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Thursday is the last chance fit the Executive to pick up those who have “fallen through the cracks”. Our interest is the critical SME manufacturing firms out there /1
There’s £53m underspend in the emergency Grants scheme waiting more than 2 months to be allocated /2
We’ve had desperate calls from firms desperate for support. Holding on as long as possible before making redundancies or closing the workshop door or factory gates /3
Small bakeries, bed manufacturers for care homes, engineering works supporting farmers and our exporters /4
They’ve spent all their reserves, taken on debt to send workers home and pay for social distancing rules /5
Their Banks have little left to give them, but an emergency grant (such as those given to other sectors) means they can keep going another month or release funding from their bank /6
These are firms with the family name above the door, the largest employer in their village or townland. The village shop and pub rely on the wages they pay, their jobs mean than people can stay in their local community keeping the community viable /7
The Minister and other promised they’d get help but it hasn’t been dispatched /8
Instead the money may go in to other Departments or agencies. The types of projects or bodies which these firms don’t engage with, have no experience with /9
If we want viable rural communities, if we want to rely on our makers to help the front line in any second wave, we can’t let them expire now /10
These manufacturers are critical to every constituency of the Assembly, more important when you get out of the cities /11
If they are valued, this week is the week to show them ends
