Richard Bruton, the minister for jobs, has announced a major campaign to reduce chronic low awareness levels amongst SMEs of the various government assistance programmes on offer.

A national and local radio advertising campaign, an online campaign and a website, www.actionplanforjobs.ie, will actively promote up to 80 government supports — including the likes of Microfinance Ireland, the Credit Review Office and the Credit Guarantee Scheme — to the start-up and SME communities, where currently there exists a huge level of ignorance surrounding such schemes.

The year-long campaign will also see nine “ambassadors” promote the offerings. These will comprise heads of successful large businesses — including Seán O’Driscoll of Glen Dimplex and Eishtec’s Heather Reynolds — leaders of new Irish start-ups and the head of representative bodies such as the Small Firms Association, Isme, and Chambers Ireland.

In launching the awareness campaign, Mr Bruton noted that SMEs employ around 650,000 people in Ireland, while start-ups account for two thirds of all new jobs growth.

However, the need for such a campaign is illustrated by the fact that 90% of SMEs admit to having a low awareness level of government-backed schemes, while 80% say more information should be made available, he said.

“We have put these supports in place so that they are used, so that businesses use them to start-up, grow and, ultimately create more jobs,” Mr Bruton said yesterday.

“At the heart of our action plan for jobs has been improving the supports available for these businesses, and we now have a broad range of supports available for these businesses, aimed at improving their access to credit, supporting their productivity and facilitating them in innovating new products and services.

“However, as I engage with businesses up and down the country I repeatedly encounter the same problem — most businesses simply aren’t aware of the supports, often financially very beneficial to them, that are available.”

Business minister Ged Nash added: “As the minister with responsibility for the SME sector, I would like to see more of our SMEs use these supports which often can have a beneficial impact on their own bottom line.

“Ultimately, we want to see these businesses not only survive, but thrive and help us achieve our goal of returning the country to full employment by 2018.”