Introduction

Introduction

We are delighted to present our County Kildare Chamber Membership Pulse Survey. This survey was designed to pinpoint the challenges faced by our businesses in Kildare and help us to identify solutions.

County Kildare Chamber is the business organisation in Kildare, proactively working to identify and progress developments that are facilitative of economic and sustainable growth. Representing an employer base of 400 businesses and over 38,000 employees across the county, County Kildare Chamber is the largest business organisation in the mid-east region of Ireland.

Given the significant breadth and depth of our membership, and our representation on various bodies at local and national level, County Kildare Chamber constitutes the representative voice for business in Kildare. It particularly highlighted challenges Kildare businesses have regarding skills & training availability within the county, housing and public transport deficits, which businesses

see as vast impediments to competitiveness within Kildare. County Kildare Chamber will use the results of this survey to create policy and to lobby & engage on your behalf with Kildare County Council, Government and Public Representatives, giving a current and accurate picture of the current business climate in Kildare.

The Chamber conducted this survey over a period of two weeks from the 28th March – 8th April 2022. Of the total responses received, 23% where from businesses with 50 plus employees, while 77% came from businesses with staff ranging from one to 50 employees.

Over 60% of the responses came from the Life Science and Manufacturing area, Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure, Retail, Education and Training and the service industry. The survey concentrated on the key business challenges, competitiveness in Kildare, Post-Covid employment and the current crisis in Ukraine.

Businesses are also concerned with challenges arising from remote and flexible working and with the possible impacts and effects of the current situation in Ukraine. 88% of Kildare businesses are either concerned or extremely concerned with the effects of the crisis. However, bearing this in mind, the results of our survey show the majority of Kildare businesses are optimistic about their outlook in Kildare, with 57% looking towards increasing staffing levels, 60% forecasting an increase in revenue and 45% anticipating an increase in profit.