70% of small and medium businesses in Ireland fear they might have to close in 2023 due to rising costs, research carried out by Wise Business has found. 

250 businesses were surveyed and just over two thirds believe there is a ‘possibility’ they will close, while only one-in-three think their business will be ‘fine’. 

“This year has been tough for SMBs, and next year looks set to be similarly challenging,” Clara Nobre, Head of Wise Business, said. 

“The rising costs of business are creating real pressure on many brilliant businesses’ bottom lines.” 

While delivering his budget speech in September, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said that he understood “the worries which small business owners, farmers, pensioners, those who work really hard to get by, will feel.”

He announced a Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme to support businesses and described it as “a significant intervention by the government in the Irish economy to protect employment. This support scheme forms a large part of our once off package. We must weaken the ability of a shock to income becoming a loss of jobs. This new policy will help employers with their rising bills, and help to save their businesses.”