan to encourage SME take up, with an enhanced rate for small and micro companies.

The Green Party says it will work with the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland to ensure SMEs can get low-cost finance to help cover upfront grant costs. It also promises to retain incentives used by start-ups to scale, like the Key Employee Engagement Programme and the Employment and Investment Incentive.

The Social Democrats will scale up Microfinance Ireland, annually increase the VAT-entry threshold for small businesses and look at reforming PRSI in relation to the self-employed. Aontú would expand all Microfinance Ireland loan schemes and provide a €500m fund over five years to help Irish enterprise become more energy efficient.

OTHER PLEDGES

There’s plenty in the manifestos about insurance reform, most of which involves doing more of what we've seen happen over the last few years. The parties also talk about data centres, with Fianna Fáil saying they will increase investment in infrastructure and the electricity grid to facilitate increased numbers of centres.

Fine Gael says they could be used as renewable energy catalysts. But Sinn Féin says it would end tax relief to data centres.

On banking, Sinn Féin says it would increase the levy to €400m and restrict corporation tax relief for the sector. It would also retain the State’s stake in AIB. While on the issue of retail crime, Fianna Fáil says it would address shoplifting by giving retailers a statutory defence in cases where shoppers claim they have been defamed when asked whether they have paid for a product. Independent Ireland would enable An Post to deliver a full suite of banking services in rural Ireland by creating a new commercial bank in conjunction with credit unions.

Fine Gael would do the same, but would also introduce a specific offence of assaulting a retail worker.

So that is a rather long summary of just some of the many pledges, promises, gifts and gimmicks that the parties would offer businesses if they get into power.

Time now for you to start thinking about who you might vote for!