Irish small and medium sized businesses may have lost between €6 and €10 billion between the months of March and June due to Covid-19 restrictions.
That's one of the findings in a study published today by the Economic and Social Research Institute on the impact of the pandemic on Irish companies.
Over a million people in Ireland work for small and medium sized businesses, or SME's. The ESRI says Covid-19 has delivered an 'unprecedented shock' to these employers, the speed and scale of which 'are outside any experience bar wartime.' Drawing on official data and industry surveys, the ESRI has attempted to quantify the scale of this shock.