The Labour Party has called for an overhaul of State support for new businesses to end a situation in which it is "virtually impossible" to secure business loans of under £10,000.
In a policy document aimed at promoting self-employment among the long-term unemployed, the party urges a re-examination of existing supports such as the Small Business Expansion Scheme - currently offering minimum loans of £20,000 - to meet the more modest needs of "microbusinesses".
Labour also wants to see a doubling of the number of jobs facilitators employed by the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs to help the unemployed return to work.
At present there are 30 such officers, but the policy document envisages up to 60, with half that number allocated exclusively to those seeking to become self-employed.
Other suggestions include a simplified tax system for the newly self-employed, with a once-yearly payment for those with taxable income of less than £5,000 - pitched at £100 per £1,000 taxable earnings.
The qualifying period of unemployment for the back-to-work schemes should be reduced from 12 to six months, Labour recommends.
Introducing the proposals yesterday, the party's spokesman on social and community affairs, Mr Tommy Broughan TD, said the "modest reforms" could increase the numbers going from welfare to self-employment to about 20,000 overall.
The changes would cost between £2.5 and £4 million, but the potential savings were "huge".
The chairman of the party's policy development commission, Sen Joe Costello, said the economy had developed to a point where the Government had a responsibility to invest specifically in areas of comparative disadvantage.
While overall unemployment was at its lowest in 16 years, "there are still housing estates and flat complexes where the jobless figures are running at 50 per cent or more," he said.
