Committee calls for ‘examinership-lite’ option for small businesses

Committee calls for 'examinership-lite' option for small businesses

The law on examinership should be amended to introduce an “examinership-lite” option for small businesses struggling in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, an Oireachtas committee has said.

The proposal is one of 19 recommendations made by the Oireachtas special committee on COVID-19 response in its Stimulating Enterprise and the Economy report, published on Friday.

The issue of examinership and particularly the cost of entering examinership in Ireland “was a recurring theme in evidence received by the committee”, the report states.

In evidence to the committee, SME Recovery Ireland (SMERI) pointed out that the UK government is “rushing through a new bill on corporate insolvency to ensure that the balance of power between large banks and large landlords, on the one hand, and smaller firms, on the other, is in a different place”.

The committee report recommends that the law be changed in autumn 2020 to support “struggling small businesses who are currently precluded due to the currently high costs involved”.

Share icon
Share this article: