Bulk of small business unprepared for euro

Almost 80 per cent of the Republic's 160,000 small businesses are unprepared for the introduction of the euro on January 1st according to a new survey from software suppliers Sage. The findings suggest that only 21 per cent of small businesses consider themselves to be "euro-ready", while 41 per cent do not expect the new currency to make a major difference to their operations.

These results run counter to some of the findings of a recent Small Firms Association (SFA) survey which concluded that 60 per cent of small businesses were well-informed about the changeover.

The new research also suggests that many small businesses are confused about the actual date of the euro's introduction. Only 10 per cent of the companies surveyed by Sage correctly identified the deadline for euro conversion as December 31st, with 56 per cent choosing January 2nd. A total of 18 per cent were "completely unaware" of the changeover date.

Mr Liam Mullaney, managing director of Sage Ireland, predicted that a collective tendency to make changes as late as possible would cause "tremendous difficulties" in November and December this year. "This is all going to happen at the last minute," he said, pointing to large numbers of owner-managers whose time for such arrangements is likely to be limited.

Mr Pat Delaney, director of the Small Firms Association (SFA) agreed yesterday that his members did not always have the time or resources at their disposal to implement the business process changes required by the euro but said that they were nonetheless positive about the project.

Accountants were cited by survey respondents as the favoured source of information on the euro for SMEs in the Republic, closely followed by software vendors and banks. "We've said all along that this campaign needs to be geared up," he said.

"We would have liked to have seen a very senior politician, indeed the Taoiseach himself, getting behind this."

A spokewoman for Forfβs, the Government body responsible for distributing euro information to business said that the finding probably reflected the agency's concentration on providing information to industry groups rather than individual companies.

Just under one-third of small businesses are relying on their own knowledge to see them through the conversion, according to the research.

The survey was conducted among 1,000 Irish companies, 500 of which were based in the North. More than half of the Northern companies surveyed said that they intended to prepare their business for accepting euros, but 77 per cent claimed to be unaware of the conversion deadline.

Banks were the most popular sources of euro information in the North.

The three main Irish banks are all planning to take on extra personnel to deal with the logistics of the changeover.

AIB has calculated that it requires an additional 200 staff with many of these staying on well into 2002.