Fingal Network Magazine (2022 Issue 4)

04/2022

‘ENGAGED PEOPLE GET THINGS DONE’ Dalton Phillips on running Dublin Airport REALISING FINGAL’S POTENTIAL Vital role of Dept. of Economic Development BLIGHTS ON FOOD PRODUCTION Transport & housing are big problems DRUMMING UP BUSINESS Vinny May on keeping Kodaline upbeat UP, UP AND AWAY Aer Lingus and Emirates see blue skies ahead www.fingalchamber.ie

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Credits Editor: John Stanley Design: Design Minds Production Manager: David Branagan Sales Manager: Shay Burke Managing Editor: Anthony Cooney Cover Image: Fingal Network Magazine is published by Fingal Chamber.

Fingal Chamber, 2 The Green, Dublin Airport Central, Dublin Airport, Co. Dublin Tel. (01) 890 0977 Email. info@fingalchamber.ie Web. www.fingalchamber.ie

IN THIS ISSUE Welcome Address: A year of achievements

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Executive Assessment: Some have survived, others have thrived

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Fingal Business News

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The Big Interview: Dalton Phillips – ‘Engaged people get things done’

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Roundtable Discussion: Transport and housing impede growth prospects

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Chamber President John O’Donoghue says that to address the challenges that lie ahead the Chamber needs to work collaboratively with other stakeholders, including the local authority, and to lobby effectively at local and national levels on behalf of its membership.

Chief Executive Anthony Cooney reflects on the findings of the Fingal Business Sentiment Survey 2022 and concludes “it is perhaps as surprising as it is pleasing to note that businesses here in Fingal remains optimistic about the future and a key reason for this is their proven resilience”.

Dalton Phillips, CEO of Dublin Airport, talks about the responsibilities involved in running “a big mini-city right in the centre of Fingal,” how the pandemic has delayed the airport’s ambitious growth plans, and the infrastructural investment imperatives behinds its call for the reform of a regulatory system it believes to be “fundamentally flawed and broken”.

Michael Hoey, Managing Director of Country Crest and William Keeling, Property Director of Keelings Group discuss the related problems of poor transport infrastructure and the lack of suitable affordable accommodation in Fingal on the area’s food producers.

Fostering Fingal’s economic potential 16 Combining rural with urban and tourism with ICT and pharma, plus the added attraction of Dublin Airport for key FDI decision-makers, Fingal is exceptionally well positioned to prosper. Its Department of Economic, Enterprise, Tourism and Cultural Development is at the heart of its efforts to realise this potential.

Skillnet Training: Revitalising Business 18 Skillnet Ireland and Fingal Chamber Skillnet highlight new funding supports for small and medium businesses in a post-Brexit world.

Industry Review: Commercial Aviation

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My Week In Work: Vincent May

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Your Chamber Council: Kevin Smith

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Meet The Team: Siobhan O’Donnell

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Creative Fingal: The Séamus Ennis Arts Centre

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Membership Directory

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Donal Moriarty, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Aer Lingus, and Enda Corneille, Country Manager for Emirates in Ireland, talk about how their companies coped with the pandemic and their hopes for a return to growth.

Whether it’s helping identify a course for the Chamber, encouraging young people to study STEM subjects, or simply gazing at the stars, Council member Kevin Smith brings a great energy and focus to the task in hand.

Material published in this journal is not necessarily endorsed by Fingal Chamber. All rights reserved.

Reproduction by any means without permission of the publisher is prohibited. 2022.

The former Chamber President brings vast experience to the new role of Head of Public Affairs. Her lobbying “won’t be on ‘easy wins’, it will be on those that matter most to our members,” she says.

A spotlight on Fingal County Council’s centre of excellence for traditional arts. They look back at their online programme of live-streamed concerts, highlight their new covered outdoor performance space and look forward to Garden Party 2022.

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Vinny May is the drummer with Swords-based rock band Kodaline. But he also looks after the business end of the band, which can present its own challenges.

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THERE REALLY IS GREAT STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

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The foundations for this approach are well laid.

The recently completed membership survey has been most timely, ensuring that your Chamber’s Council and Executive have a clear understanding of the needs and priorities of the members. We are fortunate, too, in having a highly knowledgeable and experienced advocate in Siobhan O’Donnell in the new role of Head of Public Affairs. And thankfully we have returned to person-to-person engagements.

Following the protracted period of digital encounters, we now recognise that in-person meetings are essential elements in both our personal and business interactions.

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As the country comes out of two years of lockdown the role of Fingal Chamber in supporting our members is arguably more critical now than it has ever been. The prospects for economic recovery over the next two to three years, both nationally and within the region, are quite positive. But there are also many challenges ahead. As a Chamber we need to work collaboratively with other stakeholders, including the local authority, and to lobby effectively at local and national levels on behalf of our membership.

The Business Sentiment Survey has proved invaluable in setting the agenda for the remainder of this year.

Difficulties in staff recruitment and retention stand out at the top of the list of concerns and the Chamber is in a good position to assist with this.

Our Fingal Chamber Skillnet Network, for example, helps businesses to identify and address their skills needs in practical ways and delivers value for money training and development programmes that can be tailored to individual needs. In May Fingal Chamber in conjunction with Fingal County Council will hold the region’s largest business to business trade exhibition attracting businesses looking to buy products and services from suppliers and vendors. Fingal Connects Expo’, which will take place at the Crown Plaza Dublin Airport on May 26th, offers a single place for businesses to gather and network with hundreds of local suppliers, partners and future customers. This is another practical example of how the Chamber can support businesses in the region.

We have worked closely with Fingal County Council on many initiatives designed to address specific issues that have direct influences on the economic welfare of the region. In the area of tourism, for example, Fingal has huge potential as a tourism & hospitality destination and during the pandemic we established a subcommittee with the CoCo to explore ways of improving tourism in the region.

Many of our members are facing huge increases in costs, from soaring energy bills to wage inflation pressures they are simply unable to meet. At the same time, government supports designed to help businesses during the pandemic are now coming to an end. The tax warehousing provision, for example, provided a huge cash flow benefit at a difficult time. But from next January any outstanding deferrals will be subject to an interest penalty of 3%. So, depending on how quickly

they can rebound, many companies face ongoing financial challenges.

EXECUTIVE ASSESSMENT: SOME HAVE SURVIVED, OTHERS HAVE THRIVED

RESILIENCE REMAINS THE KEY INGREDIENT TO SUCCESS Recovery in economic activity here in Ireland is being constrained by a marked shortage of labour in many areas, while a shortage of housing contributes to the overall uncertainty, especially for younger people. All this at a time when we are hosting many refugees from the war in Ukraine, with more set to seek shelter in our country. So the business environment, generally speaking, is quite tough on a number of fronts.

New methods of working present another key challenge for many employers. We recently conducted a survey in partnership with Adare HR which identified that just a third (32%) of organisations believe a hybrid working model will benefit their business. But this is an approach that is fraught with difficult issues, from employment law and health & safety to insurance and monitoring of employees’ work practices. We have already held forums with experts to tease out these issues and we will continue to engage on this topic in the interest of members.

These are all important concerns and the Chamber will continue to engage with various agencies and government departments to ensure, as far as we can, that they are understood and responded to adequately.

The appointment of Siobhan O’Donnell as Head of Public Affairs reflects our view that advocating on behalf of the local business on key issues is one of the most important things we can do as a representative body.

From taxation to transport, we will pick our battles at the appropriate times and pursue them with vigour.

We are fortunate as a Chamber in having an enlightened local authority with a clear vision of developing the region socially and economically. As I mentioned already, we have developed a very good relationship with Fingal CoCo and I am keen to see that strengthened even further into the future.

Fingal Chamber is also blessed to have an enthusiastic team of council members to direct and assist the executive team. I detect an air of excitement amongst them this year as we all seek to re-engage in a post-COVID world. We will continue to form new subcommittees as the needs arise to ensure we remain alert to both challenges and opportunities.

Finally, I would like to remind members that the greater the membership, the stronger we are as a representative body and the better resourced we will be to advocate on your behalf. We are engaged in an active recruitment drive this year and I would ask you to encourage your peers who are not already members to consider joining us. There really is great strength in numbers.

John ODonoghue President Fingal Chamber

As I write, we’re in still in uncertain times. COVID remains with us and, although it has thankfully moderated in many countries, including here in Ireland, it is a continuing operational issue for many businesses. The tragic situation in Ukraine is on-going, too, with knock-on economic effects on inflation in general and fuel prices in particular.

Inflation is a real concern for business. The public sector is gearing up to look for compensatory pay rises in the order of 7% to 8% and it is understandable that, depending on how resolute the government is in its response to these pay claims, private sector workers will almost certainly seek something close to parity with the public sector. But the inflation of input costs this year is absolutely unprecedented. People in the food service industry, for example, have had three double digit price increases so far already. That’s been replicated right across industry and it’s not going to get better anytime soon.

Since our last issue we conducted the Fingal Business Sentiment Survey 2022, which has highlighted staff recruitment and retention as the single biggest issue facing our membership, followed by the lack of housing availability. Traffic congestion also ranks highly – and the failure of successive governments to deliver the promised metro link between Dublin Airport and the city centre must be a big factor in that. What we need now, more than ever, is for the political parties to stand up and be counted, to forget about shortterm politics for once and think about things that will make a difference for future generations.

Addressing the housing problem is clearly one of those issues.

Against this background it is perhaps as surprising as it is pleasing to note that businesses here in Fingal remains optimistic about the future and a

key reason for this is their proven resilience. Much is spoken about the value of not just adapting to changing circumstances but to anticipate them and even to be a force for making change happen.

The COVID pandemic has encouraged, and even forced, many businesses to put theory into practice.

The Chamber is playing its part in helping to create an improved environment for our members.

Working with Fingal CoCo, for example, we will be hosting a Fingal Business Expo next month in the Crowne Plaza Hotel. We will have 55 stands and expecting to host 500 to 600 people trade visitors, the majority of whom will be members of the Chamber. It will be great way for businesses in the locality to get to know each other’s offerings and capabilities. The resumption of in person meetings by the Chamber has been greeted with a palpable sense of relief by everyone. The Expo will be one more important step in this direction as we steer towards a “new normal”.

Recently we created a new Head of Policy position within the Chamber dedicated to helping us make sure that, in our role as a voice for all businesses in Fingal, we are both heard and heeded by the various agencies that play roles in shaping the business environment – everything from national government to local community agencies. This work is now being headed up by the highly respected, former Chamber President and daa executive, Siobhan O’Donnell who brings huge experience and knowledge to this role. One thing is certain, then, as now, resilience is the key ingredient which will see our membership thrive and prosper in the years to come.

Anthony Cooney Chief Executive

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WELCOME ADDRESS: A YEAR OF ACHIEVEMENTS

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FINGAL BUSINESS NEWS Taoiseach briefed on Our Balbriggan projects during visit

12 January 2022

15 January 2022

of housing (26%) and transport issues (15%), will threaten the future competitiveness of Fingal according to local businesses.

County Council where he had responsibility for the management and delivery of infrastructure, public realm, active travel and climate action-related projects. This included the development of a coastal mobility route as well as village renewal projects in Blackrock and Dundrum. Previously, Robert worked as a Senior Executive Engineer with Clare County Council in the Housing Department.

Fingal Chamber welcomes easing of restrictions 24 January 2022 Dublin Airport has released its traffic figures for 2021 which reveal that passenger numbers at the Airport increased by 14% to 8.46 million, when compared with 2020. However, 2021 passenger numbers were down by 74% when compared to numbers in 2019 as COVID-19 continued to have a massive impact on aviation globally.

Two thirds of all passengers (66%) who travelled through Dublin Airport in 2021 did so in the months of August, September, October and November which equates to 5.6 million passengers. In total, 8.3 million passengers either started or ended their journey through Dublin Airport while 155,000 of the overall number used the airport as a transfer hub last year.

Carbon budgets needed for Ireland to achieve climate targets, says Chambers Ireland

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13 January 2022

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Chambers Ireland, the voice of business throughout Ireland, has said that carbon budgets must become a fundamental component of decision-making within public bodies if Ireland is to achieve its climate targets.

Ian Talbot, Chief Executive of Chambers Ireland, was speaking to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action today.

State decisions play a crucial role in facilitating businesses and the public to engage in climatefriendly behaviours, Talbot said. However successive Governments have failed to take adequate action to reduce our climate impact.

He said carbon budgeting must be used to support the development of projects and policies that aid decarbonisation but must not become a tool for simply allocating CO2 emissions.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD was briefed on the Our Balbriggan Regeneration Plan when he visited the town for the official launch of the Irish Institute of Music and Song.

During a walk from the Our Balbriggan Hub in St George’s Square to Balbriggan Harbour, the Taoiseach, who was accompanied by Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien TD, was shown the sites for several major regeneration projects which have received funding from the Urban Regeneration Development Fund (URDF).

Among the projects the Taoiseach was shown was the Heart of Main Street, the one hectare area of natural green space along the Bracken River which, with the help of almost €7m in URDF funding, is going to be transformed into a Green Corridor linking Millpond Park with the centre of Balbriggan and leading to the Beach and Harbour.

The Taoiseach was also taken to Quay Street, the Harbour and the Beach where over €11m of URDF support will transform the area on both sides of the Railway Viaduct.

New Director for Housing and Community Development announced 20 January 2022

Fingal County Council has announced that Robert Burns will take up the role of Director for Housing and Community Development. In the position, Robert will be responsible for managing over 6,000 councilowned homes across Fingal as well as overseeing the delivery of 3,640 new homes between 2022 and 2026 to meet the Council’s targets under the Government’s Housing for All plan. He will also oversee community development and a number of other key services including integration and sport.

He brings a wealth of experience to the job, having served as Director of Service for Infrastructure and Climate Change in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown

Following the announcement by An Taoiseach, Fingal Chamber Chief Executive Anthony Cooney said: “The decision by Government today will come as a relief to the many business owners across Ireland who have played a crucial role in navigating the threat posed by Covid-19. Through several immensely challenging periods, they have demonstrated a strong commitment to supporting public health.

Their businesses, which are hugely important to the people and strength of our local economies, now have a chance to make their full contribution to their communities and the staff they employ.

Fingal Chamber Publishes Business Sentiment Survey Findings

Shortage of housing (26%) and public transport services/traffic congestion were also highlighted as risks to Fingal’s competitiveness.

Most of respondents (60%) indicated they had experienced an increase in staff turnover in the past year, while competitive salaries (60%) were cited as the key incentive in attracting staff.

Russia, to close their ports to Russian shipping and Russian goods and encourage all commercial bodies to divest themselves from Russian assets. We would also encourage Irish businesses to consider how they can provide employment opportunities to Ukrainian citizens arriving in Ireland, many of whom have excellent language and technical skills.”

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The Development Plan process has been running for almost a year and the final plan is scheduled to be adopted by councillors in February 2023. Last year Council officials, set out the strategic direction for the Plan with the publication of an Issues Paper which attracted 551 submissions. This then formed the framework into which objectives and policies for the Chief Executive’s Draft Plan were created.

“We are glad that the issue of housing is receiving the highest priority in government and look forward to Croí Cónaithe Cities and Towns funds, which will support urban development and the refurbishment of vacant properties being launched in the coming weeks.

“Even with the soaring energy costs that businesses are experiencing, housing remains one of the most critical issues for Irish businesses.

Public invited to review Draft Development Plan as public consultation commences The Council is seeking to encourage public debate among citizens, businesses, community groups and other interested parties on the Draft Development Plan and online submissions can made by citizens and organisations between now and May 12 on Fingal County Council’s Consultation Portal, www. consult.fingal.ie.

update, but is concerned about the financial viability of projects in the pipeline. Following the Housing for All update Chambers Ireland’s Chief Executive, Ian Talbot said:

New trail launched to tempt visitors to Fingal and Dublin’s coastal delights 30 March 2022 Key locations in Fingal feature as part of a new Dublin Coastal Trail launched that has been developed to aid tourism businesses along the coast and promote the rich history and vibrancy of Dublin’s coastal towns. The new tourist attraction stretches from Skerries in the north through to Killiney in the south.

Easily accessible by rail and encouraging visitors to journey out of the city, the Dublin Coastal Trail bring aims to bring new life to Dublin’s coastline. In showcasing the wide range of coastal locations, their proximity to the city

“Chambers Ireland welcomes the achievements that have been made as part of the Housing for All Strategy, as the shortage of available affordable housing is a key concern of our members. The cost of housing is the single largest expense for workers, and the increasing costs of housing are driving wage claims and reducing our national competitiveness.

“High housing costs also significantly reduce the discretionary spending of the public and depress our domestic economy. This concentrates our potential for growth into the internationally traded sector and leaves us vulnerable to geopolitical risk.”

Fingal Chamber and Fingal County Council announce new businessto-business event ‘Fingal Connects Expo 2022 15 April 2022

17 February 2022 The key findings of the survey highlight that over 40% of businesses in the area said that staff retention and recruitment is their biggest challenge.

The survey also showed that the availability of skills and talent (32%) together with short supply

Chambers Ireland meeting with the Ukrainian Ambassador to Ireland 22 March 2022 Speaking at the meeting Ambassador Gerasko said:

“I would like to express my gratitude to Irish people and firms for their support in these dark times for Ukraine. The war against the Ukrainian people is fuelled by the trade that businesses carry out with Russia. I want to ask all Irish businesses to cease trade and investment in Russia. We are also asking that all firms reassess their supply chains to ensure that they are not relying on Russian Firms.

“Ukraine is calling on all nations to Boycott trade with

centre, their accessible experiences and local authenticity, the coastal trail will further secure Dublin’s position as a must-visit destination.

Developed by Fáilte Ireland in partnership with Fingal County Council, Dublin City Council, Dún LaoghaireRathdown County Council, and Irish Rail, it is hoped the trail will open access to the Dublin coastline and encourage visitors to explore the towns, outdoor activities and attractions that lie within easy reach of the city centre.

Chambers Ireland welcomes the “Housing for All” update 12 April 2022

Chambers Ireland welcomes the “Housing for All”

Fingal Chamber, in collaboration with Fingal County Council, is delighted to stage the region’s only business to business exhibition taking place on Thursday, May 26 at the Crowne Plaza, Dublin Airport.

Attendees will get to meet local suppliers and see their products and services; compare several suppliers quickly; discover new technology, ideas and innovative companies; and network and learn from other businesses.

There will be keynote speakers and workshops for attendees to hear from industry experts on key topics such as funding sources and supports, cutting business costs, business efficiency, and people and skills. Local support organisations will also be there to offer free advice with walk-up appointments available for business clinics.

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Dublin Airport Passenger Numbers Up 14% Compared To Last Year

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Member Testimonials

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HR HELPDESK

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As a member of the Fingal Chamber, you have exclusive access to our HR Helpdesk where you can talk with one of our expert-led HR team.

Advice | Guidance | Support Adare Human Resource Management understands the HR requirements of every business are different. HR and employment law issues can potentially have a significant financial impact on a business if not handled correctly.

Reach out for support to our HR Helpdesk today.

"Country Crest has been a member of Fingal Chamber for many years and has benefited in many ways from this membership.

Networking with like-minded businesses and people has enabled us to look outwardly at how businesses adapt and prosper within Fingal and Ireland.

Being a part and taking part within the Chamber is hugely important to us and we value our membership greatly."

Tony Doyle, Commercial Manager, Country Crest

EMPLOYMENT LAW ISSUES

HR & EMPLOYMENT LAW COMPLIANCE

FOR MORE DETAILS Book your 15 minute free consultation

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"S & S Office Interiors Ltd has been a member of the chamber for over 10 years, the services that the Chamber provide are valuable to our business and feel that our membership is an important part of our business going forward” Alan Spain, Managing Director, S & S Office Interiors

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“We have participated in the Chamber networking and Skillnet training. We have found that they cover an expansive subject matter, reduce the costs through Skillnet subsidy and learning in a network environment, and are able to adapt to our business training requirements.”

Richard Sloan, Managing Director, Sonas Bathrooms

Learn how membership could benefit your business:

www.fingalchamber.ie

The Investment is You Explore our Part-Time Masters Programmes DCU Business School offers a range of part-time programmes to help you take your career to the next level.

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Adare Human Resource Management 2nd Floor, 43-51 Temple Grove House, Temple Road, Blackrock, Co. Dublin T: (01) 561 3594 E: adarechambers@adarehrm.ie

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visit www.adarehrm.ie/hrhelpdesk

PERFORMANCE CHALLENGES

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THE BIG INTERVIEW:

DALTON PHILLIPS – ‘ENGAGED PEOPLE GET THINGS DONE’

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The pandemic has disrupted Dublin Airport’s ambitious growth plans, but more in terms of timing than direction, Philips says. “We’ve lost a couple of years, for obvious reasons. It has delayed the development of Dublin Airport Central, for example.” This stateof-the-art business environment has enticed large multinational businesses to establish European bases at the airport. Cereals giant Kellogg’s, for example, has its European Regional Headquarters here. “We were meant to be working on building phases three and four of DAC by now and we’ve pushed that out.

But rest assured, it’s still going to happen because it’s the right thing to do.”

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Dublin Airport is at the heart of Ireland’s economy, accounting for about 95% of all incoming and outgoing air traffic. It’s also a huge source of activity within Fingal, creating direct employment for about 21,500 people in a variety of jobs – from the daa itself to airlines, air traffic control, goods handling, aircraft maintenance, security, immigration and customs. When indirect employment, including food services and retail, is included, that figure rises to about 50,000 people. daa Chief Executive Dalton Philips spoke to Fingal Network about the challenges created by the pandemic and why he remains optimistic about the future for this important facility.

“You still often hear the old regional debates, Shannon versus Dublin, or Shannon versus the north west. But that’s not the real issue, it’s far more global than that.

When we compete for a route we’re up against the likes of Copenhagen or Manchester or Vienna. An airline is just trying to join up two dots on a map where it thinks it can get the best return with the ultimate movable asset,’ says Dalton Philips, keen that the challenges for Dublin Airport be seen in an international context.

Responsible for the running of “a big mini-city right in the centre of Fingal,” his task is as much akin to that of a mayor as it is to running a business. “With just about every possible service that you could think of located here, we recognize there’s a huge community aspect to what we do. We have to be a brilliant neighbour and do everything we can to engage with the wider community – and that’s not always straightforward,” he adds.

He cites the new runway, scheduled to open this August, as an obvious example. “On the one hand, there is a huge body of people who will benefit enormously from the increased economic activity in terms of trade, tourism and FDI as a result of this increased capacity. On the other, there’s a much smaller number impacted by increased activity and noise levels. But if you are in the latter group the size of that number is immaterial and we have to be cognizant of that. So we have to take a balanced approach to growth; we have to be responsible with the mandate we’ve been given by the government to connect Ireland to the rest of the world.”

Looking ahead, Philips freely acknowledges that the daa capability and the capacity to build some of the larger infrastructure it expects will be needed by the end of this decade is dependent not just on the extent of the recovery in air traffic but also the company’s own financial position.

“We know that aviation will bounce back but there is a question of whether we will have the money we need because our balance sheet is so constrained. We lost €300 million last year and had to raise a billion euros of liquidity.” daa has plans to build a new pier, positioned at right angles to the still relatively new one familiar to Aer Lingus passengers and people departing to the US. “Now we have to ask ourselves, can we really afford to do this? The pandemic hasn’t changed our vision or our appetite. But it has constrained our ability because we just don’t have unlimited resources.”

Philips also notes that Dublin is unusual in having some of the very lowest airport charges in Europe. “We

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don’t set the charges and in general they are 40% to 50% lower than any other airport of a comparable size across Europe. So that is unusual because I can’t think of any other service in Ireland that is 50% cheaper than its European equivalent. There are clearly some benefits from having very low charges, but they can also constrain your ability to invest in the future. So we’re challenging the regulatory system, which we think is fundamentally flawed and broken because we need to invest in infrastructure for Dublin Airport.”

Back in 2014, the daa initiated judicial review proceedings against the Commissioner for Aviation Regulation, complaining that the regulator’s final determination of airport charges for 2015-2019 would adversely affect its plans for the DAC development.

Although this action was later dropped, the role of the Regulator in setting limits on a substantial proportion of its revenues has been a constant source of irritation.

Recently daa has engaged with the Minister for Transport to set out its concerns once again, emphasizing its commitment to meeting the environmental challenge with sustainability goals of reducing its footprint by somewhere between 30% and 50% by the end of the decade, and its desire to do this by being self-financing.

“We pride ourselves on having lower airport charges versus other airports because we want to compete against them. But I just think we need to have a regulatory system that considers all these different variables, including our ambition to have the best sustainability credentials of any airport of scale across Europe. Building a solar plant, putting in world class drainage and water filtration systems and all the many other things needed to achieve that come at a price – there simply isn’t a magic money tree!”

Philips says that having spent 25 years in the grocery trade (five as CEO of UK supermarket chain Morrisons up to March 2015), he is acutely aware of the competitive pressures of price elasticity. “But at the same time,” he says, “if you’ve got a regulator who is only forcing your pricing in one direction, downwards, and you’ve got a climate agenda which means you have to invest in new infrastructure, then something has to give.”

The challenge of dealing with day-to-day funding while at the same time making long-term infrastructural plans can be a real challenge for an enterprise like a large airport. Speaking about the new runway Philips says with understandable pride: “it’s going to be the fastest built and best value for money runway built anywhere in Europe for probably two decades.” But he is equally quick to acknowledge that this was no overnight achievement. “We are the beneficiaries of really clever planning that started back in the 1960s. It was one of the very far-sighted plans within the Fingal region which has made this possible for us now, all these years later.’

But things have not progressed as well to the south of the airport. Philips admits to being “massively disappointed” at the lack of momentum behind the development of the long-promised but constantly long-fingered metro to link Dublin Airport with the city centre. “I was recently in Saudi Arabia and they’re currently building seven metro lines there at the same time. Yet here we are, a capital city with a massive sustainability agenda that doesn’t have a connection point into the city. It is terribly frustrating.

I know it requires funding, but it is an essential piece of infrastructure.”

Pay cuts and job losses As part of efforts to cope with the pandemic, Dublin Airport reduced its cost base materially last year. All staff took pay decreases of between 20% and 45% for 11 months and overall costs were cut by nearly 60%.

Reluctant to oversimply the lessons of the pandemic, Philips says that one thing that does stand out for him is the importance of engaging people with a real clarity of purpose. “Engaged people with a real sense of purpose get things done in a way that disengaged people with a lack of clarity don’t and I think that’s relevant wherever you work. We’ve had

huge challenges over the last two years, we’ve had to say goodbye to a third of our workforce in Ireland, the majority of them obviously in the Fingal area, so it can be difficult to make sure you have an aligned and engaged workforce. Resilience is obviously a bit of a buzzword from the pandemic, but it is so very true. You’ve got to just pick yourself up and go again.

And I think that’s hard for businesses and it’s hard for individuals within them.”

Philips is a strong believer in managing both his physical and mental health, which he sees as intrinsic to his responsibility to be an effective leader. He exercises at least five days a week and usually six. “You just have to find the time. Even when business is hectic and you may be travelling a lot it’s important to try and carve out one hour in the day for exercise. That’s not a vanity project. You’re paid to make good decisions and if you’re not looking after your mental and physical health you’ll make poor ones.”

Philips also says that the sense of purpose he derives from his faith is very important to him while acknowledging that other people will have other things that are important to them. He grew up as Christian and says that as he has got older his faith has deepened. “It’s fundamental to my makeup” he adds.

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accommodation required. The implementation of an infrastructural plan is a fundamental requirement. In Fingal, additional zoning of land should be explored as there are substantial areas of residential zoned land that will not deliver housing in the next Development Plan or even the one after that.”

TRANSPORT AND HOUSING IMPEDE GROWTH PROSPECTS

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In the Fingal Business Sentiment Survey 2022 staff retention and recruitment was identified as the single biggest challenge facing business in the next 12 months by 40% of the respondents – a response four times higher than for any other single issue. On a closely related question, the respondents identified housing availability as the second biggest issue for Fingal’s competitiveness in the next 12 months. We asked two senior figures in food production about the impact of housing on recruitment and how they think the issue might be addressed.

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Q1 To what extent are the two issues of recruitment and housing having a detrimental effect on your business?

Michael Hoey, Managing Director of Country Crest says: “It’s a major problem for us. Because of the cost of rent and houses in this area we have ended up subsidizing rents and renting houses, trying to make it more affordable for the people to come here to work. It’s not something we ever wanted to be involved in but we were left with no choice. In the last few weeks things have been a little easier, because our labour tends to be seasonal. During the winter months people come in off building sites and work for us. But as soon as the weather picks up in April many will be away again and we literally cannot compete with the rates that are being paid on building sites. So for anybody in food production that’s a major problem.

William Keeling, Property Director of Keelings Group, says: “It’s always been important to Keelings to recruit, develop and look after the best people, so staff recruitment, development and retention is a key priority for us. However, one of our biggest challenges in recent years has been recruitment in operational roles. This is primarily due to two issues – the lack of public transport access to our site and the limited availability of suitable, affordable accommodation in the area.

“Due to the high costs of rent in the area, our employees are having to live further and further away from Dublin/Fingal in order to find suitable accommodation that’s affordable. A large percentage of the people that apply to work with us then find

they cannot take up an employment role due to the lack of public transport to our location. Year on year it is proving more difficult to recruit people into these operational roles due to these issues, which is huge impediment in our ability to operate our business successfully and achieve growth.”

Q2 In what ways do you think private construction of housing – both nationally and in Fingal in particular – could be stimulated through changes in taxation and/or other initiatives?

“To stimulate construction the Government could consider reducing taxation for the construction industry for a period of time where it is providing targeted residential accommodation,” William Keeling suggests.

“There should be a national and local review of infrastructure and services to support these targeted residential accommodation requirements to ensure the required services will be in place for key developments that improve the availability of

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ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION:

“The other big problem for us is that the supermarkets and the government are trying to keep a lid on food inflation at a time when all our input costs are rising sharply. Ingredients, gas and electricity, road transport, ferries, container transport – everything is rising on a daily basis. So it’s a difficult time for us and the horrible Ukrainian war is going to have a huge effect as well.”

Michael Hoey agrees that something has to be done.

“The biggest problem is that young people can’t get on the mortgage ladder,” he says. “There’s a huge barrier in that the savings they have to have as a deposit is way too high. And you now have young couples trying to rent houses at close to double, in some instances, what they would be paying for a mortgage. So they’re spending years trapped in the rental market when they would be much better off if they could obtain a mortgage. The legislation is wrong on this and the Central Bank rules need to be eased in some way. Taxation should also be structured in a way that helps young people to get onto the housing ladder.”

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Q3 To what extent do you believe that state agencies, including the local authority, should be engaged in increased provision of housing?

“I think local authorities are buying up lots of houses at the minute but they’re actually competing with first time buyers and driving ownership further out of their reach,” says Michael Hoey. “It really is a vicious circle.

We’ve had two couples recently buy new houses beside us. They paid what I’d regard as crazy money for them – and that was because in both cases they were competing against Fingal County Council. I know the Council is trying to do its best but there’s such a severe shortage of houses.

“One of those couples was paying €1,680 a month rent for a house. And when they eventually got their mortgage through on their new house its costing them €1,120 a month. So they’re going to save over €500 euros a month and will own their home at the end of it; renting just does not make sense.

“Local authorities used to build their own new housing and that is what they should be doing now. They have plenty of land that’s already zoned and ready to be developed but they just don’t seem to have the appetite to do it.

FINGAL CHAMBER - NETWORK MAGAZINE

William Keeling suggests that local authorities should be given extra resources to deal with residential planning applications, provision of services for residential development and compliances and postplanning issues. “Long term, the local authorities should also be better resourced to build and maintain their own housing requirements rather than be overly reliant on the private sector. This should, in theory at least, drive down the cost of construction and also provide for a more sustainable provision of social housing.

However, in the short-term setting this up is a significant and costly issue and is somewhat beyond the control of the local authorities, which would be competing with the private sector for staff and contractors.”

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ISSUE 4 - JUNE 2022

ADVOCACY & REPRESENTATION

THE FINGAL BUSINESS SENTIMENT SURVEY

Fingal Chamber has a strongtrack record of lobbying and representation successes, delivering positive change for Fingal and its businesses.

The Fingal Business Sentiment Survey is geared towards discovering the biggest challenges facing businesses, and how local business leaders feel about current business conditions.

As a non-governmental institution, Fingal Chamber has no direct role in the writing and passage of laws and regulations that affect businesses. It does however, lobby to get laws passed that are favourable to businesses and society.

Fingal Chamber is the only Chamber in the area that represents business at the county, national and European levels, and we work with Government Ministers, MEPs, the Mayor, Fingal County Council, and local representatives to develop pro-business and employment initiatives.

Fingal Chamber does not lobby from the sidelines or shout needlessly in the media. Rather, we seek to build our reputation and relationships with policymakers, to make them sympathetic to the needs of Fingal businesses.

We ensure that decision-makers realise the important contribution of businesses, large and small, to society and the need to sustain it, by promoting a positive environment for enterprise.

Advocacy Through our role as the representative business voice for Fingal, we advocate on behalf of members on key policy areas and issues. Most recently we have been working on the Fingal Development Plan 2023-2029, the MetroLink project, BusConnects and Insurance costs.

Submissions

Representation

We continually monitor the economic landscape and assess where our input, on behalf of members, can influence or make a difference. We seek, where possible and relevant, to make direct submissions to Government – acting as our members’ spokesperson when inputting to national debate or policy.

Fingal Chamber is represented on the following bodies:

In other instances, when we consider that the voice of our national organisation could be more powerful than a voice at local/regional level, we present our members’ views via Chambers Ireland, for inclusion in their submissions to Government Our recent focus has been on the Off Shore Wind Phase 2 Consultation, North Runway Dublin Airport, and the Fingal Active Travel Strategy.

• Fingal Local Community Development Committee • Fingal County Council Strategic Policy Committees o Economic, Enterprise and Tourism Development o Transport and Infrastructure Management o Housing o Planning Strategic Transport and Infrastructure Development • Fingal Covid-19 Community Response Forum • Chambers Ireland Board • Chambers Ireland Public Affairs Forum • Greater Dublin Chamber Alliance • Fingal Tourism Stakeholder Group

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If your business would like us to raise a matter of interest on your behalf please contact our Head of Public Affairs, Siobhan O’Donnell at siobhan@ fingalchamber.ie.

Fingal Chamber use the results to tell Fingal County Council, government departments, political parties, TDs, and others about the economic pressures facing local businesses and present a true picture of trading conditions in Fingal in the current climate.

2022 Q1 Survey Results: The Chamber conducted this Business Sentiment Survey over a two week period from 17 – 28 January, 2022. The survey focused on the immediate and short term challenges facing businesses in the Fingal region.

• Staff retention and recruitment are the biggest challenges facing Fingal business.

• Fingal’s competitiveness is at risk due to lack of skills and talent, availability of housing and transport issues.

• Positive outlook predicted with many businesses expecting to see an increase in staff numbers, training, revenue and profits.

The survey which focused on business challenges, competitiveness, staff recruitment and retention, flexible and remote work, local Government supports and the outlook for the region, was conducted over a two-week period last month looking at the immediate and short-term issues facing Fingal businesses.

Of the total number of responses received from businesses in the region, 36% were from companies with 50+ employees, while 64% came from businesses ranging from one to 50 employees.

Key findings: The key findings of the survey highlight that over 40% of businesses in the area said that staff retention and recruitment is their biggest challenge. The survey also showed that the availability of skills and talent (32%) together with short supply of housing (26%) and transport issues (15%), will threaten the future competitiveness of Fingal according to local businesses.

Shortage of housing (26%) and public transport services/traffic congestion were also highlighted as risks to Fingal’s competitiveness.

Most of respondents (60%) indicated they had experienced an increase in staff turnover in the past year, while competitive salaries (60%) were cited as the key incentive in attracting staff.

“It’s not hugely surprising that staff retention and recruitment has presented as the biggest challenge facing local businesses. As the independent voice of over 400 businesses in Fingal we have been hearing this across the board from all our members,” said Fingal Chamber CEO, Anthony Cooney.

“The process of building back business to where it was pre-pandemic is well underway, however it is not without its significant challenges. It is hugely concerning that businesses in Fingal are telling us that competitiveness in the region is at risk because of the lack of skilled and talented labour. Ireland has had an international reputation for having a highly skilled workforce and the deficit in this area this needs to be addressed at local as well as national level. Fingal is renowned for its strong business leadership, inspiring innovation across a wide range of industries in the area. The region is home to some of the best multinational companies across the world many of whom have chosen to invest in Fingal, creating thousands of jobs in the area and we all need to work collaboratively to build that back,” he added.

Flexible/remote working: The survey also showed that flexible and remote working (38%) and employee benefits (35%) were significant enablers in attracting and retaining staff.

However, staff collaboration (22%) is reported to be the biggest issue in facilitating remote working with (18%) concerns for isolation of staff or mental health issues.

“While flexible and remote working has almost become the norm in our work culture over the past two years, and it has largely been successful, there is a downside.

Our survey also highlighted that working in isolation has led to many staff struggling to reconnect with each other, and this has had a knock-on impact on fostering a positive team work culture which is hugely important for productivity levels,” said the Chamber CEO.

Local Government support: Fingal businesses said they had received supports from Fingal County Council whether it was a commercial rates waiver (35%), a restart grant (19%), a small business assistance scheme for COVID (7%) or help with outdoor dining and parklet areas (7%).

Businesses were asked what policies or changes they thought should be adopted by Fingal County

Council to help their business. A further reduction/ moratorium on rates featured high in the comments made. Additional support for grants, funding and promotion initiatives would also be welcome. Other respondents said that affordable housing, cheaper rents for employees and improved transport services were issues of concern for them.

Comments received in relation to this area are shared with the Executive Team in Fingal County Council.

Future outlook: “Our survey is a great temperature check of where Fingal businesses are at and where they expect to be. It is heartening to note that most businesses in Fingal are predicting a positive outcome for the year ahead. Fingal is a great place to do business and there is huge appetite and energy in the business sphere to build on what the region has to offer; everyone in Fingal benefits when our businesses are doing well,” concluded Fingal Chamber CEO. Fingal Chamber Skillnet can support businesses in addressing any skills deficit they may have. The Chamber is proud of its collaboration with Skillnet Ireland which specialises in providing technical and nontechnical training across multiple sectors in the area.

The next Fingal Chamber Business Sentiment Survey will be conducted later this year.

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Being a member of Fingal Chamber enables businesses to engage in matters that can impact their business through forums and consultations, and influence decision-makers through lobbying and advocacy support.

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Fingal Chamber was a key partner in that initiative.

FINGAL COUNTY COUNCIL:

FOSTERING FINGAL’S ECONOMIC POTENTIAL

Combining rural with urban and tourism with ICT and pharma, plus the added attraction of Dublin Airport for key FDI decisionmakers, Fingal is exceptionally well positioned to prosper.

FINGAL CHAMBER - NETWORK MAGAZINE

Prior to her move to a new executive position within Fingal County Council, Network Magazine spoke to Emer O’Gorman who reflected on how the Council’s Department of Economic, Enterprise, Tourism and Cultural Development, of which she has been Director for the past four years, has been trying to ensure that Fingal delivers on this promise.

This is a task that will now be taken on by incoming Director John Quinlivan.

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The Department of Economic, Enterprise, Tourism and Cultural Development has an annual budget of just over €50 million, including the provision for local libraries. That’s a sizeable portion of the Council’s total budget of just under €300 million and it indicates the importance that Fingal CoCo places on economic development. The Department has a wide remit, that ranges from running Local Enterprise Offices dealing with micro enterprises employing under 10 people to engaging with large FDI investments and working with the IDA to encourage investment in the county – and much more alongside that.

The Department, for example, is also responsible, for example, for the management of the county’s heritage properties, the activities of the Council’s Events Unit and the Balbriggan Socio-Economic Strategy. Of the last, she says: “This is a slightly unusual piece of work. It’s the first time something

like this has been undertaken by a local authority.

It involves looking at how a town functions, how it goes about ‘placemaking’ and establishing its unique identity. We’re engaging with the local community, both the residents and businesses, to establish a base from which to regenerate the town. That’s a huge piece of work.”

Fingal’s Directorate of Economic Development was established in 2014, when changes to the Local Government Act placed a strong emphasis on economic development at a local level. Up till then, while many local authorities, including Fingal, did have varying levels of activity in this area none boasted dedicated departments.

Emer O’Gorman joined Fingal CoCo four years after this reform. She came from Louth County Council, where she had been a Director of Services, and before that she had been with South Dublin County Council for 21 years. Nearly half of her career to date has been spent in economic development roles of various kinds.

would actually work for them. So I spent a lot of my time having the conversation and listening, really listening, to what the needs of a town, a business community or individuals are.”

New Street Malahide

In Fingal CoCo the Director of Economic, Enterprise, Tourism and Cultural Development is a member of the senior management team reporting directly to the Chief Executive. “The Department has a broad remit but is fortunate in having a very good team.

Apart from the libraries and cultural responsibilities, there are about 50 staff, including three seniors reporting directly to the Director – one looks after the Local Enterprise Office, another economic development and the property portfolio and the third tourism, heritage and events.”

But the department does not operate in isolation.

“Even though it is not necessarily a service delivery department, it is like a spider in the middle of the web. Everything it does affects at least one other department,. A lot of the Department of Economic, Enterprise, Tourism and Cultural Development’s work lays the groundwork for bigger things. For example, a lot of preparatory work was required in advance of outdoor dining and pedestrianisation in some of our towns and villages during the pandemic. We had to engage with businesses to see whether this

Fingal is always keen to learn from best practice and before COVID hit Emer visited Seattle with Fingal Chamber CEO Anthony Cooney to see how it is using a “business clustering” approach to foster economic growth. She also visited Munich, an exemplar in the clustering of similar types of indigenous business alongside a university ecosystem.

Fingal CoCo is also the lead on the Dublin-Belfast Economic Corridor, a collaboration involving eight local authorities working closely with the Shared Ireland Unit in the Department of the Taoiseach, Invest NI Intertrade Ireland and other partners in the North. Here, too, it is seeking to harness best practice from similar approaches to economic development using corridors, for example ones from Malmo to Stockholm and from Seattle to Vancouver. “At times the political environment may be challenging but there is a very strong willingness at the local authority and business levels to be proactive in that space,” Emer notes.

Responding to COVID “COVID was like a shockwave for us,” Emer says.

“Many of our economic development plans were put to one side as the Council looked at quick implementation of direct interventions to help businesses in Fingal,” she says.

While the idea sounds simple, it involved detailed consultation with the Gardaí, the Department of Justice and various other agencies on licensing and a myriad of other legal issues. This approach, designed and led out in Fingal, was subsequently replicated in other counties. “It was nice achievement, because something had to give in that space and we were able to get a resolution that worked for everybody,” Emer reflects.

In terms of general economic development, Emer says Fingal CoCo wants to see its towns and villages thrive and to see local businesses, both ones indigenous to the county and ones that have chosen to locate in the Fingal region, do well, to expand and flourish.

There are lessons, too, to be learned from COVID, she says. “Driven by people working from home, people have been rediscovering what businesses are available in their immediate locality. And that’s as true on the B2B side of things as it is for individuals and families. And we’ve constantly been trying to come up with imaginative ways to foster that community engagement.

“But it is still a very, very challenging time. Some of our smaller towns and villages, in particular, did benefit from people working from home during the lockdowns rather than heading to work each day into Dublin city centre or the IFSC. That has shone a light on gaps in how our villages and towns function.

They may have been here for hundreds of years, but their functionality is very different now and we need to look at what interventions are needed. We

Emer O’Gorman need to do a lot on their aesthetics, for example.

Pedestrianisation, too, which was originally just a temporary measure, stimulated new businesses in a number of locations. The Council now need to undertake proper design and engineering works to secure those benefits permanently. A lot of the focus now is on looking at master planning for towns and looking at how village centers operate, looking at the appropriate commercial, retail and social mix and how to revitalise the public realm.”

Emer believes that the chamber have a vital role to play in supporting and fostering the development of businesses. “The business community is so important to the success of Fingal. From Dublin Airport, which has a huge footprint in the county, to a small agri-food business out in Rush to the sole traders operating on the streets of our towns or villages, they are all hugely important to the county, they are our lifeblood. And for us, as a service provider, our relationship with the Chamber is absolutely paramount. A lot of what we do is learning by experience and then trying to design new interventions or new ways of looking at how we can encourage businesses in the area. And in doing that it’s really important that we have a good relationship with the chamber because they’re very much in tune with what business needs and give us a direct connection to that.”

The department looked after the roll-out of the Restart Grant, for example. “The imprimatur we had from the Chief Executive was to get the money out as quickly as possible and we were very successful in doing that.

Then we were responsible for rolling out Restart Plus and the Small Business Assistance scheme.”

In tandem with this The department started to look at other kinds of interventions the council could make to help businesses in the county. The “Fingal In It Together Charter,” which is all about local businesses helping local businesses, and a scheme to allow businesses draw down grants of between €3,000 to €5000 to improve the look of their premises, were two initiatives devised through this process. Emer notes that as well as being a signatory to the Charter,

Our Balbriggan Briefing

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Parklets Swords

Fingal CoCo also took the lead in finding a way for restaurants and cafes to commence on-street outdoor business. “There are a large number of tourism and hospitality businesses in the county, especially in the coastal villages, and they were being absolutely decimated by COVID. So we came up with a scheme whereby a business could apply for a ‘parklet’ – essentially a covered wooden unit built in a parking space – to create an outdoor dining area.”

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SKILLNET TRAINING:

FINGAL CHAMBER SKILLNET

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris TD has today announced €11 million funding awarded to Skillnet Ireland to support small and medium businesses in a post-Brexit world.

Great to see so many member companies engaging with us over the past few months. As the country opens back up to full potential we need to look towards our employees, ensuring they have the correct training for the roles they are carrying out.

REVITALISING BUSINESS

•

•

•

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•

Digitalisation: Supporting businesses integrate digital technology and change the way businesses operate and deliver value to customers.

Innovation: Facilitating new business models, delivery models, customer engagement tools, learning technologies, Research and Development, and the management of innovation and collaboration.

Sustainability: Developing the capacity to create sustainable business models, job types and career pathways, and to integrate existing frameworks and standards.

Leadership Development: Strengthening the capacity of owners and managers in key areas including planning, finance, talent management, process management and supply chain management.

Speaking on the announcement Minister Harris said: “The Government is committed to supporting small and medium businesses who are facing unprecedented challenges as a result of Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As businesses tackle these challenges, this funding channelled through Skillnet Ireland will play a vital role in helping businesses adapt to compete and grow. I am encouraging Skillnet Business Networks to apply for this funding and use it to meet the challenges SMEs in their sector or region are facing.”

Paul Healy, Skillnet Ireland Chief Executive, said: “Our Skillnet Business Networks have made an extraordinary difference throughout the country in the past two years, offering support that has been instrumental in keeping businesses trading through unprecedented challenges. With today’s announcement of an additional €11 million in funding under the EU Brexit Adjustment Reserve, we have an exceptional opportunity to collectively support the SME sector in Ireland in 2022. It will allow our Skillnet

TALENT DEVELOPMENT

Business Networks to help SMEs plan for success in key areas including digitalisation, sustainability and innovation.”

The talent development and upskilling solutions funded through this BAR funding will be available to all SMEs nationwide.

These programmes will be delivered by Skillnet Ireland Business Networks across a wide range of sectors and all regions.

Businesses can avail of these supports through Skillnet Business Networks and are invited to join a network relevant to their sector and region at www. skillnetireland.ie/our-networks.

A focus for a lot of companies is on the digital skills, making sure all employees are upskilled in Excel, Word, Outlook and looking towards Sharepoint and Computer Aided design packages to ensure we are working in a sustainable way using what many of us found as new territory in Covid times, using the cloud and Microsoft 365 as the main medium of communication for the hybrid working arrangement.

Companies are investing in talent development with People Management programmes, Project Management, Supervisory and management training to ensure their growing employee numbers have been given the correct training for them to deliver in their intended roles. As we grow again through 2022, we will see many employees promoted to new roles based on the knowledge they have gained over previous years employment. Often overlooked is the requirement to provide them with the new skills they will need to deliver in their new role.

In 2022, we will focus on delivering talent development to meet the following challenges that we face over the coming years:

• • • • •

Digital acceleration Business sustainability and climate action Workforce innovation SME Leadership Supporting foreign direct investment in Ireland

Fingal Chamber Skillnet have developed, with Adare Human Resource Management, a HR forum where all HR professionals from our member companies are invited to come along and discuss the most pressing Hr issues and assist each other in finding suitable solutions. Our next meeting is 7th April 2022. Further details on fingalchamber.ie/events.

The network, together with our member companies have recently completed our submission for the Revitalising Business: Driving Business Growth in Ireland’s Post-Brexit Economy programme led by Skillnet Ireland and supported by the EU Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR). We look forward to receiving confirmation of this programme and to bringing it to all our members from May 2022.

As always, we welcome your enquiries on participation on any of our courses or enquiry on delivering a course for your employees.

Contact us skillnet@fingalchamber.ie

Helpful Link: We have set up a webcal link to add all training courses to your calendar – please find the link here: https:// www.fingalchamber.ie/training

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Focused on supporting business recovery and growth post-Brexit, the funding will address several priority areas including:

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to other EU member states, and indeed the UK, when it came to the implementation of travel restrictions.’

This is borne out by Eurocontrol statistics which show that traffic into and out of Ireland was at a lower level than that experienced by other European countries.

‘So all Irish airports and airlines suffered more than others in what was already a pretty catastrophic reduction in traffic,’ Moriarty notes.

INDUSTRY REVIEW: COMMERCIAL AVIATION

AIRLINES SEE BLUE SKIES AHEAD FOR IRELAND

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The pandemic has had a huge impact on many industries with commercial aviation at the top of the list. At the peak airline capacity typically dropped to around 20% to 30% of normal, creating major headaches for all the world’s airlines. In part this has been offset by a big increase in demand for air cargo.

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Now, despite the continuing economic uncertainties created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there is a strong sense of optimism returning to Dublin Airport as the pandemic wanes in more and more countries.

We talked to two leaders in the airline industry in Ireland, Donal Moriarty, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Aer Lingus, and Enda Corneille, Country Manager for Emirates in Ireland, about how their companies coped with the pandemic and their hopes for a return to growth.

‘I’m 36 years in the business and I’ve certainly never seen anything like it. I had thought 9/11 was the worst but the COVID pandemic was quite different,’ recalls Emirates Country Manager Enda Corneille. ‘Partly it was the speed and sheer scale of the effects of the pandemic but it also went across the entire industry supply chain as well – from airlines and travel agents to airports, manufacturing companies and so many

other businesses. There was an entire total evaporation of demand, which was a combination of fear from the consumers’ perspective with the border restrictions and actions by imposed by governments.’

four flights in early August but it was almost a year before it increased to five flights in July 2021. That was almost a 70% reduction in capacity, with load factors in the low 20% to 30%.

Aer Lingus’s Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Donal Moriarty concurs. ‘Obviously, the last two years have been without precedent in terms of the aviation sector.

The sector has been through many crises in the past but they have really been dwarfed by the scale of the global crisis brought about by the pandemic.’

‘With daily flights now restored, I think we’ve managed to weather the storm well. We took the big decisions early,’ Corneille says. ‘We were ruthless in terms of cancelling flights. On the other hand, we were as generous as we could be in terms of offering passengers alternatives, whether that was to change flights or to get refunds, in order to retain goodwill.’

In late January/early February 2020 the Emirates team in Dublin began receiving emails on a daily basis giving notice of cancellations throughout the carrier’s network. ‘It was just before March 25 that we got word that Dublin was going to be suspended as well – with all 14 flights suspended. And when we did return it was with just two flights a week, purely for cargo,’ Corneille says. The schedule increased to

It has been a very similar story for Aer Lingus, which also saw capacity down to around a fifth of normal.

But for Ireland some of this was arguably self-inflicted.

As Moriarty points out: ‘Ireland decided, at a policy level, to implement the most stringent and longest lasting travel restrictions in the European Union. So Ireland ended up being quite an outlier in comparison

Even for a westward orientated airline such as Aer Lingus, with 16 routes on the North Atlantic traveling to destinations across the US, the impact was severe, with traffic for a considerable period of time effectively reduced to just New York, Boston and Chicago, and primarily for cargo transport rather than passengers.

‘Against that backdrop, industry participants, both airlines and airports, had to really look at cutting their cloth and restructuring their businesses, primarily from a cost perspective but also from a liquidity perspective, in order to see a way see through the crisis – and we certainly did that in Aer Lingus,’ Moriarty says.

While the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme was available to the Irish airline and the Government did eventually put in place a €90 million aviation industry support package in the October 2021 Budget, ‘Our employees very much stepped up and took very significant pay cuts over a protracted period of time,’ Moriarty acknowledges.

For these carriers cargo has proved to be something of a lifesaver. ‘What really kept the business going from Ireland, indeed throughout our network, was cargo,’ says Corneille. ‘Early on, and in China in particular, airlines like BA and Lufthansa pulled out of the market

completely while Emirates continue to fly. And because we have aircraft with a sizable cargo capacity of 25 tons in the hold, as well as dedicated freighters, we were able to pick up a lot of business. So cargo has been the backbone of the airline for the last couple of years at this stage and has certainly delivered a lot of the revenue.’

safety in business class, where there’s more space.’

Looking to the future Corneille says: ‘The tide has turned in recent months and passenger bookings are coming back but we’re not yet back to what we would regard as normal. Once we passed the red letter day of July 19th last year, when restrictions on non-essential travel were lifted, we saw a steady return of the customer leading up to a very busy Christmas.

And this demand has been sustained well in to 2022 and from an Emirates standpoint, over 90% of our pre-COVID destinations are now being served.

‘We’re now trucking cargo from Ireland to the UK to put it onto freighters departing from Manchester, London and even Amsterdam because we simply cannot fulfil the demand from here,’ Corneille says.

‘We’re carrying everything, including huge amounts of pharmaceuticals and food, such as baby milk formula, to China to the Middle East, as well as ICT products of all kinds. On inbound flights we’re carrying a lot of perishable foods, such as berries, at this time of the year. So overall cargo is still very busy.’

Aer Lingus’s Moriarty points out that the introduction of the digital COVID certificate across the EU unfortunately came too late to enable a summer to happen in 2021. Positive momentum in bookings was then affected, even if only temporarily, by the Omicron wave,as Aer Lingus builds back to 90% of its 2019 capacity by mid-summer 2022.

Looking ahead, both Corneille and Moriarty are optimistic. ‘There is there is a degree of ambition about our about our schedule and our capacity plan for 2022. It is important that remaining restrictions such as mask mandates and the pre-departure tests for entry into the US are removed. Their removal is important to allow passenger recovery to take place over the coming months,’ says Moriarty.

‘There has been a level of pent up demand, and we’re encouraged by the interest that we’re seeing for future travel,’ Moriarty says. ‘We need to remember that while the restrictions in various countries are being increasingly eased people are still working from home, or engaged in hybrid working, and that inhibits business travel. Having said that, while we have learned to communicate through digital platforms we also recognise they are not quite as good as face-to-face meetings.’

Corneille agrees. ‘What’s happening up at the front of the aircraft is very interesting. A lot of observers predicted there would be significant structural changes to business travel after the pandemic, with digital conferencing through the likes of Zoom and Teams replacing flying. But we’re seeing the opposite, we’re seeing huge demand for our business and our first class product. We have eight first class suites on each of our Dublin flights and 42 business class seats and these are regularly full – we’ve never seen demand like it.

‘I think it’s a combination of businesses eager to get back into the air, back to meeting customers, and maybe even some customers perceiving a degree of

At the same time, the cargo piece hasn’t slowed down.

During COVID many manufacturers actually increased their production and, with less sea and air capacity available, demand was at a premium. That demand is still there.

‘I think going into the future there are certainly opportunities for us, whether that be a steady increase cargo activity, maybe new routes, maybe increasing frequency.’ Says Corneille. ‘We’re now putting cash on the balance sheet again, our margins are positive and we’re intent on growing the business back to pre-COVID levels as quickly as possible.’

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Enda Corneille

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All that went by the wayside. We did a lot of Liam Harbison rescheduling of shows in the hope that they’d go ahead, only to have to cancel again, so it was it was a logistical nightmare. We’ve been constantly trying to re-check availability for different venues for further down the line. Not every artist will be touring every year but because of the pandemic everyone is up against a two year backlog of touring demand. Right now there are simply too many bands chasing too few dates.

It’s not just us that’s inconvenienced by this, either.

There’s a team of perhaps 15 people on the road with us but there’s maybe another 20 on top of that because we’re hiring buses and trucks to transport gear around, there’s equipment rental, catering and the myriad of other stuff that you have to put in place for a tour.

It’s also very frustrating for fans who have made travel arrangements and booked hotels, only to be told it’s not going ahead because of another lockdown. We wanted to avoid that disappointment for everyone, which is why we never announced the big European tour we had booked for the end of 2020. Hopefully, it might actually might happen this year.

During COVID we did a number of things to keep us busy and in touch with fans. We did a couple of live streams shows and we had 30,000 or 40,000 people watching them. Then, as the restrictions started to ease we could get back together again in our studio space in Swords. We were also able to do some corporate engagements around last Christmas which were live streamed to employees around the world. So we’ve kept ourselves busy as well as working on new material. This is the longest break I’ve had in a considerable time. And it has been

particularly special as my wife Carina and I have just had a baby, Vinny, and I’ve been here and able to watch him growing up and helping her out at home.

That’s been a huge plus for me.

On the work front, we’re now dipping our toe back into things and not getting too ahead of ourselves.

We have some festivals booked in this summer, with shows in Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Switzerland as well Ireland and the UK, but fewer than we would do normally. Hopefully come September/October, we’ll be doing our own tours again around Europe and booking stuff for America, Australia and Asia

Vinny May, Mark Prendergast, Steve Garrigan, Jason Boland

MY WEEK IN WORK: VINNY MAY

MARCHING TO THE BEAT OF THE COVID DRUM

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The early months of the year are really a downtime in advance of the summer festival season, with a lot of meetings and emails going back and forth about bookings for the coming months and next year. It’s the boring side of what we do! But if it’s a show week, or we’re on tour, it’s very different. As well as the four band members we have a big team supporting us.

It includes our day-to-day and tour managers, legal people and accountant.

Someone in the band has to keep on top of the business side of things and I have that kind of head.

It leaves Mark [Prendergast] and Steve [Garrigan] to focus more on the creative side of song writing day-today. And when we’re on tour we have people looking after equipment, sound lighting and so on, a party of about 15 or 16 in all, so there’s a lot of logistics involved in literally keeping the show on the road.

I’ll generally check emails throughout the day and respond to things as and when they come in. But we’ve surrounded ourselves with some pretty good people to sort the wheat from the chaff, you could say, and that lightens the load for me a good bit.

Over the years they’ve developed a good sense of what we will think of something before they bring it to us for a “yay” or “nay”.

The pandemic was something that we really weren’t prepared for. In a normal year we might be away from home touring for anywhere between 100 to 200 days, typically on five or six week tours in Europe and four weeks in the US. Our last trip in Southeast Asia, which included Australia, was for five weeks. Summer is a bit more relaxed because we’ll be doing festivals which mainly happen on the weekend.

We have a booking agent who looks after invitations coming in worldwide, apart for North America, and we have a separate agent for the US and Canada. They’ll field offerings from festivals, put together routings for our own headline tours and liaise with booking agents in different territories. Those proposals will then come into our manager and then we’ll have our say on what we want to do.

When COVID first hit we were just finishing off our fourth album, which was slated for release in May or June. To support the release, we had promo events booked for radio and TV around Europe, as well as shows. That included a seven week European tour followed four weeks in America, which would have brought us right up to Christmas.

FINGAL CHAMBER - NETWORK MAGAZINE

FINGAL CHAMBER - NETWORK MAGAZINE

Formed in 2011, Kodaline is a Swords-based rock band which tours extensively and to date has four albums to its name. Drummer Vincent May, who also looks after the business end of the band, tells Network Magazine that, as might be expected given the nature of the business, there’s no set routine to his day but a lot of variety.

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ISSUE 4 - JUNE 2022

The six finalists in the 2022 Fingal Enterprise Awards competition were:

Pictured: Chief Executive of Fingal County Council AnnMarie Farrelly, Host Noel Davidson, Head of Enterprise at LEO Fingal Oisín Geoghegan ,Deputy Mayor of Fingal Daniel Whooley with the Finalists at the Local Enterprise Awards 2022

“FARMONY” WINS TOP COUNTY ENTERPRISE AWARD ANNOUNCEMENT MADE DURING LOCAL ENTERPRISE WEEK An agri-tech business from Dublin 11 is this year’s winner of the Fingal Enterprise Award for 2022, Local Enterprise Office Fingal has announced.

Life Ahead Ltd. T/A Farmony took the top prize of €5,000 and will now represent Fingal Local Enterprise Office at the 22nd National Enterprise Awards at the Mansion House in Dublin on the 2nd June.

FINGAL CHAMBER - NETWORK MAGAZINE

Farmony provides a vertical farming solution for Europe through innovative technology, enabling the food industry to meet consumer demand for fresh, great-tasting, and pesticide-free food locally and sustainably year-round. Farmony aims to become the technology partner of choice to independentlyrun Vertical Farms globally.

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Farmony will now be competing against 30 other finalists from every local authority area for a share of the €35,000 winners’ prize fund as national judging gets underway in May. Categories this year include ‘Best Export Business,’ ‘Best StartUp’ and ‘Innovation,’ in addition to eight regional awards. There are also two new National Enterprise Awards this year with a “One to Watch” award and a “Sustainability / Green” award.

This year’s winner of the Highly Commended award at the Fingal Enterprise Awards, was Swords-based Khiron Ltd T/A Dimension88, a Digital Twinning / Metaverse / Digital Innovation Company that allows property industry professionals to create digital replicas of objects and entities.

Companies from Fingal have enjoyed success in the National Enterprise Awards in the past. In 2021, Kianda Technologies from Blanchardstown clinched the Export award, while other previous National Winners from Fingal included Keoghs Crisps in Oldtown, flight simulation company “Simtech Aviation”, as well as software companies “Vromo” and “IFS Ltd.” from Dublin 15.

winners Derya & Osvaldo Sousa (founders of Kianda Technologies). Members of the judging panel included Michael Dawson (CEO, One4all Group), Deirdre O’Neill (Enterprise Ireland) and Gerry McInerney (McInerney & Saunders).

The Fingal Enterprise Awards took place as part of a very successful Local Enterprise Week programme of events. There were over 220 physical and virtual events taking place across the country, run by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices from March 7th to 11th.

Fingal events saw well over 1,000 participants at a range of in-person and online events.

“There were many memorable highlights during Local Enterprise Week and it was clear from the atmosphere at all of the events that participants were getting a great deal of benefit from their attendance. I was particularly pleased to be at the opening event which featured a Start-Up Bootcamp on Monday in the Riasc Centre, Swords, the Enterprise Awards final on Thursday and the Fingal Enterprising Women’s networking lunch on Friday, featuring Lorraine Keane”.

Speaking during Local Enterprise Week, Head of Enterprise, Oisín Geoghegan from LEO Fingal said: ““For over two decades, the National Enterprise Awards have celebrated small-business success stories from every corner of Ireland, recognising their achievements in the national and international spotlight. At the 2022 National Enterprise Awards, we are delighted to be represented by Farmony. We wish them continued success with their future endeavours.””

4 other local businesses were also shortlisted this year, and they were: Love The Mug (Balbriggan), Nufields Ltd. (Charlestown), Rubberduck EHJC Ltd. (Baldoyle) and Race Displays Ltd T/A Ecofriendly Cups (Ballycoolin).

Among the special guests at the ceremony were Minister Joe O’Brien TD, Deputy Mayor of Fingal Cllr. Daniel Whooley, Ms. AnnMarie Farrelly (Chief Executive of Fingal County Council), Councillors Karen Power and Tony Murphy, previous FEA 2020

The Chief Executive of Fingal County Council AnnMarie Farrelly added:

Other high-profile events that took place during the week included a National Showcase “Show Me the Money” event hosted by Shane Coleman, an Ethnic Entrepreneurs webinar hosted by Empower Fingal and the Fingal Ethnic Network, and a business strategy seminar hosted by Balbriggan Chamber. Local Enterprise Week is organised every year by the Local Enterprise Offices and supported by Enterprise Ireland, local authorities and the Government of Ireland.

For all information and media requests around the County Enterprise Awards or Local Enterprise Week, please contact: Oisín Geoghegan, Head of Enterprise in Fingal, on Tel: 01 8900 800 or 087 988 4081.

E-mail: oisin@leo.fingal.ie

Khiron Ltd T/A DIMENSION88 (Swords) - Dimension 88 is a Digital Twinning / Metaverse / Digital Innovation Company that allows property industry professionals to create digital replicas of objects and entities. No show house? No problem! Dimension 88 currently has applications in development to provide their clients with more usability and control and plans to become the market leader in Ireland and internationally.

Life Ahead Ltd T/A FARMONY (Dublin 11) - Farmony provides a vertical farming solution for Europe through innovative technology, enabling the food industry to meet consumer demand for fresh, great-tasting, and pesticide-free food locally and sustainably year-round.

Farmony aims to become the technology partner of choice to independently-run Vertical Farms globally.

LOVE THE MUG LTD (Balbriggan) - Love The Mug is Ireland’s only fine bone china statement mug manufacturer, supplying over 130 retail outlets, including Brown Thomas, Arnotts, and Easons. The business aims to expand into the UK market and build on its export market to the USA and Australia.

NUFIELDS LTD (Dublin 11) - Nufields simplifies urban gardening with simple yet innovative grow kits aimed

at bringing the farm into people’s homes. Nufields aims to become the leading global supplier of urban, vertical, and indoor farming products in Europe and the USA. Race Displays Ltd T/A ECOFRIENDLY CUPS (Dublin 15) - EcoFriendly Cups provides a viable alternative to single-use plastics for stadiums, festivals and sporting events. EcoFriendly Cups intends to increase its customer base within the event industry, helping them work towards a cleaner, greener, and more pleasant environment for patrons.

RUBBERDUCK EHJC Ltd (Baldoyle) - Rubberduck is a video production company creating accessibility to innovative, top-quality production for companies who want to grow their business. Rubberduck has worked with some of Ireland’s biggest brands, including Ryanair, Aer Lingus, BordBia, The National Dairy Council, Kingspan, AIB, Texaco, and Elverys, and intends to grow its client base in 2022

National Enterprise Awards 2022 Award Categories and Prize Fund

• Best Export Award (Cash Prize for business: €5,000) • Best Innovation Award (Cash Prize for business: €5,000) • Best Start-Up Award (Cash Prize for business: €5,000) • Innovation / Green Award (Cash Prize for business: €5,000) • One to Watch Award (Cash Prize for business: €5,000) • Eight Runner-Up Winners (Cash Prize for business: €2,000 each) Runner Up Regions: o Dublin City, Fingal, Dún LaoghaireRathdown and South Dublin o Kildare, Laois, Offaly and Westmeath o Wicklow, Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny o Louth, Meath, Cavan and Monaghan o Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim and Longford o Galway, Mayo and Roscommon o Clare, Limerick, Kerry and Tipperary o Cork City, South Cork, Cork North & West and Waterford

The 2022 National Enterprise Awards take place on Thursday, 2nd June in the Mansion House in Dublin and are organised by the Local Enterprise Offices • Overall Winner, National Enterprise Awards 2022 (Cash Prize for business: €10,000)

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Photos (reproduction free) available from: Orla Murray, creative@coalesce.ie. Ph. 087-9160674

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ISSUE 4 - JUNE 2022

WE HAVE A VESTED INTEREST IN WHAT GOES ON IN FINGAL

FINGAL CHAMBER - NETWORK MAGAZINE

Whether it’s helping identify a course for the Chamber, encouraging young people to study STEM subjects, or simply gazing at the stars, Council member Kevin Smith brings a great energy and focus to the task in hand.

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The Deputy Vice President of Fingal Chamber, Kevin Smith, has been an active member of Council for a number of years. He has worked on many subcommittees and, in particular, was a key member of the Strategy Subcommittee which recently reviewed the Chamber’s aims and objectives. He has also brought in graduates from the company for which he works, Fujitsu, to assist the work of the council in various areas.

He is also impressed by the ability of Irish firms to adapt to change, which was evidenced during the pandemic.

“One of the interesting things was discovering just how adaptable humans are. Working from home has created technological security issues, for sure, but in response people have become much more security conscious and in general have completely adapted to different ways of working,” he says.

Kevin grew up in Southern Africa and studied building construction design there before meeting his future wife, who is Irish, when he was on a one year working holiday in Europe. After a brief period back in Africa the couple moved to Ireland and Kevin secured a position with Xerox, which was then setting up a Global Customer Delivery Center in Ballycoolin Business Park.

“I do think that people are open to change, especially around flexible working. Some of that has been driven

by Government policy but most organisations are increasingly open anyway to adopting new ways of flexible and hybrid working. In Fujitsu, for example, we’ve received some very good feedback on how we have managed customers remotely. Before the pandemic customers probably wouldn’t have thought it could be done, so there has been a lot of learning for everyone. It’s also true that while some sectors have struggled others have done exceptionally well over the past two years.”

At this point he enrolled at Blanchardstown Institute of Technology (now TUD) to study software development and project management. Over the next 17 years Kevin had various roles within Xerox, ending up managing a large delivery and account management team along with demanding EMEA and global responsibilities. Five years ago he moved to Fujitsu Ireland in Swords as Director and Head of Pre-Sales, where his team is responsible for bids, proposals and designing ICT Solutions which meeting customer business challenges.

He is enthusiastic about the value of the Chamber to Fujitsu and the opportunity it affords him to give something back to the local community. “Giving back to the societies in which we operate is an important part of the company ethos; it’s embedded in what we know as ‘The Fujitsu Way’ (Purpose, Values, Code of Conduct).

We have a vested interest in what goes on in Fingal and it’s good to be knowledgeable about that, and to be able to avail of the many services that Fingal Chamber offers.

It also has a lot of initiatives that we’re close to in terms of corporate social responsibility, so as a company we’re very well aligned with the Chamber,” he says.

Kevin is confident about the prospects for Irish businesses. “I think that overall we’re in a good position,” he says. “Take tourism, for example. There are many tourists coming into the country now and that’s before we’ve really tried to kick start it with marketing promotions. In the wake of Brexit we’ve also seen business move away from the UK to the EU, which in some instances has benefited Irish firms. So I think in general we’re seeing a significant level of optimism within Irish business even though we have travelled through uncertain times over the last couple of years.”

Outside of his busy work schedule Kevin pursues a lifelong interest in astronomy. He is the chairman of an astronomy club and also promotes the study of STEM subjects and astronomy by giving talks and presentations to schools, local clubs, scouts and other groups.

Describing the blossoming of this interest over the past decade, he says: “It went from just looking at the night sky through telescopes to attaching cameras to them, then realising that you can actually do some science with your observations.” It culminated in his building an observatory in his back garden six years ago, just one of 13 officially designated observatories in Ireland. ‘While you’ve got big professional telescopes doing big sky surveys, there’s a lot of really good work being done by amateur astronomers, too,” he points out.

He also helps organise the Skellig Star Party, a weekend of stargazing in the Kerry Dark Sky Reserve that attracts upwards of 100 amateur astronomers each year from as far afield as the US, as well as Ireland and the UK. He is also a good man to have on hand if you are planning a barbecue, as he is the organizer of a big annual BBQ in conjunction with the Skellig Star Party and has hosted many charity barbecues to raise funds for Barnardos Along with the work for Barnardo’s Kevin is also the Executive Sponsor for the current Fujitsu charity partner, ‘The Alzheimer Society of Ireland’, which he says “is doing some great work in Ireland supporting Fingal and other communities across the country”.

MEET THE TEAM: SIOBHAN O’DONNELL

GIVING A STRONG VOICE TO THE CONCERNS OF MEMBERS Siobhan O’Donnell was the public face and voice of Dublin Airport for nearly 38 years, and she remains passionate about its value as an economic driver not just for the region but the country as a whole. She is equally passionate about the ethos and value of the chamber to the community, and in particular about the benefits of networking that it provides for members.

Fingal Chamber’s new Head of Public Affairs will be a familiar face to most members. A long time DAA representative on the Chamber’s Council, Siobhan O’Donnell was also President for three recession years between 2010 and 2014. “That was a dark time for business and in many ways it mirrors where we are now, coming out of COVID.” Reflecting on the ingredients of recovery from those days, she puts innovation, resilience and determination to survive at the top of the list. “Those are the same attributes that will see us right now,” she insists.

She also believes that businesses have become more inventive as a result of COVID. “The pandemic has brought out so much enterprise in businesses as people recognized that they had to change their mindsets, that to survive the pandemic they had to do things differently.

It’s been amazing to see how business have done that, whether it’s been food and beverage outlets doing takeaway deliveries or embracing online sales. There have been lots of different, quirky ways that businesses have reinvented themselves, even if that is a bit of a cliché. But it has been fantastic to see how businesses have really stepped up their game to reach out to their customers and remain relevant to them.”

In her new position as Head of Public Affairs Siobhan has already been closely involved in managing the Business Sentiment Survey, which has helped the Chamber set the agenda for its work for the next 12 months and advocate for its members. “The survey has provided us with excellent feedback on what the key and important issues are for Fingal businesses currently,” she says.

“We’re seeing many businesses really struggling to recruit staff. And this is at a time when we have an alltime record of 2.48 million people at work in Ireland.

And yet businesses are still facing huge difficulties with staff retention and recruitment. That is why flexibility in working conditions, including the ability to work from home – even if only part of the time, – has become so important. That flexibility, I’m pretty certain, is one of the reasons why there are also more females in the workforce now.”

Speaking about her new role, Siobhan points out that the Chamber is the voice of over 400 businesses in Fingal and is the credible voice of the region. ‘So it’s really important that we represent and speak on behalf of our Chamber members and the results of the survey have really helped us understand even more what our Chamber members are looking for.”

Those results have already been shared with the county council. “It’s important that we work very closely with them,” she adds. “Our business members have received a lot of support from the local council. Some might say it wasn’t enough, but others have been delighted with what they’ve got. Over a third, 35%, of members received support through the commercial rates waiver, 19% got a restart grant and 7% were supported under the small business scheme for COVID. Some businesses also had help with outdoor dining.

“It has certainly enabled some businesses to continue that might otherwise have folded, so that support was was critical and most welcome. It has also created a template for support should something like this happen again. I know from my many years working in the airport, there’s normally a very significant event that will impact business every eight to 10 years.

“We’re here to help businesses to be resilient and work their way through those tough times. We’re here to speak on their behalf and to champion their cause.

That includes lobbying on their behalf to protect their competitiveness. Part of my role will be looking at those issues and determining how the chamber can lobby effectively on issues like better housing and transport, for example. So we’ll be talking to the new Director of Housing in Fingal, Robert Burns, and with the Minister for Housing, Darragh O’Brien, and we’ll be picking up the gauntlet on the long promised but yet to be delivered Metro link between the airport and the city centre. There are a lot of issues that could be addressed but our focus won’t be on ‘easy wins’, it will be on those that matter most to our members and we will fight hard for them.”

FINGAL CHAMBER - NETWORK MAGAZINE

YOUR CHAMBER COUNCIL: KEVIN SMITH

ISSUE 4 - JUNE 2022

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WHAT DO WE OFFER? ______________________

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES ENHANCE

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

your profile and deliver key messages to a captive audience

Fingal Chamber is a leading provider of documentation services, assisting a wide range of manufacturers across industries with International Trade. Some of these industries include pharmaceutical, manufacturing, machinery, and IT. We are officially authorised by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Chambers Ireland to issue and certify export documentation.

Services we offer: •

FINGAL CHAMBER - NETWORK MAGAZINE

•

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Certificates of Origin - required when exporting goods to certain countries to prove the place of growth, production, or manufacture and satisfy custom or trade requirements.

Company Documents - legalisation of other company documents including invoices, packaging slips, health certs etc.

•

EU Certificates - required for goods that are exported outside the EU Single Market.

•

Notary / Apostille – through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and a legalisation service with embassies.

•

Arab-Irish Certs - issued when goods are being shipped to any of the 19 Arab League countries.

•

Translation - upon request.

What can we do for you: Fingal Chamber offers companies the convenience of a central place to organise the legalisation of all their documents and the ease of a fast, efficient service

between our online system and courier service. We are happy to offer advice to help your company manage this aspect of trade and can offer assistance throughout the process.

with the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Arab-Irish Chamber of Commerce and Embassies in Ireland and UK.”

Our documentation services are available to both members of the Chamber and non-members, with a discounted rate for members.

*** “Organising documentation for exports can be a very complex and time-consuming process. Fingal Chamber can look after that process and take away the headache! Every day I help and assist companies with the certification and legalisations of any commercial or legal paperwork for wide range of industries such as pharmaceuticals, manufacturing or tech. and others. We provide this service to all business communities that require assistance with their documentation: members and non-members of our organization, and I am always working with a multitude of different circumstances. As Fingal Chamber offers fully licence certification of EU and Arab-Irish Certificates of Origin we work very closely

With a wide range of events each year, we have high levels of engagement from right across the Fingal business community and beyond.

We have opportunities available to suit all budgets across a range of events including our presitigious Business Excellence & CSR Awards and other business social events.

DRIVE sales and generate new business as a result of new connections made

ENGAGE directly with current and potential customers and stakeholders

INFLUENCE Government policy whilst networking with key influencers

If you wish to find out more about the documentation services we provide or get your company set up on our system, get in touch with agata@fingalchamber.ie

At Fingal Chamber we work closely with our sponsors to ensure you get the maximum return on investment through leading PR opportunities and potential to showcase your business and deliver key messages to a captive audience.

HOW DO I SPONSOR AN EVENT? _________________________________ For further information on the opportunities available with Fingal Chamber, please contact: David Branagan, Communications & Engagement E. david@fingalchamber.ie T. 01 890 0977

Agata Kusak-Thion, International Trade Administrator, Fingal Chamber

Please note that due to high demand, sponsorship opportunities will be secured in order of bookings received.

Please book early to avoid disappointment.

ISSUE 4 - JUNE 2022

well as outdoor family cinema events, dance bands, craft and food fairs and community events.

Moving Hearts SEAC 2019

During the Covid-19 pandemic, SEAC, unable to provide concerts for a live audience, pivoted and curated an ambitious online programme of livestreamed concerts. The production of such a largescale programme of online events was two-fold.

Director Deirdre Roche “we felt it was essential to ‘keep the show on the road’ and provide our patrons with a consistent, high-quality programme of live-streamed events, throughout what was a very difficult time during lockdown. We were keen to continue to support artists, whose livelihoods were devastated by the pandemic. Our production of live-streamed concerts, with live Zoom audiences tuning in from around the world, helped to bridge the creative gap during the pandemic, and provided much needed work for artists and technical crew in an industry that had very much ground to a halt overnight. Our national and international audience grew exponentially, with traditional music enthusiasts tuning into our programme from all over the globe, including South Korea, Sierra Leone and Chile. What was, at times a challenge for our small team in pulling these online events together, paid dividends in terms of reaching a global audience and the promotion of traditional Irish music.”

THE SÉAMUS ENNIS ARTS CENTRE

Exchange Box Art at SEAC

FINGAL CHAMBER - NETWORK MAGAZINE

Opened in October 2022, SEAC was originally conceived to commemorate the work and life of the late Séamus Ennis, master Uilleann Piper, raconteur, folklore collector, singer and storyteller. Throughout the years, SEAC has undergone extensive development to become a unique venue to showcase performances from local, national, and international artists across a wide range of arts including, music concerts & festivals, traditional arts, theatre, comedy, cinema and creative workshops.

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The Easter Snow Gallery, housed in the thatched cottage, exhibits work from Irish artists and The SEAC School of Music teaches a range of traditional Irish instruments. The Cottage Pantry, based in our thatched cottage is a lovely rustic style café, providing a warm and welcoming atmosphere and delicious menu, for visitors and locals alike.

In recent years, The Piper’s Garden, a covered outdoor performance space, has been developed (500 capacity) and has played host to the annual SEAC ‘Garden Party’, welcoming acts including Moving Hearts, Rodney Crowell, Horslips, Hudson Taylor and Damien Dempsey, comedy acts including Ardal O’Hanlon, Barry Murphy, Gearóid Farrelly, as

Horslips SEAC

The recent lifting of restrictions and the return to full capacity concerts has given great hope for 2022. The Spring Programme is already proving very popular with patrons and the return to normality brings with it exciting plans for TSEAC’s Garden Party 2022.

Lisa Canny at SEAC 2021

The Séamus Ennis Arts Centre is funded by Fingal County Council, with additional funding from The Arts Council, the generous support of SEAC Friends and patrons and Rural Leader.

To see our programme of events and for further information visit tseac.ie

Christmas Fair SEAC The Piper’s Garden 2021

Seamus Statue cottage 2021

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CREATIVE FINGAL:

NoCrows at SEAC 2020

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ISSUE 4 - JUNE 2022

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Agribusiness

Keelings

(01) 813 5600

keelings.com

Agribusiness

Keelings Flowers

(01) 813 5600

Agribusiness

Arts, Entertainment, Sports & Leisure Athletics Association of Ireland Ltd.

(01) 886 9933

athleticsireland.ie

Sports/Leisure Services

Irish Institute of Music

Carr Golf- Corballis Links Golf Club/ Elmgreen Golf Club

(01) 822 6662

carrgolf.com

Sports/Leisure Services

ODEON Cinemas

Draíocht Limited

(01) 885 2622

draiocht.ie

Arts, Entertainment and Recreation

Fairyhouse Club Limited

(01) 825 6167

fairyhouse.ie

Sports/Leisure Services

irishinstituteofmusic.com/ contact

Arts, Entertainment and Recreation

(01) 822 2624

odeoncinemas.ie

Arts, Entertainment and Recreation

Sport Ireland Facilities

(01) 646 4323

nationalsportscampus.ie

Sports/Leisure Services

WHSI Unlimited t/a Deer Park Golf

(086) 047 0171

deerparkgolf.ie; howthcastlecookeryschool.ie; howthcastle.ie

Sports/Leisure Services

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Automotive & Marine (01) 869 2400

bradysdublin.ie

Motor Sales

Bright Ford

(01) 870 8900

brightford.ie

Motor Sales

Haines Fleet Management Limited

(01) 890 7734

hainesfleet.ie

Auto Services

Hertz Europe Service Centre

(01) 813 3550

hertz.com/rentacar/ reservation/

Auto Services

Dublin Airport

(01) 814 4108

aerlingus.com

Aviation/Airport Services

dublinairport.com

Aviation/Airport Services

Dublin Airport Authority (DAA)

(01) 814 1897

dublinairport.com

Aviation/Airport Services

Business & Professional Services

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Across Borders Consulting

34

(087) 787 8537

abconsulting.ie

Consultancy Services

ActionCOACH Business Coaching

(01) 842 7186

actioncoach.ie

Consultancy Services

Adare Human Resource Management

(01) 561 3594

adarehrm.ie

Business Services

Advanta Safety

(01) 525 3166

advantasafety.ie

Health & Safety

Arab Irish Chamber of Commerce

(01) 662 4451

jaicc.ie

Chambers of Commerce

BASE Enterprise Centre

(01) 820 3020

baseenterprisecentre.ie

Business Facilities

(01) 443 3808

theinnerworksfactory.com

Consultancy Services

Total Talent

The LINC at TU Dublin

(01) 885 1372

itb.ie

Business Services

Whitelight Consulting Ltd.

(41) 983 0142

totaltalent.ie

Recruitment/ Personnel Services

wlc.ie

Event Management

Construction & Engineering

Aviation Aer Lingus

The Inner Works Factory

Ardmac Limited

(01) 894 8800

ardmac.com

Construction Services

Live Costs

Atkins Ireland Limited

(01) 810 8000

atkinsireland.ie

Construction Services

Malone Group

(01) 866 5890

malonegroup.com

Engineering Services

Browne Electrical

(087) 923 5283

ebel.ie

Construction Services

Nineyards

(01) 864 3704

nineyards.ie

Construction Services

Celuplast Ltd

(01) 832 6210

celuplast.com

Construction Services

Pointer Control Systems Ltd

(01) 830 0533

pointercontrol.com

Engineering Services

ESB International

(01) 703 8000

esbinternational.ie

Engineering Services

Reconcile Engineering Ltd.

(01) 862 4732

reconcileengineering.com

Engineering Services

excelrac.ie

Engineering Services

RFC Fire and Security Systems

(086) 602 3931

securitysystems.ie

Construction Services

liffeydevelopments.com

Engineering Services

Sonica

(01) 676 5007

sonica.ie

Construction Services

Excel Refrigeration & Air conditioning

Manifests

(01) 515 3362

Maurice Leahy Wade & Co Solicitors

(01) 840 6505

leahywade.ie

Consultancy Services Legal Services

McMahon Legal

(01) 853 7323

mcmahonlegal.ie

Legal Services

Mid-Knight Electrical Limited

(01) 840 7083

midknightelectrical.com

Business Facilities

National Recruitment Federation

(01) 816 8754

nrf.ie

Recruitment/ Personnel Services

Nobox Outsourcing Limited

(01) 253 0795

nobox.ie

Recruitment/ Personnel Services

Noel Group

(01) 404 7680

noelgroup.ie

Recruitment/ Personnel Services

ohss.ie

Health & Safety

Fingal Chamber Skillnet

Liffey Contracts Limited

(01) 401 1020

Construction Services

Education & Training Baldoyle Training Centre

(01) 816 7400

ddletb.ie

Training Services

National Learning Network

(01) 840 4120

nln.ie

Training Services

Collaboratory

(01) 220 7457

collaboratory.ie

Education

Oiliuna Limited

(01) 651 0366

oiliuna.ie

Training Services

DCU Educational Trust

(01) 700 5467

dcu.ie

Education

Pitman Training Swords

(01) 840 4075

pitmantrainingswords.ie

Training Services

fingalchamberskillnet.ie

Training Services

Professional Development

(01) 861 0700

professionaldevelopment.ie

Training Services

BHSM LLP

(01) 440 8300

bhsm.ie

Legal Services

Bidvest Noonan

(01) 883 9800

bidvestnoonan.com

Business Facilities

OHSS Limited

(01) 690 5907

Brian D. O'Brien & Co Solicitors

(01) 840 1447

bobsolicitors.ie

Legal Services

Openbook

(01) 846 3715

Business Services

ISM

(01) 864 1790

ism.ie

Education

Public Speaking Training

publicspeakingtraining.ie

Training Services

Byrne & Company Solicitors

(01) 840 4346

Osborne Recruitment

(01) 598 4334

osborne.ie

Recruitment/ Personnel Services

Ladybird Driving School

(01) 485 1585

ladybirddrivingschool.ie

Training Services

(01) 885 1000

itb.ie

Education

Cork Chamber of Commerce

(21) 450 9044

Chambers of Commerce

Peninsula Business Services

(01) 855 4861

peninsulagrouplimited. com/ie/

Recruitment/ Personnel Services

McKernan Training Solutions

(01) 845 4700

robertmckernan.com

Training Services

Technological University Dublin - Blanchardstown Campus The CPL Institute

(01) 895 5755

thecplinstitute.ie

Training Services

Digital Office Centre Swords

(01) 963 0270

docentre.com

Business Facilities

obrienlandscaping.com

Business Facilities

(01) 442 7650

dx2.ie

Health & Safety

Peter O'Brien and Sons Landscaping LTD

(01) 840 4580

DX2 Training Solutions Ltd Ennis Safety Wear

(01) 537 9621

ennissafetywear.ie

Health & Safety

Plato Dublin

(086) 823 4309

platodublin.ie

Business Services

Eventhaus Ltd

(01) 846 0020

eventhaus.ie

Event Management

Principal Connections executive search

#ERROR!

principalconnections.ie

Recruitment/ Personnel Services

Executive Institute

(01) 662 6904

executiveinstitute.ie

Business Services

Reconnaissance Group

(01) 291 4525

reconnaissancegroup.com

Business Services

Flexsource Solutions

(01) 895 5700

flexsource.ie/swords

Recruitment/ Personnel Services

Red Fire Protection System Ltd

(01) 890 1409

redfireprotection.com

Health & Safety

Frontline Security

(01) 269 3931

fsg.ie

Security Services

Regus CME Ireland

(01) 893 4141

regus.ie

Business Facilities

Gary Irwin Solicitors

(01) 845 9100

garyirwinsolicitors.ie

Legal Services

RMS Security

(01) 899 1674

rmssecurity.ie

Security Services

Ice Water Limited

(01) 808 1373

icewater.ie

Business Facilities

Safety Solutions

(01) 835 4084

safetysolutions.ie

InstaHire

insta-hire.com

Recruitment/ Personnel Services

Sales Performance

(087) 273 0463

salesperformance.ie

Shannons Solicitors

(01) 840 1780

shannons.ie

Legal Services

Junior Chamber International (JCI)

jciireland.ie/branches/jci-fingal/5/

Chambers of Commerce

Shelldrake Limited t/a Swords on Ice

(01) 524 2322

swordsonice.ie

Event Management

Siobhan Taylor Photos

(086) 881 4589

siobhantaylorphotos.ie

Business Services

Skerries Chamber of Tourism

(087) 241 4982

visitskerries.ie

Chambers of Commerce

byrnesolicitors.ie

Legal Services

Lally Management & Contractors Limited t/a Lally.ie

(01) 831 0249

Lally.ie

Business Facilities

Lambay Professional Services Ltd.

(086) 795 0638

lambayprofessional.com

Consultancy Services

Larry G. Maguire Human Performance

(083) 801 0707

theperformatist.com

Consultancy Services

Skerries District Chamber of Commerce

Leinster Hygiene Products

(087) 245 4735

Lhp.ie

Business Facilities

Staffords Funeral Home Portmarnock

(01) 846 2620

M P Black & Co Solicitors

(01) 845 0538

mpblack-solicitors.com

Legal Services

TAM Services

M-Space Malahide

(087) 915 3333

mspace.ie

Business Services

The Green Door Group

Finance & Insurance AIB Bank - Santry

(01) 842 6477

aib.ie/branches/ northdublin/santry

Banking Services

Bank of Ireland - Malahide

(01) 845 2666

bankofireland.com/branchlocator/malahide

Banking Services

AIB Bank - Balbriggan

(01) 841 2128

aib.ie/branches/ northdublin/balbriggan

Banking Services

Bank of Ireland - Swords

(081) 836 5365

bankofireland.com

Banking Services

Bibby Financial Service

(01) 297 4911

bibbyfinancialservices.ie

Financial Services

Blanchardstown & District Credit Union

(01) 820 3495

blanchardstowncu.ie

Banking Services

AIB Bank - Blanchardstown

(01) 821 2566

aib.ie/branches/ northdublin/ blanchardstown

Banking Services

Health & Safety

AIB Bank - Homes

(01) 840 4001

aib.ie

Banking Services

Classic Financial Services LTD

(01) 862 3155

financialbroker.ie

Financial Services

Consultancy Services

AIB Bank - Malahide

(01) 845 1166

aib.ie/branches/ northdublin/malahide

Banking Services

Compare Insurance Ireland

(42) 935 9090

compareinsuranceireland.ie

Insurance Services

Cregan Accountants

(01) 890 3216

creganaccountants.ie

Accountancy Services

Cregan Kelly O'Brien Financial Services & Insurances

(01) 870 0370

ckob.ie

Financial Services

DBASS Chartered Accountants

(01) 849 8800

dbass.ie

Accountancy Services

DMN Accountants Ltd

(01) 862 1000

dmnaccountants.ie

Accountancy Services

Chambers of Commerce staffordsfunerals.com/ portmarnock-funeral-home/

Funeral Directors

(01) 840 4400

Tamservices.ie

Business Services

(087) 979 2905

thegreendoorgroup.ie

Business Services

AIB Bank - Skerries

(01) 849 1231

aib.ie/branches/ northdublin/skerries

Banking Services

AIB Bank - Swords

(01) 840 4001

aib.ie/branches/ northdublin/swords

Banking Services

AIB Business Banking

(01) 772 1788

aib.ie

Banking Services

AIB Dublin North & West

aib.ie/business

Banking Services

Bank of Ireland

bankofireland.ie

Banking Services

bankofireland.com/branchlocator/blanchardstown

Banking Services

Euro Wealth Financial

(01) 895 8352

eurowealthfinancial.ie

Financial Services

boi.com

Banking Services

Fingal Insurance Group Limited

(01) 840 4012

fingalinsurance.ie

Insurance Services

Bank of Ireland Blanchardstown Bank of Ireland - Business Banking

(01) 821 3588

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ISSUE 4 - JUNE 2022

(01) 884 6700

firstcitizen.ie

Financial Services

PayPal

Frank Lynch & Co

(01) 841 2470

flc.ie

Accountancy Services

Permanent TSB PKF-FPM Accountants Limited

Grenke Limited

(01) 883 1051

grenke.ie

Banking Services

Icon Accounting

(01) 807 7106

iconaccounting.ie

Accountancy Services

paypal.ie

Financial Services

Respicare Limited

(01) 890 4020

respicare.ie

Medical Services

St Francis Hospice

(01) 829 4000

sfh.ie

Healthcare Services

(01) 212 4290

permanenttsb.ie

Banking Services

Rottapharm Limited

(01) 885 2710

medamanufacturing.ie

(01) 810 7622

swordsortho.com

Healthcare Services

pkffpm.com

Accountancy Services

Pharmaceuticals/ Chemicals

Swords Orthodontics

(01) 691 3500

VHI Healthcare DAC

(189) 044 4444

vhi.ie

Healthcare Services

Progressive Credit Union

(01) 841 1348

progressivecu.ie

Financial Services

(01) 562 0082

pcla.ie

Insurance Services

JV Hutton Ltd

(086) 600 1383

Jvhutton.com

Insurance Services

Property Claims Loss Assessors Ltd

KBC Bank

(01) 513 1000

kbc.ie

Banking Services

Trust Matters

(01) 563 4300

trustmatters.ie

Financial Services

Kimeon Accountants Limited

(01) 296 0081

kimeon.ie

Accountancy Services

UHY Farrelly Dawe White Limited

(01) 849 1633

fdw.ie

Accountancy Services

Landmark Insurance

(01) 802 2201

landmarkinsurance.ie

Insurance Services

Ulster Bank

(01) 702 8386

digital.ulsterbank.ie

Banking Services

MBM Chartered Accountants

(01) 801 4124

mbmca.com

Accountancy Services

Ulster Bank Blanchardstown

(01) 820 0102

digital.ulsterbank.ie

Banking Services

digital.ulsterbank.ie

Banking Services

Ulster Bank Coolock

skbiotek.ie

Pharmaceuticals/ Chemicals

Hospitality & Tourism Apleona HSG

(01) 215 7000

ie-hsg.apleona.com

Catering Services

Kyles Events & Catering

(087) 173 4090

kylescatering.ie

Catering Services

Aqua Restaurant

(01) 832 0690

aqua.ie

Bar/Restaurant

Malahide Castle & Gardens

(01) 866 6784

Aramark

(06) 171 1222

aramark.ie

Tourism/Travel Services

malahidecastleandgardens. ie

Tourism/Travel Services

Maldron Hotel Dublin Airport

(01) 808 0500

(087) 457 0555

atalianservest.co.uk

Catering Services

maldronhoteldublinairport. com

Hotels/ Conferencing

Marine Hotel

(01) 839 0000

marinehotel.ie

Hotels/ Conferencing

marqettedublinairport.com

Bar/Restaurant

(01) 840 4029

mcinerneysaunders.ie

Accountancy Services

Ulster Bank Dublin Airport

digital.ulsterbank.ie

Banking Services

Atalian Servest Ireland

Member First Credit Union

(01) 851 3400

mfcu.ie

Banking Services

Ulster Bank Finglas

digital.ulsterbank.ie

Banking Services

Bon Appetit

(01) 845 0314

bonappetit.ie

Bar/Restaurant

Michael Kennedy Insurance Group

(01) 890 2277

mkig.ie

Insurance Services

Ulster Bank Ireland DAC

digital.ulsterbank.ie

Banking Services

Botanic House

(01) 830 7396

botanichouse.ie

Bar/Restaurant

Marqette

New Beginning Financial Planning

(01) 531 0571

nbfp.ie

Financial Services

digital.ulsterbank.ie

Banking Services

Bracken Court Hotel

(01) 841 3333

brackencourt.ie

Metro Hotel Dublin Airport

(01) 866 9500

digital.ulsterbank.ie

Banking Services

Hotels/ Conferencing

metrohoteldublinairport. com

Hotels/ Conferencing

New Ireland Assurance

(01) 841 5957

newireland.ie

Financial Services

digital.ulsterbank.ie

Banking Services

Campus Residences DCU

(01) 700 5736

dcurooms.com

Hotels/ Conferencing

Michael JF Wright Hospitality Group

(01) 890 8350

michaeljfwright.com

Bar/Restaurant

Patrick Quinlan Insurance

(01) 882 9044

pqi.ie

Insurance Services

Carlton Dublin Airport

(01) 866 7500

carltondublinairport.com

Hotels/ Conferencing

Mount Charles Ireland

(01) 431 1383

mount-charles.ie

Catering Services

Carlton Hotel Blanchardstown

(01) 827 5600

carltonhotelblanchardstown. com

Hotels/ Conferencing

Natline Limited t/a McDonalds

(01) 890 3006

Carnegie Court Hotel

(01) 840 4384

carnegiecourthotel.com

Hotels/ Conferencing

Newbridge House and Farm Ltd.

(01) 843 6534

Government/ Public Body

Castleknock Hotel

(01) 640 6300

castleknockhotel.com

Hotels/ Conferencing

Political Parties/Public Representatives

CityNorth Hotel & Conference Centre

(01) 690 6666

citynorthhotel.com

Hotels/ Conferencing

Clayton Hotel Dublin Airport

(01) 871 1200

claytonhoteldublinairport. com

Hotels/ Conferencing

Crowne Plaza Dublin Blanchardstown

(01) 897 7777

cpireland.ie

Hotels/ Conferencing

Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport

(180) 084 8270

crowneplazadublin.ie

DNATA

(01) 844 8623

Dunboyne Castle Hotel & Spa

(01) 801 3500

Eirebus

(01) 890 1620

Ulster Bank Malahide Ulster Bank Raheny Ulster Bank Swords

Blanchardstown Intreo Centre

(01) 858 1300

gov.ie/dsp

Government/ Public Body

IDA Ireland

Coolock Intreo Centre

(01) 612 5400

intreo.ie

Government/ Public Body

Independents 4 Change

Dublin City University

(01) 700 5000

dcu.ie

Government/ Public Body

Fianna Fáil

Fine Gael

Fingal Leader Partnership CLG

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(01) 813 9000

McInerney Saunders Chartered Accountants

(01) 890 0588

Government

36

SK Biotek Ireland

(01) 676 1551

Political Parties/Public Representatives

(01) 619 8444

(01) 807 4282

Political Parties/Public Representatives fingalleaderpartnership.ie

Government/ Public Body

Green Party

Political Parties/Public Representatives

HSE Community Mental Health Team

Government/ Public Body

(01) 603 4000

idaireland.com

Political Parties/Public Representatives

Labour Party

Local Enterprise Office Fingal

(01) 890 6800

Sinn Féin

localenterprise.ie/fingal

Government/ Public Body

sinnfein.ie

Political Parties/Public Representatives Political Parties/Public Representatives

Social Democrats

Political Parties/Public Representatives

Solidarity

Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals

Bar/Restaurant

Peninsula Brewery portmarnock.com

Hotels/ Conferencing

Radisson Blu Hotel - Dublin Airport

(01) 844 6000

radissonhotels.com/en-us/ brand/radisson-blu

Hotels/ Conferencing

Red Bank House & Restaurant

(01) 849 1005

redbank.ie

Hotels/ Conferencing

Ribeye Steakhouse

(01) 531 2900

ribeyesteakhouse.ie

Bar/Restaurant

Hotels/ Conferencing

Roganstown Golf & Country Club

(01) 843 3118

roganstown.com

Hotels/ Conferencing

dnata.com

Catering Services

shorelinehotel.ie

Hotels/ Conferencing

Shoreline Hotel (formerly Waterside House Hotel)

(01) 843 6153

dunboynecastlehotel.com

Hotels/ Conferencing

The Betsy

(01) 840 4002

thebetsyswords.com

Bar/Restaurant

(01) 824 2626

eirebus.ie

Tourism/Travel Services

The Great Wood, JD Wetherspoon

(01) 826 2496

jdwetherspoon.com/allpubs/republic-of-ireland

Bar/Restaurant

Fingal Tourism Limited

(01) 890 5144

fingal.ie/visitor

Tourism/Travel Services

The Helix

(01) 700 7115

thehelix.ie

Hotels/ Conferencing

Gilbert and Wright

(01) 845 6580

gilbertandwright.ie

Bar/Restaurant

(01) 808 4103

(01) 890 0374

chauffeurdublin.com

Tourism/Travel Services

jdwetherspoon.com/allpubs/republic-of-ireland

Bar/Restaurant

Goldstar Chauffeur Drive

The Old Borough, JD Wetherspoon The Tartan Larder

(086) 398 7060

tartanlarder.ie

Bar/Restaurant

Gourmet Food Parlour

(01) 895 7565

gourmetfoodparlour.com

Bar/Restaurant

(01) 807 9400

travelodge.ie

Grand Hotel

(01) 845 0000

thegrand.ie

Hotels/ Conferencing

Travelodge Hotel Dublin Airport North

Hotels/ Conferencing

(01) 842 2000

travelodge.ie

Hilton Dublin Airport

(01) 866 1800

hilton.com/dublinairport

Hotels/ Conferencing

Travelodge Hotel Dublin Airport South

Hotels/ Conferencing

travelodge.ie

(01) 814 1731

hmshost.net

Bar/Restaurant

Travelodge Hotel Phoenix Park

(01) 820 2626

HMS Host Ireland

Hotels/ Conferencing

Hogs & Heifers

(01) 890 2523

hogsandheifers.ie

Bar/Restaurant

Travelodge Ireland

(01) 852 4539

travelodge.ie

Hotels/ Conferencing

Holiday Inn Dublin Airport

(01) 906 8833

holidayinn.com/ dublinairport

Hotels/ Conferencing

White Sands Hotel

(01) 866 6000

whitesandshotel.ie

Hotels/ Conferencing

Indie Spice Grill

(01) 807 7999

indiespicegrill.ie

Bar/Restaurant

Wrights Anglers Rest

(01) 890 8361

theanglersrest.ie

Bar/Restaurant

Wrights Café Bar

(01) 840 6760

wrightscafebar.ie

Bar/Restaurant

alexion.com

Pharmaceuticals/ Chemicals

Kora Corporation Ltd t/a Kora Healthcare

(01) 890 0406

korahealthcare.com

Pharmaceuticals/ Chemicals

AnovoCare Nursing Home

(01) 563 0400

trinitycare.ie

Healthcare Services

(01) 696 0000

mallinckrodt.com

Astellas Ireland Co. Limited

(01) 803 0800

astellas.ie

Pharmaceuticals/ Chemicals

Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals Ireland Ltd

Pharmaceuticals/ Chemicals

Matei's Salt Cave

(087) 195 9384

Bon Secours Hospital

(01) 806 5353

bonsecours.ie

Healthcare Services

Millmount Healthcare Ltd

(01) 841 8300

Bristol-Myers Squibb

(01) 885 4000

bms.com

Pharmaceuticals/ Chemicals

MSD Biotech

(01) 807 4100

msd.com

CareChoice Limited

(01) 223 3000

carechoice.ie

Healthcare Services

Pharmaceuticals/ Chemicals

FirstCare Nursing Home

(01) 864 8577

firstcare.ie

Healthcare Services

Newport Pharmaceuticals Limited

(01) 516 4115

newportpharmaceuticals. com

Pharmaceuticals/ Chemicals

Irish Centre For Cycling Ltd.

(01) 816 8580

irishcentreforcycling.ie

Tourism/Travel Services

Health by Orla

(086) 101 6755

healthbyorla.ie

Healthcare Services

Prosper Fingal

(01) 849 3600

prosperfingal.ie

Healthcare Services

Irish Kennel Club

(01) 453 3300

ikc.ie

Hotels/ Conferencing

Pharmaceuticals Chemicals

Tourism/Travel Services

(01) 846 0611

(01) 254 6400

Healthcare Services

newbridgehouseandfarm. com

Portmarnock Hotel & Golf Links

Alexion Pharma International Operations UC

mateissaltcave.ie

Bar/Restaurant

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ISSUE 4 - JUNE 2022

Amazon Data Services Ireland

Retail & Wholesale

amazon.com

IT & Technology Services

NortonLifeLock Ireland Ltd

(01) 803 5400

nortonlifelock.com

IT & Technology Services

Big Wheel Marketing

(086) 381 1563

bigwheel.org

Web & Digital Services

ODoherty Biz Limited

(01) 960 3220

odoherty.biz

IT & Technology Services

Bright Sky Digital Media

(01) 549 8332

brightskydigital.com

Web & Digital Services

Pimbrook Software Limited

(01) 862 4016

pimbrook.ie

IT & Technology Services

CommSec

(3531) 536 7320

commsec.ie

IT & Technology Services

Quest

(087) 251 9626

eXpd8 Fujitsu Ireland

(01) 870 4999 (01) 813 6000

Holifresh IBM Ireland Kianda Technologies

(01) 815 4000 (01) 254 2001

expd8.com

IT & Technology Services

fujitsu.com/ie

IT & Technology Services

holifresh.eu/en

IT & Technology Services

ibm.com/ie-en

IT & Technology Services

kianda.com

Telecom Services

Riot Games Ireland Broadcasting Ltd.

(086) 340 6084

riotgames.com

IT & Technology Services

TechStorm Consulting Ltd

(01) 962 9946

techstorm.ie

IT & Technology Services

The Web Centre Veritas Storage (Ireland) Limited

(01) 880 9117 (01) 793 1792

thewebcentre.ie veritas.com

Web & Digital Services IT & Technology Services

IT & Technology Services

Manufacturing & Production Arvato SCM Ireland Limited

(01) 840 9000

arvato-supply-chain. com/en

Manufacturing

Doosan Bobcat EMEA Irish Branch

(01) 650 2000

doosan.com

Manufacturing

Eva-Tec DAC

(01) 883 4280

eva-tec.ie

Manufacturing

Ingersoll Rand Industrial Ireland LTD

(01) 870 7000

Manufacturing

McNally Joinery

(01) 843 3022

mcnallyjoinery.ie

Manufacturing

Novum (Overseas) Ltd

(01) 803 6400

novum.ie

Manufacturing

Tegral Lighting (Integral Lighting Ltd)

(01) 830 9686

tegral-lighting.com

Manufacturing

Trane Technologies International Limited

(01) 895 3200

tranetechnologies.com/ en/index.html

Manufacturing

FINGAL CHAMBER - NETWORK MAGAZINE

Nonprofit, Community & Civic Organisations

38

Action Ireland Trust

(086) 288 5806

actionirelandtrust.ie

Voluntary/Charity

DogsTrust

(01) 879 1000

dogstrust.ie

Voluntary/Charity

Empower

(01) 820 9550

empower.ie

Voluntary/Charity

Fingal Genealogy (Swords Historical Society Ltd)

(01) 840 0080

rotsireland.ie

Voluntary/Charity

Remember Us Special Needs Group

(086) 045 7003

rememberus.ie

Voluntary/Charity

Real Estate & Property Balmoral International Land Limited

(01) 887 2788

bilplc.com

Property Development

Gallagher Property Management

(01) 824 5724

gallagherpm.ie

Estate Agents/ Property Services

Blanchardstown Corporate Park

(01) 820 9577

corporatepark.ie

Property Development

Genvest

(01) 223 3498

genvest.ie

Property Development

Corry Estates Ltd

(01) 846 1122

corryestates.ie/

Estate Agents/ Property Services

Glenveagh Homes

(01) 903 7100

glenveagh.ie

Property Development

CWPA Planning & Architecture

(01) 685 6616

cwpa.ie

Architects/Planning Consultants

Land Capital Gold Limited

(086) 259 6166

dublinairportcentral.com

Estate Agents/ Property Services

Morton & Flanagan Auctioneers

(01) 840 4011

mandf.ie

Estate Agents/ Property Services

Dublin Airport Central

Property Development

Fingal Letting & Property Management Limited

(01) 813 8733

fingalletting.ie

Estate Agents/ Property Services

Rohan Holdings Limited

(01) 662 4455

rohanholdings.ie

Property Development

Flynn & Associates

(01) 890 1141

flynnassociates.ie

Estate Agents/ Property Services

Schnittger Bourne Property Services Ltd

(01) 287 0121

businessparkmanagement. ie

Estate Agents/ Property Services

Forbes Boyle

(01) 851 0920

forbesboyle.com

Estate Agents/ Property Services

Absolute Office

(01) 840 7707

absoluteoffice.ie

Office Supplies/ Furniture

ALG Hair Design Ltd T/A Collage Hair Group, HairBrush.ie & We love Salons

(087) 648 4534

collagehg.ie

Retail

Blanche Retail Nominee Ltd

(01) 822 1356

blanchardstowncentre.com

Retail

Brother Ireland DAC

(01) 241 1900

brother.ie

Office Supplies/ Furniture

Carbon Paint Centre

(01) 902 3555

carbonpaintcentre.ie

Retail

Carolines Beauty Parlour

(01) 807 1007

carolinesbeautyrooms.com

Retail

Champions Products Europe Limited

(01) 899 1910

champion-eu.com

Retail

Charlestown Shopping Centre Mgmt Co Ltd

(01) 850 4706

charlestowncentre.ie

Retail

Colourtrend

(01) 890 3384

colourtrend.ie

Retail

Conaty Catering Supplies Wholesale

(01) 860 5600

conatycatering.com

Wholesale

Delicatessen Meat Supplies Ltd.

(01) 626 1706

delimeats.ie

Wholesale

Dorian Black

(01) 841 6145

dorianblack.ie

Retail

Ergo Furniture Systems

(01) 890 2501

ergofurnituresystems.ie

Office Supplies/ Furniture

Flair Hair and Beauty Supplies Ltd

(04) 589 8501

Retail

Glen Dimplex Ireland

(01) 842 4833

glendimplexireland.com

Wholesale

Java Republic

(01) 880 9300

javarepublic.com

Wholesale

Jones Garden Centre Limited

(01) 840 1781

jonesgc.com

Retail

Liquidline Ireland

(01) 960 0314

liquidline.ie

Wholesale

MCS Carpets

(01) 840 4933

mcscarpets.ie

Retail

Merchamp Optical Limited

(01) 832 3766

merchampoptical.com

Retail

Millfield Shopping Centre

(01) 841 6499

millfield.ie

Retail

One4all

(01) 870 8100

one4all.ie

Retail

Pan Euro Foods

(01) 630 1490

paneurofoods.com

Wholesale

Paperweight Office Supplies

(01) 845 3393

paperweight.ie

Office Supplies/ Furniture

PBI Premier Brands International

(0) 163 1490

S & S Office Interiors Limited

(01) 535 3881

ssofficeinteriors.ie

Office Supplies/ Furniture

Sonas Bathrooms

(01) 809 1962

sonasbathrooms.com

Wholesale

Super Valu Boroimhe Shopping Centre

(01) 840 5560

Supreme Clean Dry Cleaners

(01) 897 1240

supremecleandrycleaners. com

Retail

Swords Pavilions Shopping Centre

(087) 976 2170

pavilions.ie

Retail

Tesco Ireland

(01) 215 2100

tescoireland.ie

Retail

Wholesale

Retail

Transportation & Logistics Ace Express Freight

(01) 870 2600

aceexpressgroup.com

Goods/Logistics/ Transportation/Storage

Hawthorn Logistics Solutions Ltd

(01) 899 1101

hawthornlogistics.ie

Goods/Logistics/ Transportation/Storage

Aramex Ireland Limited

(01) 807 8000

aramex.com

Goods/Logistics/ Transportation/Storage

Jenkinson Logistics

(01) 816 3500

jenkinson.ie/home

Goods/Logistics/ Transportation/Storage

Cargo Community Systems T/A Customs Matters

(01) 842 8255

customsmatters.com

Goods/Logistics/ Transportation/Storage

Maersk Logistics and Services

(01) 618 2501

maersk.com

Goods/Logistics/ Transportation/Storage

Cargocare Limited

(01) 842 4733

cargocare.ie

Goods/Logistics/ Transportation/Storage

Sandford Freight Limited

(01) 816 2700

sandford.ie

Goods/Logistics/ Transportation/Storage

DHL Global Forwarding

(01) 816 1000

dhl.com

Goods/Logistics/ Transportation/Storage

Wells Cargo Logistics Limited

(01) 861 2790

wellscargo.ie

Goods/Logistics/ Transportation/Storage

Utilities, Energy & Environment Acme Systems Limited

(01) 890 0660

acmesystems.ie

Waste Management/ Recycling Services

Fostervale T/A Tank & Drain Services

(01) 516 6537

tankanddrain.ie

Waste Management/ Recycling Services

Aluline Ireland Ltd

(01) 849 6653

aluline.ie

Waste Management/ Recycling Services

Multimetals Recycling Limited

(04) 046 4934

multimetals.ie

Waste Management/ Recycling Services

eLight

(01) 845 7100

elight.ie

Energy Services

FINGAL CHAMBER - NETWORK MAGAZINE

IT & Telecommunications

ISSUE 4 - JUNE 2022

39

Fingal Chamber membership enables members to: • Influence decision-makers through lobbying and advocacy support • Engage in matters that can impact their business through forums and consultations • Connect and build business relationships through an extensive networking and events programme • Upskill their workforce through bespoke and subsidised training delivered by Fingal Chamber Skillnet • Access information on business supports and stakeholder notices via weekly email updates • Promote and enhance their business profile through member-exclusive channels • Export globally with certification from our knowledgeable and efficient international trade team • Expand their business in new markets with inward and outward trade delegations • Develop their knowledge of business topics and trends with informative business briefings • Support and contribute to community projects and activities via the Fingal Chamber Community Fund • Showcase and celebrate success with the Fingal Business Excellence & CSR Awards

www.fingalchamber.ie

Supporting business across the Fingal region

through training, networking and collaboration.

Talk to us: skillnet@fingalchamber.ie www.fingalchamberskillnet.ie