InBusiness - Spring 2023

Editor: Sorcha Corcoran

Creative Director: Jane Matthews

Editorial Coordinator: James Kiernan (Chambers Ireland)

Designer: Lenny Rooney

Neasa Daly

Photography: iStock Photo

Infographics: www.flaticon.com

Production Executive: Nicole Ennis

Sales Director: Diarmaid Lennon

Managing Director: Gerry Tynan

Chairman: Diarmaid Lennon

18

COVER STORY:

SHARING THE JOURNEY

© Ashville Media Group 2023. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher. Opinion and comments expressed herein are not necessarily those of Ashville Media or Chambers Ireland. ISSN

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22

Mentors

Pat McCann

Since he left Dalata Hotel Group in a strong position, Pat McCann is continuing to impart his leadership expertise as a board member and investor.

Words: Sorcha Corcoran

supplement continues to look at the important role played by local authorities in Irish enterprise

Small Business

Awesome ambition

Holotoyz was a hit at the world’s largest toy fair

InBUSINESS speaks to Teresa Purtill, Director of Services and Solutions, Bord Gáis Energy, on progress with apprenticeships and solar power. 14

EXPLEO OPENS GALWAY INNOVATION HUB

Global technology, engineering and consulting service provider Expleo is opening an innovation hub in Galway where life sciences and engineering R&D teams will based. Involving a €5m investment and the creation of 70 jobs across the two teams, the move is part of a wider plan to establish a network of regional hubs to support the company’s growth. The first of these opened in Mahon, Co Cork, in June 2022. Expleo expects its total workforce on the island of Ireland to grow to over 1,000 by the end of 2024. Phil Codd, Managing Director, Expleo Ireland, said: “Our new hub in Galway will provide cutting-edge services to businesses operating in the life sciences, software and automotive industries, helping them to innovate at speed and scale.”

American approval

More than 95% of US multinationals have a positive view of Ireland as an investment location, according to a survey of American Chamber of Commerce Ireland members.

Business BITES

STATE PENSION

Only 23% of workers would be encouraged to work longer than age 66 in return for a higher State pension, a Lockton People Solutions survey shows.

RDI HUB ECOSYSTEM EXPANDING

The RDI Hub in Kilorglin, Co Kerry is to add 50 new desk spaces before the end of the year to bring the total capacity for companies to operate from there to over 100. Established in 2020, the RDI Hub brings corporate, SMEs and start-ups together to innovate and scale for the future. The over 50 companies currently accessing the space have created 250 jobs as well as developing 29 new products and services in just three years. To date, €12m in funding has been raised by companies in the hub and 16 new companies have been on-boarded in the past 12 months. The RDI Hub is now home to global companies including Liebherr, Glencar Construction and Helgen Technologies.

Karl Aherne, Chief Operating O icer, Fexco, economist David McWilliams and Liam Cronin, Chief Executive O icer, RDI Hub

Alison Joyce, Recruitment Manager and Phil Codd, Managing Director, Expleo Ireland

“Bord Gáis Energy’s sustainability strategy is deeply rooted in helping to reduce energy consumption and making the switch away from fossil fuels.”

Teresa Purtill, Director of Services and Solutions, Bord Gáis Energy

DMI OFFICIALLY OPENS IN LIMERICK

Digital Manufacturing

Ireland (DMI) was o icially opened on 27 March in the IDA Ireland National Technology Park in Limerick. DMI is the national centre of excellence designed to support Irish-based manufacturers, both multinationals and SMEs, to access, partner and accelerate their adoption of transformative digital technologies and to drive their future competitiveness. At the industry-led centre, there is an end-to-end physical and digital production line with capabilities designed to provide DMI clients with access to the latest technologies, expertise and deployment support in a real-world manufacturing environment.

Carbon neutrality

A DataSolutions survey reveals that while 78% of tech companies have plans to achieve carbon neutrality, 65% have not yet measured their carbon footprint.

PICTURE THIS

VACANCY RATE

There were 29,581 empty commercial units across the country in Q4 2022, representing a national commercial vacancy rate of 14%, according to GeoDirectory

RETAIL SALES

€In February, the volume of retail sales rose by 0.7% in the month and increased by 3.6% in the year since February 2022, according to the Central Statistics O ice.

TARASIS IN ALL-ISLAND GROWTH MODE

Founded by Mairead Mackle MBE in 1995, Tarasis Enterprises has been o icially re-launched under a new brand identity with a five-year plan involving a €11.5m investment and the creation of 300 jobs. The business with o ices in Belfast, Dublin, Sligo and Armagh is comprised of four key business divisions focused on healthcare, support services, housing and renewables.

In 2021, it generated revenues of more than €34m across its island-wide operations, up from almost €30m in the previous year. “With new investment, new jobs and new approaches, we plan to make a real and positive impact on the many pertinent social issues and crises of our time, which include housing, social care and climate change,” said Mackle.

Caroline Ra erty, Managing Director, Gerald Mackle, Executive Director and Mairead Mackle, CEO and Founder, Tarasis Enterprises

Datapac is collaborating with Trinity Access Programmes to encourage girls to pursue careers in IT through the CodePlus initiative. Pictured are Luciana Fragaso, Software Developer, Datapac (second from left) with students from CBS James’s Street and St Mark’s Community School, Dublin.

SIRO EXTENDING ITS REACH IN CO CORK

Broadband network operator SIRO is bringing its network to a further eight towns across Co Cork in 2023, including Fermoy, Youghal, Bandon and Kinsale. This represents an additional investment of €25m, which will bring SIRO’s total investment in the county to over €125m when its full rollout is completed. Since SIRO began work in Cork in 2017, it has grown to serving over 60,000 premises in several locations. The addition of the eight extra towns equates to a further 20,000 premises having access to the network. Additional new areas will be announced in 2024.

BANK OF IRELAND TO MAKE 100 NEW TECH HIRES

Further to recruiting 230 tech specialists since 2021, Bank of Ireland has announced 100 new technology roles to accelerate digital projects across the group. They include cloud platform engineers, cybersecurity experts and data infrastructure engineers. “These new roles will further support our progress and momentum as we build a worldclass, diverse technology team, delivering improvements for customers,” said Eimear Harty, HR Director, Group Technology & Customer Solutions. Last year, the Bank of Ireland mobile app was enhanced through the introduction of a new digital money management service. The bank processed 366 million contactless transactions, up 41% since 2021. Over 90%

everyday product applications are now digitised.

BEST WORKPLACES FOR WOMEN UNVEILED

Great Place to Work Ireland announced the 2023 Best Workplaces for Women at an event in the Stella Cinema in Dublin on 7 March, with panelists including Loretta Dignam, Founder & CEO of The Menopause Hub. The 30 organisations are: AbbVie Ireland, Block, Inc., Cisco, Citco Group of Companies, Cloudera International Limited, CluneTech, Cool Planet Group, Cpl, DHL Express, Distilled, Fáilte Ireland, Guidewire IRL, Hilton, Intercom, Kuehne + Nagel Ireland, Laya Healthcare, Liberty IT, Midlands Park Hotel, PEI, PrepayPower, Salesforce, Statkraft Ireland, Tayto Snacks, The Doyle Collection, Toast, Unum Ireland, Version 1, Woodie’s, Workhuman and WP Engine.

NSAI BECOMES NOTIFIED BODY UNDER IVDR

Ireland’s medtech sector received a welcome boost recently when National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) announced it had received designation under the InVitro Diagnostic Medical Devices Regulation (EU) 2017/746. One of just ten notified bodies in Europe, NSAI is now able to provide conformity assessments under the IVDR and grant CE-marked certificates to the scope documented on the NANDO database. Notably, NSAI achieved this designation ahead of the average designation timeline and the State agency will work with medtech manufacturers to provide a highquality conformity assessment service.

Minister Michael McGrath, SIRO CEO John Keaney and Mayor of the County of Cork Cllr Danny Collins

Bank of Ireland HR Director Eimear Harty and Group Technology and Customer Solutions representatives Hamid Akbari and Rosemary Gostelia de la Cruz with Minister Simon Coveney

Panelists Fania Stoney, Great Place to Work, Loretta Dignam, The Menopause Hub and Rose O’Donohoe, RoseOD Coaching

of

TWO NEW BOOTS STORES OPEN IN DUBLIN

Boots Ireland has opened two new stores in Harold’s Cross and Deansgrange in Dublin, employing 13 and 14 people, respectively. Part of a continued investment into growth and expansion around the country, this brings the total number of Boots stores in the Republic of Ireland to 93. The Harold’s Cross store offering includes prescription services, blood pressure testing and emergency contraception with additional services planned over the coming months. Based on Clonkeen Road, Deansgrange, the former Grange Pharmacy was acquired by Boots last year and has since undergone refurbishment works to offer customers an extended offering of beauty, health and wellness products as well as a broader range of pharmacy services.

GREEN MOMENTUM AT THE GEC

The Guinness Enterprise Centre (GEC) is partnering with the Techies Go Green movement, which is to use the facility as its base of operations as well as for educational events for signatories. Among the 160 start-ups housed at the GEC, ten are working in the sustainability space and the centre wants to grow this cluster further. Furthermore, the GEC is investing €500,000 in making its premises more sustainable with upgrades across the building, including more heat-efficient windows and a new heat-pump system. Electric vehicle, e-bike and e-scooter chargers are also to be installed. The GEC is exploring a major solar panel installation on the roof –which is currently home to 18,000 bees in 15 beehives.

PINERGY ACQUIRES ACUTRACE

Smart energy supply and sustainable solutions company Pinergy has acquired Acutrace for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 2015, Acutrace is a software and systems integration business focused on measuring consumption of energy and other utilities in commercial premises across Ireland and the UK. The Acutrace Energy Measurement Platform allows users to pinpoint exactly where and when energy and other utilities are being used – and wasted – and helps them take corrective action to make significant savings. Enda Gunnell, CEO of Pinergy said: “As part of our strategic plan, we are looking to accelerate and enhance our supply, analysis and advisory offering. This acquisition will help us to grow and scale further in the coming years.”

Aidan McDonnell, CEO, Acutrace and Enda Gunnell, CEO, Pinergy

Eamonn Sayers, Manager, Guinness Enterprise Centre, Minister Eamon Ryan, Michael O’Hara, Co-founder, Techies Go Green and Dr Mary O’Riordan, CEO, HaPPE Earth

Stephen Watkins, Managing Director and Joe Scallan, Head of Stores, Boots Ireland with employees of the new Harold’s Cross store

REASSURANCE FROM MINISTER COVENEY

Following a recent trip to the US West Coast where he had several high-level meetings with companies there, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney indicated that the overall message from the tech sector in the US was an optimistic one, despite large companies such as Google, Meta and Twitter making sta cuts in recent months. Ahead of the visit he reiterated that IDA Ireland continues to see a healthy pipeline of investment in the first half of this year: “The impact on Ireland so far of tech sector announcements isn’t anything like the impact on some other countries and other parts of the world. We have a very strong economy at the moment and a very strong

tech sector,” he said.

THE HOT TOPIC

Tech layoffs

Commentary and news on the e ect of global tech job cuts

Our IT recruitment division Stelfox would have witnessed large swathes of ICT workers being rehired in Q4 2022 – shortly a er they were laid o by some large ICT rms in Q3 2022. is is something we expect to continue as the year goes on. Despite there being relatively large layo s in the tech sector in the rst quarter of this year, this hasn’t led to a large surplus candidate pool because companies that are hiring quickly scoop up the talent lost from businesses that have retrenched.”

Barry Whelan, CEO of Excel Recruitment, commenting on the release of the latest ESRI Quarterly Economic Commentary

Impact of global announcements

A Central Bank of Ireland report has estimated that there had been 2,307 layo s in the ICT sector in Ireland in the year to February 2023. This amounts to 1.4% of overall ICT employment or just 6.2% of the increase in employment since Q4 2019. There have been further global tech job-cut announcements since the report’s publication, including from Microsoft and Accenture. Highlighting the importance of the sector to the Irish economy, the report notes that although ICT makes up 6.4% of employment, it accounts for almost 12% of all income tax revenue and 21.3% of corporation tax.

Barry Whelan

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SVP COLLAPSE A BIG CONCERN

NEWS, VIEWS AND PROFILES ON THE LATEST START-UPS IN IRELAND

The amount of funding raised by Irish, female-led start-ups last year, up from €230m in 2021, according to a new report from TechIreland.

HOW IT ALL STARTED Dr Aviva Cohen

CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, SEAMLESSCARE

How have you funded the business to date?

I used my savings until we received commercialisation funding from Enterprise Ireland (EI) in 2020. In 2022, we received funding from our angel investor Frank Dolphin with matched funding from EI.

What’s the best advice you have been given?

In the beginning I knew very little about the inner workings of technology or finance. I tried to rely on ‘experts’ until a colleague warned me that I needed to learn about every aspect of my business if I wanted to succeed.

What’s the most important lesson you have learned starting out?

When something is not working you have to let it go. It’s tempting to hold onto an idea or a product because you have invested time, money or emotion, but that won’t lead to a sustainable business.

Your biggest make or break moment?

Receiving the commercialisation funding from EI. We had the ideas and the team but we knew that it would take time to develop and test the technology.

Is there anything you would change in hindsight?

I wouldn’t change a thing. The founding team have overcome numerous di iculties and worked together under intense pressure. These experiences fortified our trust in one another, built our resilience and fostered our drive towards shared objectives.

Company name: seamlessCARE

Location:

NovaUCD, Dublin

Product or service:

Innovative technologies to enhance the care of adults and children with complex needs.

Sta : Six

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has sent shockwaves through the Irish start-up ecosystem. Brian Caulfield, Chair of Scale Ireland, said: “The demise of SVB is of major concern to the Irish start-up sector. While the announcement that HSBC is acquiring SVB UK is a huge relief and will avert problems for quite a few companies, whether HSBC will be as positive towards the sector in terms of new lending remains to be seen.” The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund has given assurance that its US$100m fund with SVB UK is safe.

IRISH SOFTWARE FUND LAUNCHED

Sure Valley Ventures has launched a €30m fund, including a €15m investment from Enterprise Ireland through its Seed and Venture Capital Scheme. A seedcapital investor focused on artificial intelligence (AI) that brings a disruptive innovation to market, Sure Valley plans to invest in 15 software companies around Ireland through this new fund. “We are seeing exciting innovation clusters developing around AI across the regions,” said Managing Partner and CoFounder Barry Downes. Sure Valley has o ices in Dublin and Waterford.

€1.5m boost for Waterford-based Klearcom

Furthr VC has led a €1.5m investment round in Klearcom, which is rapidly expanding its global customer base. Enterprise Ireland and HBAN’s Bloom Equity syndicate also contributed to the round. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, Klearcom tests interactive voice response (IVR) systems (voicebots) used by businesses to manage incoming calls. The new investment will be used to advance product development from its Waterford base. As a result, Klearcom expects to be the driving force behind a new generation of IVR testing. Operating across four continents, the company’s global client base includes large multinational pharma, enterprise-software, credit-card and emergency-services companies. Last year it established a subsidiary in India and is on track to grow to a team of 50 by year-end 2024.

Agri-accelerator winners announced

MyGug and OptaHaul are the winners of the second AgTechUCD Accelerator Programme, which is dedicated to early-stage agri-tech and agri-food start-ups with global potential. Following a final pitching event held at UCD Lyons Farm, MyGug was named the AIB and Yield Lab AgTech Start-up 2023 and OptaHaul was named the Ornua AgTech One to Watch 2023; both received a €10,000 prize. Based in Clonakilty, Co Cork, MyGug has developed a micro-scale, egg-shaped anaerobic digester that turns food waste into a natural gas suitable for cooking and a liquid fertiliser for use in gardens. OptaHaul, based in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, has developed the first route-optimisation software solution designed specifically and exclusively for the dairy-milk transportation industry.

Kerry biotech company Blue Pet Co is one of six start-ups selected to join Leap Venture Studio & Academy, the world’s first and largest pet carespecific accelerator. Based in Tennessee in the US, the 12-week programme connects each chosen start-up with world-class resources and includes US$200,000 in funding. Blue Pet Co specialises in clean, marine-powered dog supplements enriched with seaweed extracts and o ers a range of unique nutritional ingredients produced via sustainable bioprocessing technologies. Already stocked in 25 retailers in Ireland and 15 more globally, Blue Pet Co aims to expand into the US and Australia this year. “Blue Pet Co is on a mission to re-establish the harmonious balance between pets, people and our planet,” said CEO Gary Daly. “Not only are our products great for pet health, but our holistic business model also achieves over 70% of the UN’s sustainability goals.”

Gary Daly, CEO, Blue Pet Co

Klearcom Co-founder Satish Barot, Furthr VC Partner Colm O’Sullivan and Klearcom Co-founders Mark Rohan and Liam Dunne

Fiona Kelleher, Co-founder and COO, MyGug and Gary Gallagher, Co-founder, OptaHaul

BRIAN MCENERY

NEW TITLE: Managing Partner

EMPLOYER: BDO

PREVIOUS ROLE: Head of Advisory Services, BDO

Brian McEnery has been promoted to Managing Partner at accounting, tax, consulting and advisory firm BDO, which is creating 100 new jobs over the next 12 months. McEnery joined BDO in 1995 and has held many leadership positions outside the business, including Worldwide President of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, Chair of HIQA and Chair of the Audit Committee of NAMA.

MAOILIOSA O’CULACHAIN

NEW TITLE: Chief Executive O icer

EMPLOYER: Furthr

PREVIOUS ROLE: Managing Director, Active Capital Strategies

Furthr (formerly Dublin BIC), an organisation that supports Irish start-ups to grow, has appointed Maoiliosa O’Culachain as its new Chief Executive O icer. O’Culachain is an entrepreneur with a proven track record of establishing, funding and scaling businesses, such as Global Shares plc which he cofounded. He previously worked with Nasdaq Private Market as a European Business Development Director and as Ireland Market Advisor.

NEW APPOINTMENTS IN THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY NATIONWIDE

MICHAEL KEARNEY

NEW TITLE: Chief Executive O icer

EMPLOYER: Salmon Software

PREVIOUS ROLE: Global VP Sales and Marketing, Munich Re Automation Solutions

Treasury management solution provider Salmon Software has appointed Michael Kearney as Chief Executive O icer, succeeding Founder John Byrne in the role at the end of March. Byrne is continuing as a non-executive director with a significant minority shareholding in the company. Kearney has over 25 years’ experience leading national and global teams for companies such as SAP, Oracle and Dell.

MAIREAD MALONE

NEW TITLE: Sales Director for Ireland

EMPLOYER: Logicalis UK&I

PREVIOUS ROLE: Regional VP for Channel and Cloud Sales Europe, Sungard Availability Services

IT solutions and managed services provider Logicalis UK&I has appointed Mairead Malone as Sales Director for Ireland. With over 25 years’ experience in the IT industry, Malone has worked in all segments of the channel, from resellers to managed service providers. She previously held sales and management roles at Sungard Availability Services, Arrow (formerly Commtech) and Dell Technologies (formerly EMC).

GENDER LEADERSHIP GAP HIGHLIGHTED IN NEW RESEARCH

Data released by LinkedIn on International Women’s Day has revealed that female professionals only hold one quarter of C-suite roles in Ireland with 31% of senior leadership roles overall held by female workers. At entry level, women account for 46% of roles in Ireland, dropping to 42% at manager level. The research identified a gender leadership gap issue across all sectors, except hospitals and healthcare. “Tackling the gender leadership gap comes down to helping women at the early stages of their career to thrive and flourish as they rise up the career ladder,” said Sharon McCooey, Head of LinkedIn in Ireland.

UNLOCKING POTENTIAL

winner Martin McKay, Founder and CEO of Texthelp, is passionate about using technology and data science to help people in education and in the workplace.

Q: Have you always had a business head on your shoulders?

Martin McKay (MMcK): I always had summer and weekend jobs when I was growing up and was always trying to earn money, but a er university I decided to work for myself. I have never been to a job interview. I was born on a farm near the village of Upperlands in Co Derry. When I was young my Dad had a pretty severe stroke. He lost the ability to communicate and use his right arm and leg. at got me exposed to disability and also to the impact of someone not being able to make themselves understood. at is when I learned rsthand about some of the barriers that can exist in the world for people with di erent sets of abilities.

Q: What inspired you to set up the business in 1996?

MMcK: At that time assistive technology was not broadly available. Most people were unaware that assistive technology even existed at all. In those days most written communication was on paper. My Dad couldn’t communicate or access information or services without help. Until then he was a very driven and independent man. He remained driven, but lost a lot of independence. I know he didn’t enjoy having to depend on others for communication and o en people were making assumptions about what he wanted to say. I believe that we all deserve to live and communicate with as much independence as possible. I decided to work hard to make a change – and I knew that technology held a possible answer.

Martin McKay, Founder and CEO, Texthelp

us stay ahead of the market and deliver products that are simple, accessible and help to deliver inclusive classrooms and workplaces.”

Q: What would you say is the secret of Texthelp’s success?

MMcK: e 360 people who work at Texthelp are what make it successful. Our people care about making a positive impact on people’s lives. We work hard to understand what our customers need and make products for them that are easy to use and deliver a real bene t.

We are constantly pushing to advance our technology and are investing in big data, learning analytics, machine learning and natural language processing. Always working on new ideas, our commitment to innovation has helped us stay ahead of the market and deliver products that are simple, accessible and help to deliver inclusive classrooms and workplaces. For example, when Google introduced Chromebooks in 2014 we were rst to market with a special education product and in 2016 were named as Google’s Technlogy Partner of the Year.

Q: Can you outline your global growth strategy to date?

MMcK: ere are four vectors of growth in the business. e rst is expanding into the underserved markets that we operate in with our existing products. For example, we have achieved almost 20% market penetration in the US and we believe we can double that in the coming years. We have 11 global o ces now and half of our business is in North America.

e second is product-led growth. We have good relationships with our existing customers, and understand their needs and can grow our existing customer market by introducing new products. irdly, mergers and acquisitions have allowed us to establish a global presence with market-leading products in the UK, US, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Australia.

Finally, we believe that the potential of the workplace market is signi cantly bigger than the education market. Employers are starting to value neurodiverse talent and nally understand that there are lots of incredibly bright, intelligent and driven dyslexic people who can thrive in the workplace with a little support. We are proud to be working with partners such as EY and PwC to help build a more inclusive working world.

Q: Where do you expect to go from here with Texthelp?

MMcK: Texthelp is a pretty exciting business to be working in at the moment. We made a few acquisitions over the past two years in Norway, Denmark and the US. Integrating the businesses has been really interesting. Our acquisitions have given us access to more technology and we plan to roll out some great new features across the product range as a result.

I believe we can achieve huge growth in the markets that we currently operate in. I think I am most excited about our workplace market. Since we released a workplace version of our core product Read&Write in

LESSONS LEARNED

Martin McKay, Founder and CEO of Texthelp, shares some key insights from his entrepreneurial journey Don’t think about yourself; think about what you can do for other people. Find a real problem that you can solve for people — the more people the better. It needs to be something you are passionate about. That passion and purpose will sustain you and your team when times get tough.

Have a clear vision for the future — what does the future look like when you succeed? What societal impact will you have? Get a clear and detailed vision for your business written down and share it broadly – it will attract people who want to be a part of it.

Always hire people that are better than you this means you’re pushed to the top of a pyramid of bright people. Never under-hire, always take on people who share your passion and values and ensure you’re giving the team ownership and autonomy.

And finally, love change — change keeps you alive in an ever-evolving world and it keeps your business young.

2021 it has been great to see the impact it is having for both employers and their employees. ere is a much higher awareness of dyslexia now and there is nally an understanding that dyslexia is not an intelligence issue.

Over 200 million people across the world have used our products to date. We have ambitious plans to positively impact the literacy and understanding of a billion people by 2030. at is going to mean moving beyond the markets that we currently operate in and looking east, making an impact in Asia and Africa.

“Over 200 million people have used our products. We have ambitious plans to positively impact the literacy and understanding of a billion people by 2030.”

COMPANY: Eli Lilly

SECTOR: Pharmaceuticals LOCATION: Limerick

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Eli Lilly is increasing investment to nearly US$1bn at its new biologics drug substance manufacturing facility at IDA Ireland’s Business Park in Raheen in Limerick, which is expected to create 300 jobs. Construction of the new 500,000 sq ft facility is underway.

COMPANY:

SEPAM SECTOR: Engineering and construction

ANNOUNCEMENT:

LOCATION: Clonmel

Engineering and project management company SEPAM is to hire over 100 people in Clonmel, Co Tipperary. This will include design engineering, commercial and admin roles to support expansion in existing industry sectors and in the new emerging energy transition market.

COMPANY: Cognizant

SECTOR: Professional services

LOCATION: Across Ireland

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Professional services company Cognizant plans to create 320 jobs across its Irish operations over the next three years, bringing its workforce here to over 1,800 people. With a focus on life sciences, the aim is make 100 hires this year.

OpportunityIRELAND

COMPANY: SupportNinja

SECTOR: Outsourcing services

LOCATION: Cork City

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Award-winning, Dallas-headquartered business process outsourcing company SupportNinja has announced the establishment of a new CX Centre of Excellence in Cork City. This expansion is expected to create 50 jobs over the next three years.

Filling skills gaps with returning senior execs

COMPANY: Megalift

SECTOR: Manufacturing LOCATION: Co Monaghan

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Irish-owned heavy lift equipment manufacturer Megalift has announced over 10 new jobs and a significant expansion of its operations, including a 30,000 sq ft development alongside its existing manufacturing facility in Ballinode, Co Monaghan.

Professional services firm BDO has launched a new initiative to get senior executives back into the workforce in senior roles on a full- or part-time basis. The first of its kind in Ireland, ‘Experienced Hires’ o ers individuals the roles in BDO’s o ices in Dublin, Cork and Limerick on a competitive salary while supporting them through a return-to-work training programme.

COMPANY: Viatel Technology Group

SECTOR: Telecoms and digital services

LOCATION: Dublin, Limerick and Dundalk

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Currently employing 275 people, Viatel Technology Group is to create 50 new jobs over the next 18 months as it expands its security portfolio, while continuing to grow its share of the domestic market for digital services and business telecoms.

“Faced with the war for talent, employers are grappling with sta shortages. There are still some largely untapped pools of talent that could help to fill the gaps, such as qualified and experienced people who exited the workforce for family commitments, sabbaticals, early retirement or career breaks.”

Niamh O’Brien, Director - Talent Management, BDO in Ireland

InBusiness highlights some of the companies that are expanding operations and generating new employment opportunities across the country.

Over the next five years, Bord Gáis Energy is committed to becoming the marketleading net-zero solutions provider in Ireland while at the same time helping its customers transition a ordably to a lower-carbon future.

SHARING the JOURNEY

ord Gáis Energy’s new plumbing and heating apprenticeship programme went live in March, starting with the rst cohort of candidates in Dublin and soon to be rolled out in Cork and Limerick. A goal has been set that 30% of the apprentices will be female by 2030 – a strong signal of intent to help to increase the proportion of female apprentices in Ireland from its current low rate of 6%.

With plans to create more than 300 positions over the next ve years, Bord Gáis Energy has welcomed all applications regardless of age, gender identity or background. e programme has been “inundated” with applications from a wide range of candidates, from school leavers to older people keen to reinvent their careers, according to Bord Gáis Energy’s Director of Services and Solutions Teresa Purtill –who is personally passionate about diversity as the organisation’s Ambassador for Neurodiversity.

“We have been very encouraged by the response from women, with many saying they were prompted to apply as the ‘30% by 2030’ target really resonated with them. We are currently well on track to achieving this target and may have to revise it upwards,” she says. Bord Gáis Energy was inspired by parent company Centrica’s plan to recruit 1,000 apprentices over the next two years, with the ambition of 50% being women.

our Services team.”

“The retrofit plan presents opportunities for thousands of skilled workers, but also an opportunity to transform our business and significantly expand

Teresa

Purtill,

Director of Services and Solutions, Bord

Gáis Energy

“The National Residential Retrofit Plan, which aims to achieve the equivalent of 500,000 homes retrofitted to a Building Energy Rating of B2 and the installation of 400,000 heat pumps in existing premises by the end of 2030, is a major opportunity to support the transition to a lower-carbon future. However, it is facing significant implementation challenges,” says Purtill.

“There are critical skills shortages in this area and significant investment is required to deliver the workforce needed. Our new apprenticeship programme reflects our commitment to being part of the national effort to solve the problem. The retrofit plan presents opportunities for thousands of skilled workers, but also an opportunity to transform our business and significantly expand our Services team.”

Imagining a better way

The new apprenticeship drive is one of the latest developments in Bord Gáis Energy’s transformation journey to become a leading net-zero business in Ireland by 2045 and to help its customers reach net zero by 2050. As its ‘Imagining a better way’ sustainability strategy outlines, Bord Gáis Energy’s ambition is to use its “services, footprint and propositions to better both people and planet”.

As part of the ‘People’ pillar of its sustainability strategy, Bord Gáis Energy ramped up its efforts to offer significant career opportunities to its existing engineers in 2022, by providing upskilling in areas such as team leadership and renewable technologies.

“We have been working closely with the British Gas training facility for the past five years. Our mission is to upskill engineers to be home energy experts and trusted energy advisors. This has included training our existing gas service and boiler engineers to install heat pumps,” Purtill explains.

“Heat pumps offer an attractive alternative to fossil-fuel heating systems for well-insulated homes but must be considered in the context of a property’s overall energy efficiency. Our engineers offer advice on the suitability of heat pumps and other installations, helping people to make the right choices on how best to decarbonise their homes.

“Having previously partnered with Energlaze, we recently introduced our own offering, allowing customers to order directly from us and have a heat pump installed by one of our engineers.”

The Services and Solutions department was newly established within Bord Gáis Energy at the end of 2021 with the purpose of spearheading the drive towards a sustainable energy future. Led by Purtill, the department has the specific responsibility of rolling out innovative products and solutions to help its over 730,000 business and residential customers with their energy usage.

“We have made significant progress. The services business grew by 24% last year, with 65,000 visits into homes. Our engineers are already being seen as trusted advisors and we want to build on that further,” she says.

“Bord Gáis Energy’s sustainability strategy is deeply rooted in helping to reduce energy consumption and making the switch away from fossil fuels. With this in mind, one of the key areas we have made significant progress in over the past 12 months is solar-panel installation.”

Solar partnership

Building on their long-standing relationship, Bord Gáis Energy and the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) launched a new partnership last November, which is offering solar

“Our objective is to bring affordable, reliable and innovative solar solutions for Irish farmers to market that are suitable for a wide range of farms and sectors.”

PROTECTING AND SUPPORTING CUSTOMERS

In the face of economic challenges, Bord Gáis Energy is seeking to protect customers through absorbing some of the worst increases in wholesale energy prices. It has put in place a €3.6m energy support fund for customers experiencing challenges with the cost of living, committing 10% of operating profit from other parts of the business to further support customers who need it most right now.

“Supporting the most vulnerable in society is very important to us through our ongoing work with Focus Ireland, St Vincent de Paul, MABS and Alone. There is a dedicated team within Bord Gáis Energy and 18,000 payment plans were set up in 2022 to help people through this di icult period,” says Teresa Purtill, Director of Services and Solutions. As an extension of its work with Focus Ireland since 2015, Bord Gáis participates in its PETE programme to o er employment opportunities to those at risk of homelessness.

solutions to Irish farmers. Based on IFA member feedback, they identi ed that farmers across all sectors were seeking a renewable energy solution due to rising input costs and the environmental bene ts. e launch followed a pilot project to establish the commercial feasibility of the installation of roof-top solar technology on Irish farms. e pilot worked closely

with farmers from di erent sectors, farm sizes and geographies, clearly and objectively establishing the bene ts of solar for all farmers involved.

“We have seen a strong expression of interest in solar solutions from farmers in the past three months. e rst surveys are in progress ahead of installations on farms. What sets Bord Gáis Energy apart from other service providers is that we o er to be there throughout the life cycle of these products, providing technical expertise and support. From spending time on the pilot among the agricultural community, it was clear farmers were looking for trusted and reliable advice on making the appropriate investments,” says Purtill.

“ ere is no doubt that there is a strong appetite for solar technology among farmers. Changes in available funding, for example through Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes, will signi cantly increase demand. Our objective is to bring a ordable, reliable and innovative solar solutions for Irish farmers to market that are suitable for a wide range of farms and sectors.” e solar proposition is not limited to farming; a number of Bord Gáis Energy’s residential customers have already expressed an interest in solar installation as well as packages for energy supply incorporating solar.

“Our approach with business customers is no di erent to residential. We will be bringing a new range of innovative smart products for business customers to market as part of our commitment to support Irish SMEs on their decarbonisation journeys,” adds Purtill.

“At Bord Gáis Energy, we fully support the Government’s target of reaching 80% renewable energy by 2030. Our current renewable supply portfolio is 350MW from wind and solar power-purchase agreements. We are contracted for 530MW by 2025 and are looking to treble our current rate by 2030 with projects under development.”

IMPROVING SECURITY OF ENERGY SUPPLY

In January, Bord Gáis Energy and its parent company Centrica plc, announced they had started a long-term investment in Ireland, with over €250m approved for the construction of two innovative new power plants. When completed, the new plants – located in Athlone, Co Roscommon and Profile Park, Co Dublin – will provide 200MW of flexible, gas-fired power generation; enough to keep 100,000 homes fully powered all year round. Because they’re flexible, they can easily be switched on and o as demand peaks, helping to make Ireland’s energy supply more stable and secure.

“These so-called ‘peaker’ plants are capable of moving from a standing start to full power generation inside of six minutes. Both are expected to be online by the end of 2024 and will be hydrogen-enabled, in preparation for running on renewable gas when it is available,” says Teresa Purtill, Director of Services and Solutions, Bord Gáis Energy.

MENTOR: PAT M c CANN

PERSON PEOPLE

Retired Chief Executive O icer of Ireland’s largest hotel operator Dalata Hotel Group Pat McCann believes good leadership is about playing to your strengths while encouraging others to do the same, writes SORCHA CORCORAN.

Re ecting on his attitude to leadership throughout his career, Pat McCann is reminded of the story of President John F Kennedy’s visit to Cape Canaveral in 1962 where he came across a janitor mopping the oor and asked him what he did for NASA. His reply was: “I am helping to put a man on the moon.”

“I have always felt it is important to have a deep understanding of what each person

in the organisation does and to build a relationship with all of your people. At one stage pre-Covid-19 in Dalata there was the guts of 5,000 employees, so it wasn’t easy, but I made a point of treating everyone with the utmost respect, regardless of what they did. A kitchen porter is as important as anyone else because the whole kitchen system would collapse without his input,” says McCann.

“There wasn’t a part of the business I wasn’t involved in but I allowed myself not to be very structured in terms of allocat-

PAT MCCANN ON… SUCCESSION PLANNING

“I spent five or six years thinking about who my successor as CEO of Dalata would be and always clearly said it would be an internal appointment and a seamless transition.”

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

“You should never make assumptions that somebody better educated is somehow better. When you give people self-belief you can see them transform before your eyes.”

HOTEL MANAGEMENT

“My view on hotels is that you’re selling time in a limited number of rooms. It is a terribly perishable product so I always put a big emphasis on maximising revenue on any given day.”

ing so much time for this and that. I had an open-door policy and wanted anyone on the staff to feel welcome to have a conversation with me. This can be distracting, but I always felt that these were the people doing the job for me and I needed to make sure they could perform at their best.

“The secret to the success of Dalata is its people. One of my legacies I hope is that I changed people’s lives for the better by giving them the opportunity to grow as I did myself. Since my time at Jurys, I was very focused on training and growing people internally. Dalata didn’t go outside to employ senior people, down to my own successor Dermot Crowley. What that did was keep the culture intact. I believe if you start making senior appointments from outside, the culture starts to diminish.”

McCann’s conviction about the merits of encouraging people to work their way up in hospitality didn’t come out of nowhere. In all, he spent 52 years in the hospitality sector, first getting the bug as a 16-year old working during school holidays in the Yeats Country Hotel in Rosses Point, Co Sligo. When Ryan’s acquired the hotel in 1969, he was approached to do a trainee management course with the group.

He stayed with the Ryan hotel chain until 1989 when he joined the Jurys group and went on to become Chief Executive Officer of Jurys Doyle, before helping to establish Dalata Hotel Group in 2007.

“One of my legacies I hope is that I changed people’s lives for the better by giving them the opportunity to grow as I did myself.”

Pat McCann, former Chief Executive Officer, Dalata Hotel Group

Renewed vigour

“When I left Jurys in 2006 I was in my mid50s and thought I might retire. I had a lovely little consultancy business, which did well, but was never going to be enough. Then one beautiful February day I met Rory Quirke and Gavin Burke of TVC Holdings in the Radisson in Stillorgan to talk about an idea they wanted to invest in and we decided to put a hotel group together – it was as simple as that,” says McCann.

Since then, Dalata has grown to be Ireland’s largest hotel operator, managing 50 properties under the Clayton and Maldron brands both here and in the UK, as well as managing a portfolio of partner hotels. In 2022, it made its first foray into continental Europe, taking on the leasehold of the Nikko Hotel in Dusseldorf, Germany.

“I am delighted to see Dalata prospering since I left over a year ago; that is my joy as it is my baby. Some people moved with me from Jurys when Dalata started and so never had a different boss for 25 years. It was so important to me to maintain the culture of growing people from within,” says McCann.

“Because it was clear that Dalata offered such opportunities, recruitment became far easier. For example, there would be 1,000 applications for 55 places on our graduate programme each year.”

The hotel group’s dedicated training arm Dalata Academy covers all types of training from basic skills up to senior management capabilities in association with the Irish Management Institute. “During Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021, 95,000 online training and development courses were delivered through Dalata Academy. We kept all of our senior management teams on, which paid off in spades, and kept all of our people – even if they were laid off –engaged with online courses,” notes McCann.

Eye on efficiency

One of the people McCann has witnessed progressing over the years is Ronan McAuley, CEO and Founder of tech company Alkimii. He was Group IT Manager at Jurys Doyle Group from 1999 to 2003 during McCann’s tenure as Chief Executive there.

Founded by McAuley in 2015 with a mobile-first approach, Alkimii provides a platform for hotel managers and their people with various apps focused on HR management, productivity and property management. Over 300 properties in Ireland and the UK have installed the Alkimii platform.

CONTINUOUS INNOVATION

When Pat McCann started out in hospitality over 50 years ago, everything was done manually and written out by hand. “I remember the first time we got a photocopier, it was so exciting, then a fax machine, which was a huge innovation when it started. We have come so far in such a short space of time with technology. People tend to forget that. The simplest little technologies changed our lives in the industry. When you have that mindset of using technology well, you can change your business dramatically,” he says. “The use of technology in Dalata meant we achieved world-beating margins. In the hotel business you can’t stand still; you have to keep innovating and moving the dial with consistent customer care high on the agenda. We had everything down to a fine art at Dalata, from design templates to beds specifically designed for us by Kaymed in Co Kildare that were used right across Ireland and in the UK.”

Dalata Hotel Group was its first customer and McCann is now an investor in the company.

“I’ve known Ronan for 30 years and knew the insight he had into what drives the hotel business. Being a first adopter of Alkimii allowed Dalata to be world-beating in terms of operational efficiency. While we had a consistent strategy, we were always reviewing it and adapting it,” says McCann.

“A lot of communication was needed to take people through why things were changing and what the outcomes should be. Al-

kimii was great for that, allowing us to update every employee in an instant through an app on their mobile device. It is a powerful tool.”

Alkimii is one of three technology companies McCann has invested in since he stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of Dalata in December 2021. The other two are UK furniture retailer aggregator Unfurnish.com and Irish food-tech company Nutritics. McCann has also committed to investing in Irish investment house Elkstone, where he joined as Chairman in February.

Involved investor

When it comes to choosing where to invest, McCann says it is very simple for him: “The key for me essentially is investing in people. So far, if I liked the people and the product, I wanted to get involved – and very actively so too, rather than being a silent investor.

“Start-ups often have a lot of good ingredients and a great idea but probably lack the ability to build a business and structure. They can struggle with building a structure too quickly or too slowly or being in the right place at the right time and hiring the right people.

“I spend a lot of time with the CEOs helping them to think about the management skills they need to make sure the business actually works – making sure they are working on the business rather than just in the business. If you focus on the latter, the rest goes to pot.”

Founded by Ciarán and Damian O’Kelly, Nutritics’ software helps businesses unlock the hidden value of food data to manage recipes, create labels, plan meals, publish menus and measure environmental impact in real time. With offices in London, Dublin and Sydney, it has around 135,000 customers across 150 countries.

McCann is particularly enthusiastic about the potential of this business in the sustainability space. Last July, Nutritics launched Foodprint, a fully-automated, easy-to-use carbon footprint scoring, display and Scope 3 reporting system for all food businesses. This proprietary, patented technology provides operators with metrics and insights into the impact of the food they serve.

“Contract caterers and restaurants need to get to grips with new EU ESG reporting structures coming on stream this year and figure out how they’re going to verify that what they’re doing is correct. This means a big market will open up for Foodprint, mainly among large caterers, distributors and suppliers,” notes McCann.

In addition to his chairmanship of Elkstone and involvement with the three tech companies, McCann is a non-executive director of Glenveagh Homes, Deputy Chairman of the National Maternity Hospital and is on the board of Ibec. He is also still involved with liquidator Kieran Wallace on the Sean Quinn receivership.

“I have eight jobs now. I don’t do things by halves,” he says.

“The simplest little technologies changed our lives in the industry. When you have that mindset of using technology well, you can change your business dramatically.”

AMBITION Awesome

Founded in 2020 by Kate Scott, Declan Fahy and Paul Cosgrave, HoloToyz is a new and innovative toy brand marrying the physical and digital worlds. They believe its technology will revolutionise the industry.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for the business?

Kate Scott (KS): HoloToyz was born out of passion and experience. Declan, Paul and I come from extensive digital marketing, advertising and sales backgrounds. is, coupled with our experience of parenthood, helped us to understand the true potential of a company like HoloToyz.

We constantly see and recognise the integral role technology is playing and will play in our children’s lives now and as they grow. While we know that parents are cognisant of managing screen time, we wanted to create an opportunity for children to play and learn in a fun way through exciting emerging technologies away from the open web and social media platforms.

Q: What is the concept behind HoloToyz?

KS: By nding the right balance between technological and

Declan Fahy and Kate Scott, Co-founders, HoloToyz

physical play, we are introducing exciting new technologies to young children in a safe environment. Audiovisual aids are proven to be memorable, thought-provoking and stimulating. By scanning our products (temporary tattoos, stickers, books and wall decals) with our HoloToyz app, children can now bring their favourite 2D characters and creatures to life – seeing, interacting and learning with them through immersive, mesmerising 4D animations.

Our app was created by our in-house team of awardwinning animators and augmented reality (AR) experts, who are also shareholders in our business. It doesn’t have any of the negative elements usually associated with kids’ apps and is 100% child-friendly and kidSAFEcerti ed; it’s free to download with no registration, no advertising and no in-app purchases. Our products are reasonably priced and a ordable compared to most innovative tech-toys.

Q: What are you doing in this crowded market that is di erent?

KS: All of our HoloToyz products come to life through the magic of our Awesome Reality technology. is is the rst time children can apply temporary tattoos and see their favourite characters jump to life on their skin. Our Paw Patrol range, for example, includes 10 temporary tattoos and 10 stickers, that when scanned with our app, jump to life in audio-supported 4D animation.

Children can also tap to place the characters in the room with them and interact by swiping the device to see them move and bark as well as take photos and videos beside them to share with family and friends. We have created over 100 of our own animations as part of the HoloToyz launch range.

Our interactive books designed for three- to sixyear olds come to life in breathtaking 4D animation. Each picture book includes voiceovers, subtitles and sound e ects that teach children about the personalities and habits of sea creatures, household pets and dinosaurs. Children can swipe the screen to move the animals and hear various sound e ects. We received a lot of positive feedback from parents whose children have speech and language delays and learning di culties, as our books help to engage children in a new way.

While we recognise we’re not the rst to introduce AR technology to the toy market, the simplicity, speed and performance of our app as well as the quality of our animations set us apart. Our app also works across all products, which is unusual in the toy industry and means that parents only need to download our app once. Our content is also automatically refreshed without the need to update the app.

Q: How important has Spielwarenmesse been?

KS: Having presented our products live on the Spielwarenmesse Instagram account due to the toy fair being cancelled in 2021, we were contacted by Paramount (Nickelodeon) to produce the range of Paw Patrol AR products. Paw Patrol is the number one global pre-school

brand and is owned by Spin Master, one of the largest toy companies in the world.

Winning a ToyAward at Spielwarenmesse this year gave us signi cant exposure at the world’s largest toy fair, putting us on the radar of some of the world’s largest toy distributors. e jury rated our Paw Patrol tattoos and stickers as “outstandingly innovative”. In addition, they cited the prudent introduction to new technologies, the easy-to-use app and the fair price. e international jury consisted of 13 experts from the elds of retail, industry, market research, sustainable plastics, education and toy safety. Our tattoos were selected from a total of 584 new products registered at the event.

Q: How do you plan to grow and develop the business?

KS: We are now in talks with distributors from around the globe, including the US, the UK and the EMEA and APAC regions. However, our approach is omnichannel, so our digital strategy is also very important to us. is year we will grow our presence on social media and focus on growing our online distribution through various e-commerce channels.

At Spielwarenmesse this year, we launched a new range of HoloToyz products, which included collectibles, 3D cube puzzles, jigsaw puzzles and activity sets. We are excited to bring these to market in the coming months. We aim to manufacture our products as close to our distribution areas as possible to reduce our carbon footprint.

We are currently in the process of hiring for sales and admin roles to help us to develop and execute sales strategies to help us expand our market share and increase revenue. is is an important step towards achieving our goal of global expansion.

“We wanted to create an opportunity for children to play and learn in a fun way through exciting emerging technologies.”

Irish whiskey and local food pairing at Powerscourt Distillery, Co Wicklow

Lough Ree Distillery Co-founders Sheila Mullen (CFO), Peter Clancy (CEO) and Michael Clancy (CTO)

Following a record high of 1.02 million visitors to Irish whiskey distilleries in 2019, the IrishWhiskey360° initiative was launched with a new website in January 2020 and its rst ad in Cara Magazine ahead of St Patrick’s Day that year – clearly not ideal timing from a marketing point of view.

However, the Irish Whiskey Association has stuck with the campaign aimed at supporting whiskey tourism, reporting in February that Irish whiskey distilleries attracted 677,000 visitors in 2022, up 425% on 2021; it is expecting a full recovery this year.

“Irish whiskey has undergone a phenomenal renaissance since 2010, with sales more than trebling to reach over 15 million cases, or over 180 million bottles, last year,” says William Lavelle, Director of the Irish Whiskey Association.

“It is competing unlike any other spirit category at premium level, playing into the ‘less but better’ drinking trend among consumers in the past two years. As sales grow, this drives massive interest in the category and in turn experiential tourism.”

e rebound in visitors has also been driven by the increasing number of distilleries that are now open to the public; of the 40 whiskey distilleries on the island, 27 now welcome visitors. e IrishWhiskey360° initiative showcases individual distillery stories, their

locations and the authentic and immersive experiences they o er.

“Last year, we used the campaign primarily to target incoming visitors using social media and digital advertising and achieved clickthrough rates well in excess of targets. ere were over 21,000 further click-throughs to individual distillery websites from June to August,” says Lavelle.

Passport to progress

“ e pandemic allowed us to test and pilot the Irish Whiskey Passport, which has proved very successful as a marketing tool in driving people to visit more than one distillery and stamp it they go. We got the idea from the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. People love that it is tactile and durable and many keep it as a memento of their holiday.”

Michael Clancy, CTO and Co-founder of Lough Ree Distillery in Lanesborough, Co Longford believes IrishWhiskey360° has been very e ective as a marketing approach. “While still relatively in its infancy, it’s bringing people to us and getting our name out there. We also nd that our visitors are chu ed when we

Roe & Co Distillery tour in Dublin

Taking a collective approach to promoting Irish whiskey tourism has fostered camaraderie among distilleries while helping to drive recovery in the sector, writes SORCHA CORCORAN.

hand them the Irish Whiskey Passport with us as the rst stamp – it creates a desire to visit distilleries in other parts of Ireland and a reason to come back here again,” he says.

“We have been distilling gin and vodka in our microdistillery since 2018 and started distilling Irish whiskey there in 2022, making us Ireland’s smallest Irish whiskey distillery with Geographical Indication veri cation. We’re now exporting to seven European markets and will double that this year.”

While waiting for its own whiskeys, Lough Ree has sourced some mature whiskey stock, which it is nishing in hand-picked and rare casks from European bodegas and wineries. It is building a larger, commercial scale whiskey distillery on the site.

The right blend

Bob Gray, Founder and Director of creative agency Red & Grey, built on his experience of developing the Wild Atlantic Way concept when working on IrishWhiskey360°.

“ e huge lesson learned when designing the Wild Atlantic Way was how to balance so many di erent county councils wanting to promote their areas over each other while still trying to sell the one thing together,” he says.

“With IrishWhiskey360° we concentrated on what makes each distillery di erent yet connected to each other. For example, most have the triple-distilled process in common.

e name IrishWhiskey360° came about from the idea of visitors gaining an understanding of this 360-degree process and also that it is an all-island initiative – so it works in both a micro and macro sense.”

e initiative’s tagline ‘One shared spirit’ re ects the many interesting people behind the making of Irish whiskey as well as the characters of all of the di erent Irish whiskey brands, he adds.

“Storytelling is a central part of the creative campaign and how we tell the story is important. We played on the narrative of people nearly always being with someone else while enjoying an Irish whiskey and the craic and stories that come from that.”

An example of this was a short lm Gray made with lmmaker Matthew ompson where they followed in James Joyce’s footsteps around the city of Dublin, dipping in and out of bars, chatting to people and sampling Irish whiskey.

WIDENING THE CIRCLE

“ e biggest audience for Irish whiskey tourism is American [34% of the total in 2022]. Americans tend to view Ireland as the land of saints and scholars; we don’t want to shy away from that but package it in a contemporary way,” he says.

“We post animations, videos and photo shoots on social media, piggy-backing on relevant things that are already happening. It is all about conversation and chat, interspersed with simple facts and stats to keep the rhythm going.

“It is quite unusual for any industry to have everybody in bed together on a marketing campaign. Powered by this, we have brought out booklets about the heritage of Irish whiskey, protecting the process and product and making cocktails to appeal to retailers and purchasers around the world.”

Jameson Irish Whiskey announced the latest addition to its ‘Widen the Circle’ international brand campaign in January. Once again featuring Irish comedian and actress Aisling Bea, it is based on the idea that life is enriched by the magic of authentic human connections.

The new spot, called ‘The Drop’, is the story of a drop of Irish rainwater that makes its way through the distillery and becomes Jameson Irish Whiskey, travelling to every corner of the globe to ultimately ‘Widen the Circle’. It neatly ties in with the IrishWhiskey360° campaign’s references to Irish rain and the di erent names for it.

As part of the shoot, Bea spent a day in Midleton Distillery, where Jameson is produced, learning all about the brand and meeting the faces behind it. The short-form social content, dubbed the ‘Jameson Whiskey Intern’, o ers a humorous insight into her day which involved learning about the whiskey production process and culminated in the creation of her bespoke ‘Bumble Bea’ cocktail.

The campaign will roll out globally throughout 2023 across TV, out-of-home, digital and social channels.

Aisling Bea in Jameson’s ‘Widen the Circle’ campaign

“The Irish Whiskey Passport has proved very successful as a marketing tool in driving people to visit more than one distillery and stamp it they go.”

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MATURITY

The results of the 2022 Digital Leaders in Ireland study released by digital consultancy BearingPoint in January reveal considerable progress among businesses here on the digital maturity path. Ireland has moved up the ranking to third place when compared to the other 10 countries in the study.

e study assessed 679 companies (35 Irish, 644 UK and European and 50 from the US) against criteria related to four dimensions of digitilisation: digital marketing, digital product experience, e-commerce and e-CRM. Countries and companies were scored on a scale ranging from ‘Failed’ (0) to ‘Outstanding’ (5). e country comparison was scored by analysing the top 30 companies in each country.

On that basis, Ireland achieved an average overall score of 3.43 for its digital maturity. Meanwhile, Virgin Media achieved the highest rating as an individual digital leader in Ireland with an average score of 3.67 (see panel for top ten companies) with the telco sector emerging as the most digitally mature industry here, scoring 3.5 overall.

Four other industry sectors were assessed in Ireland: banking, insurance, energy and media. Insurance and energy both scored 3.1, with banking achieving an overall score of 3 having been rated the most digitally-mature industry for the previous two years.

“ e telco sector has been consistently one of the strongest performers across all countries for the past number of years and is worth watching. Telco companies will continue their focus in 2023 on advanced technologies, such as arti cial intelligence, data analytics, 5G and automation to improve broadband and network performance and customer service,” says Gillian O’Sullivan, Country Leader for BearingPoint in Ireland.

“ e top ten companies in Ireland demonstrated digital maturity across the four key dimensions analysed. ese capabilities are required to capture and hold the interest of consumers before turning that interest into new sales – all while retaining existing customers.

“It is very encouraging to see Irish companies performing so well this year when compared to their counterparts in other countries. It is a real sign that Irish business leaders are committed and more fully invested in the digital transformation of their organisations to better equip them for the challenges they are facing.”

Engaging and focused

O’Sullivan highlighted some key insights to illustrate what makes digital leaders stand out from the pack. For example, the research found that Instagram is the most popular platform for advertising across 92% of companies in the study. Sky was the top-rated company for digital marketing in Ireland.

“Two-thirds of companies in the study displayed at least two types of engaging content for target customers such as videos and articles to increase conversion rates and allow customers to make more informed decisions,” she adds, noting that Aviva was rated highest in Ireland for digital product experience.

Regarding e-commerce and e-CRM, 42% of customer-focused companies (excluding B2B) o er click-and-collect services while 87% of companies reviewed provide customers with access to an online pro le where they can manage their own data. AXA ranked highest for e-commerce and Bank of Ireland was Number 1 for e-CRM in the Irish sample.

“E-CRM had the most signi cant improvement of the four dimensions in Ireland year on year as it ranked lowest in the 2021 study. Across many of the Irish companies included in the report, we can see the

Ireland and Irish businesses have come out well in BearingPoint’s latest Digital Leaders study, which holds valuable insights into what it takes to make digitalisation work for customers.

“These capabilities are required to capture and hold the interest of consumers before turning that interest into new sales – all while retaining existing customers.”

TOP TEN DIGITAL LEADERS – IRELAND

majority improved on their customer service scores from 2021,” notes O’Sullivan.

“What makes a digital leader naturally changes over time, but our study has highlighted the key themes which are prevalent today: customer centricity, personalisation, data centricity, innovation and sustainability.

“Digitalisation is transforming the customer relationship, creating opportunities for new and established organisations to better understand customer needs and establish business models that are more in tune with customer expectations.”

FIVE CRITICAL STEPS TO DIGITAL LEADERSHIP

1 2 3 4 5

Placing customers at the centre of value propositions

For digital leaders, everything starts with customers. They understand them, personalise o erings for them and make them feel special.

Generating a positive emotional response through all interactions

Digital-leading companies focus on the psychological and behavioral, as emotions engendered by a product last longer than the product’s features, however excellent.

Delivering value with a suite of advanced technology that synchronises activities and leverages data centricity

Digital leaders focus on getting everbetter data sets and exploiting them with advanced analytics to provide enhanced experiences and build a more trusted brand.

Innovating in all aspects of their ecosystem

Innovation is a constant, ongoing focus for digital-leading companies. It permeates their organisation and interactions with their customers and their broader ecosystem.

Integrating ethics, sustainability and a broad world view in day-today activities

Digital leaders take a stance and use their scale and influence to drive change, while being an exemplar of sustainable, ethical practice.

Source: 2022 Digital Leaders, BearingPoint

Gillian O’Sullivan, Country Manager, Ireland, BearingPoint

1. Virgin Media

2. AXA

3. Three

4. Vodafone

5. SSE Airtricity

6. Revolut

7. Sky

8. Aviva

9. Electric Ireland

10. Bank of Ireland

Source: Digital Leaders 2022, BearingPoint

Skills & Talent

SIAR I N G THEBAR

Sinéad Aherne quali ed as a chartered accountant in 2010 a week a er playing for the winning Dublin team in the AllIreland Senior Ladies’ Football Championship. Now a director at KPMG, she captained Dublin when the team went on to win the title again in 2017, 2018 and 2020. At an event held in January at KPMG’s Platform X studio in Dublin in partnership with 30% Club Ireland, Aherne was one of the panelists discussing the role of sport in the professional development of women. It coincided with the release of research

which found that 75% of female decision makers in businesses nationwide have participated in sport in some level; this rises to 90% for female CEOs. e rst of its kind in Ireland, the research commissioned by KPMG and conducted by iReach revealed that 88% of those surveyed believe that the skills they have learned through sport are transferable to the workplace.

Teamwork (90%), con dence (87%) and self-belief (63%) were all cited by those surveyed as top skills they had developed through their participation in sport that are transferable to a career. Similar research in the UK and the US has indicated that women who partake in sport are more likely to be in management roles.

“Sport helps you to develop skills from a young age without even realising it. For me, building con dence and self belief has been a big one;

New research has brought to light how participation in sport has positively influenced female leadership in business and the need to make this more of a talking point, writes SORCHA CORCORAN.

this is key as studies have shown that women underestimate their performance and abilities in the workplace compared to men who tend to overestimate what they can do,” said Aherne.

“As a team captain communicating tactics both on and o the pitch and guiding younger people joining the team has proved really valuable in a steering role in professional services.”

She added that playing for Dublin meant she naturally learned the importance of work-life balance. “December is a very busy month in professional services. In 2020 I tore my hamstring in the semi- nal of the All-Ireland and needed four weeks to get back to form. I asked my boss was there anything that could stay o my desk for the month. A transaction was closing and I was answering last-minute emails on 16 December; then went on to play in the nal on 20 December,” she recalled.

“I learned to accept that there are times when you do work or sport better and you never get to do everything perfectly; that there are ups and downs with one or the other. I became able to compartmentalise and establish good boundaries. ere is also a crossover with dealing with defeat in sport and disappointment in work.”

Over half (56%) of women in the survey believe sport is important when trying to achieve a good work-life balance while 74% nd it useful for networking or business development – an area where Aherne has noticed a shi .

“When Dublin won the women’s All-Ireland in 2010 there was hardly any awareness or visibility

WOMEN IN SPORT AND BUSINESS

“As a team captain communicating tactics both on and o the pitch has proved really valuable in a steering role in professional services.”

of it. By 2017 how this was perceived and valued was so di erent. is change has given me the ability to start conversations and break the ice with clients or teams; to get to know people better and do business with people as opposed to companies,” she said.

Highlight for hiring

Paul McCabe, Chief Operating O cer of VLE erapeutics and member of the 30% Club Ireland steering committee, was also on the panel at the KPMG event. Established in 2021, VLE is a “medicine accelerator” that is focused on slashing the timeline to patients by utilising an adaptive, exible manufacturing approach.

McCabe zoned in on the research nding that 45% of those surveyed look to see if participation in sport is included on a CV when hiring a new sta member.

» 94% of women in business would encourage a female relative to participate in sport

» 58% believe that participating in sport has positively impacted their professional career

» 87% say sport builds confidence

» 86% state it is a great way to meet people

» 69% believe it builds communication skills

» 64% believe it builds leadership skills

» 69% believe they perform these skills better in the workplace due to their participation in sport.

Source: Impact of Sport on Women in Business report – KPMG and 30% Club

“ is statistic really struck me as having coached a lot in sport I understand the value of what that brought to me in business. We make medicines every day which requires the ability to work as team, problem-solve and make the right decisions as well as having that spark of innovation – these are all things you see in sport at any level,” he said.

“A female head of engineering I hired had nothing on her CV about her playing in a camogie championship semi- nal and coaching a club. Delving into this during her interview opened up what she had learned from this, such as leadership, strategy development and building teams. We require people who are technically excellent but this kind of experience establishes whether a person is the right cultural t with the right behaviours.

“It made me think are we missing something as employers generally. A man will talk about how he played for an Under-6 GAA team, whereas women don’t think to mention playing sport at a high level. ere is a real opportunity to do something simple and di erent here as the skills are so transferable.”

Sinéad Aherne, Director, KPMG

Shannon Chamber’s Strategic Plan 2023 – 2026

Launched in February, Shannon Chamber’s Strategic Plan 2023-2026 contains six key objectives to ensure that Shannon’s legacy for pioneering, inspirational and entrepreneurial achievements endures and is recognised. These include championing the delivery of the Shannon Town Centre Masterplan and promoting the concept of ‘Brand Shannon’ to grow the region’s economy and connectivity. “The plan has been framed to perpetuate Shannon’s unique reputation as a powerful business hub and ensure that its sphere of influence continues to permeate throughout the region,” said Chief Executive of Shannon Chamber Helen Downes. This is the first time that a Shannon Chamber plan has been prepared following extensive collaboration with board directors, Chamber staff, Chamber members, and key stakeholders

Waterford Chamber launches new podcast

Waterford Chamber has launched a new podcast called ‘Getting to Know You’ in partnership with Waterford Local Enterprise Office. Presented by the Chamber’s Operations Officer Lynda Lawton, it features interviews with local business people and debates around topical issues. “We are starting with our own Chamber President Paul Nolan, who opens up about his childhood and family life and talks about the current economic climate,” she said. In other news, the South East Regional Jobs & Skills Fair on 4 March organised by Waterford Chamber was a “phenomenal success” – with 50 companies recruiting and attracting around 2,000 people – and Haleon was named Overall Waterford Business of the Year at the Waterford Business Awards in February.

CHAMBER COMMENT

Lynda Lawton, Operations Officer, Waterford Chamber

Shannon Chamber President Eoin Gavin and CEO Helen Downes (centre) pictured with Chamber board directors at the launch of the Chamber’s Strategic Plan 2023 -2026

A ROUND-UP OF ALL THE NEWS AND EVENTS FROM THE CHAMBER NETWORK NATIONWIDE

“The greatest challenge our members face is the lack of available talent, which is driven by affordable and appropriate housing being unavailable across most of the country.”

Ian Talbot, Chief Executive, Chambers Ireland, speaking at the Joint Oireachtas Enterprise Trade and Employment Committee on 1 March

ShopLK gift card sales reach over €4m

Annual sales of ShopLK gift cards have topped the €4m mark for the first time. First established in 2004 by Letterkenny Chamber as a local shopping initiative, ShopLK has gone from strength to strength since moving to the gift card in 2015, with gift card sales increasing year on year. Kristine Reynolds, Chamber President, said: “The increase of 34% exceeded all our expectations; 2021 sales were €3,028,446 and this year they reached an incredible €4,066,695. We have seen corporate sales increase year after year as businesses increasingly chose the ShopLK Gift Card as a reward for their employees.”

The ShopLK gift card is redeemable at over 240 member outlets.

Cross-border tourism conference in Co Louth

Dundalk Chamber organised a crossborder tourism conference entitled ‘Growing your visitors – Learning from the best’ on 29 March. Held in the Four Seasons Hotel, Carlingford, Co Louth, the free-to-attend, half-day event was sponsored by Louth Local Development, Louth County Council, Louth Local Enterprise Office, Newry Chamber and The Marshes Shopping Centre. It brought together experts from various tourism projects around Ireland and the UK, providing practical tips and workshops.

Minister

Coveney visits Cork Chamber

Cork Chamber welcomed Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment Simon Coveney to its offices recently for a discussion focused on policy, enterprise enablers and ensuring Cork’s future growth and attractiveness are supported through the delivery of strategic projects. The agenda also covered the top issues affecting member businesses, including talent attraction, inflation and energy costs, business supports and availability of housing. In February, Cork Chamber held its annual dinner in City Hall and also announced Stryker as the Overall and International Cork Company of the Year 2023.

Minister Simon Coveney with Conor Healy (CEO), Ronan Murray, Bo Browne, Rory Kelleher and Ashley Amato, Cork Chamber

Una McGoey, President, Dundalk Chamber

Investment theme at Dublin Chamber AGM

Speaking at Dublin Chamber’s AGM Dinner on 23 February, Dublin Chamber President and Managing Director of Olytico Stephen O’Leary told over 600 leading business representatives, An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and other highranking government officials that the new Planning and Development Bill will help reduce the barriers to investment in housing and infrastructure. “It is clear to us that cities will remain the drivers of future growth. Therefore, continued investment in Dublin must be a government priority,” he said, adding that more must be done to support entrepreneurs: “We call on government to introduce a 20% rate of Capital Gains Tax for investment in indigenous firms.”

CHAMBER CAPTION

Drogheda Chamber meets with Minister Richmond

In February, Drogheda & District Chamber gave a briefing to Neale Richmond, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The topics discussed included the progression of the Port Access Northern Cross Route to a conclusion at Tom Roe’s Point and the ongoing development of Drogheda as a premier location in Ireland. “We had a broad-ranging discussion and it was richly positive. Drogheda is a booming town and with the support of IDA Ireland remains a key player in business and industry on the east coast,” said Chamber President Hubert Murphy.

Cobh & Harbour Chamber has welcomed back its Business Breakfast Series for 2023 in sponsorship with Port of Cork. One of the guest speakers so far was EirGrid’s Chief Infrastructure Officer Michael Mahon (second from left). Also pictured are Eoin McGettigan, Chief Executive, Port of Cork, Johanna Murphy, President and Toddy Stafford, Vice President, Cobh & Harbour Chamber.

Fergus O’Dowd TD, Irene McKeown, Minister of State Neale Richmond, Chamber President Hubert Murphy, Linda Ennis and Robert Murray

Mary Rose Burke, CEO, Dublin Chamber, Stephen O’Leary, President, Dublin Chamber, An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Frank O’Keeffe, Managing Partner, EY Ireland

Celebrating 100 years

On 2 March Chambers Ireland celebrated its one-hundredth anniversary with friends and colleagues from across the country in the wonderful surroundings of St Patrick's Hall, Dublin Castle.

Chambers Ireland was delighted to be joined by An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson and European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness at its 100-year anniversary celebration event.

Those attending heard from each of these speakers about the importance of the Chamber network in facilitating business, driving sustainability and being a powerful voice for change.

Also at the event was respected historical author Dr Kieran McCarthy. To mark the occasion Chambers Ireland commissioned Dr McCarthy to write a commemorative centenary book, Championing Ireland. Chambers Ireland – 100 Years Advancing Business Together, which charts the history of Chambers Ireland since its establishment in 1923.

Chambers Ireland is looking forward to championing Ireland on behalf of its members long into the future.

An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar

The Chambers Ireland 100th anniversary event in St Patrick’s Hall, Dublin Castle

To mark the occasion Chambers Ireland commissioned Dr McCarthy to write a commemorative centenary book, Championing Ireland. Chambers Ireland –100 Years Advancing Business Together, which charts the history of Chambers Ireland since its establishment in 1923.

European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness

Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson

Ian Talbot, Chief Executive, Chambers Ireland, Fiona Candon, President, Chambers Ireland and author and Dr Kieran McCarthy

Fiona Candon, President, Chambers Ireland

Awards launched

Chambers Ireland has opened the application process for the Sustainable Business Impact Awards 2023, which will be presented at a gala dinner in September.

The Sustainable Business Impact Awards have helped to galvanise very signi cant investment by the private sector into appropriate projects bene tting the environment, communities, charities and workforces throughout the country for the past 20 years.

In that time, over 500 hundred great companies with 2,000 di erent projects have received recognition through the awards, which are sponsored by BAM Ireland and run in association with the Department of Rural and Community Development and One4all.

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS IMPACT AWARD CATEGORIES 2023

Diversity, Inclusion & Equity

is category seeks to recognise initiatives that enhance the diverse environment of workplaces and foster inclusion for all sta .

Sustainable Impact by a Small or Medium Business is category applies to companies with 50 employees or less and recognises excellence in a variety of areas, not just environmental or community-based projects.

Partnership with Charity (MNC & LIC) is category awards excellence in working with a partner charity. Businesses can partner with a charity in a number of di erent ways, for example, by working on an awareness campaign together.

Volunteering (MNC & LIC)

is category aims to award a company for excellence in employee volunteering, which is a way for businesses to give back to the local community by o ering their time and skills free of charge.

Community Programme (MNC & LIC)

A community programme represents a sustained e ort by a business to strengthen its links with the community in which it operates and to have a positive impact on its locality by responding to a speci c need.

Environment (MNC & LIC)

is category seeks to celebrate organisations that have taken actions to improve their local environment with projects to enhance biodiversity, reduce waste or improve water or air quality.

Workplace (MNC & LIC)

Sustainable workplaces are those that support employee wellbeing and inclusion.  is can range from healthy workplace initiatives and mental health support to teambuilding initiatives.

Communication

is category re ects the steps taken in communications across the board, both internally with employees and externally with the charity partner, community, customers or other stakeholders.

Social Enterprise

is category awards excellence in working with a partner social enterprise. It is about business engaging through collaborative means so that the impact of the social enterprise is increased.

Applications for the awards are now open online at https://sbiawards.awardsplatform.com/

Left to right: Darren Devane, Construction Director, BAM Ireland, Nicola Woods, Chief Transformation O icer, An Post, Sharon Kielthy, Founder & CEO, Jiminy Eco Toys, Fiona Candon, President, Chambers Ireland, Karina Howley, Head of Corporate Citizenship & Diversity, KMPG and Cormac Madden, Environment and Sustainability Manager, ESB

First port of call

InBusiness caught up with Emma Dunphy, CEO of County Wexford Chamber to discuss latest developments in the region.

Q: How is business sentiment in Co Wexford?

A: Spirits are high at present as Co Wexford has been chosen to host Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2024 (from 4 to 11 August). This could see up to 700,000 people descend on the county and be worth up to €60m to the local economy. It is fantastic news for Co Wexford, with the business community committed to ensuring the success of the event. Elsewhere, the large attendances at our networking events this year tell us that businesses are out and about, promoting their business and attracting new clients.

Q: What are the burning issues facing your members?

A: The lack of available talent driven by the lack of affordable and appropriate housing is a significant challenge. Another is the very tight labour market – employers across all sectors are finding it difficult to fill vacant positions.  Many businesses will soon have the added difficultly of filling seasonal positions as summer approaches. With this in mind, County Wexford Chamber, supported by Wexford County Council, is holding a Jobs Fest on 26 April to match employers with potential talent. We have had a tremendous response from employers, ranging from pharma to manufacturing, hospitality, transport, tech and more.

Q: How are things going with the Rosslare Europort project?

A: The recent wind energy agreement between Rosslare Europort (with Iarnród Éireann as the port authority) and ESB is a significant step forward for the region. Rosslare Europort is progressing plans to establish the port as Ireland’s offshore renewables hub while ESB is developing a portfolio of offshore wind farms. The Rosslare Europort project has the potential to transform the economy of the South East and create up to 2,000 jobs. In addition, there will be spin-off investment and commercial opportunities arising from the growth of the port.

"Spirits are high at present as Co Wexford has been chosen to host Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2024."

Q: Any other developments you would like to highlight?

A: The sod has been turned at the Trinity Wharf project, a new urban quarter comprising a hotel, apartments, office space, retail outlets, a multistorey car park and a 64-berth marina with an urban greenway and boardwalk link to Paul Quay. The development will position Wexford as a superior location to work and live in and visit. The headquarters of the new national Maritime Area Regulatory Authority will be based in Trinity Wharf.

Q: Can you tell us about the County Wexford Chamber Business Awards?

A: It is the most important awards programme across our region, where we celebrate the outstanding successes and resilience of Co Wexford businesses. The awards will be held on 5 May with over 230 business applications received. It is a wonderful opportunity for any company to share how they have excelled, innovated and contributed to our thriving business region.

Emma Dunphy, CEO, County Wexford Chamber

Eurochambres’ priorities for 2023

The scope of Eurochambres’ work is broad and covers many issues that impact businesses in Ireland and across Europe this year and into the future.

Chambers Ireland pushes the Irish agenda forward at an EU level through its membership of Eurochambres, which was established in 1958 as a direct response to the creation of the European Economic Community and acts as the European Association of Chambers of Commerce.

Chambers Ireland Chief Executive, Ian Talbot, is a Vice-President of Eurochambres and leads the International Trade Committee where he has been advocating for Ireland on Brexit, EU Free Trade Agreements and deepening Single Market integration through getting more SMEs to trade.

With over 20 million enterprise members in Europe covering 45 countries and a European network of 1,700 regional and local Chambers, Eurochambres is the voice of the European business community which is heard by the Commission.

Trade turbulence

Trade challenges are emerging across the Atlantic following the passing of the In ation Reduction and Chips Acts in the US last year. Russia’s war on Ukraine continues to disrupt commodities and energy imports into Europe, and China continues to dominate the production capacity of rare-earth elements, which are crucial to battery production. Hence, trade continues to be a major policy concern for Eurochambres in 2023.

“With over 20 million enterprise members in Europe and a network of 1,700 regional and local Chambers, Eurochambres is the voice of the European business community.”

e European Critical Raw Materials Act is a key piece of legislation that Eurochambres is lobbying on. e Commission wants to move at least 40% of the re nement of critical raw materials to within the borders of the EU, focusing on local mining and recycling as input sources. Currently 95% of global capacity is in China. We are also expecting a revision of the Foreign Direct Investment screening provision.

Skills gaps

Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, has designated 2023 as the European Year of Skills.

As a key stakeholder, Eurochambres is looking for education reforms that will close the green and digitaltransition skills gaps. We are seeking the strengthening of vocational and adult education through microcredentials and individual learning accounts, which will allow workers to build up their skills in a exible way. To facilitate immigration and integration of internationally mobile talent, Eurochambres is working on the recognition of quali cations of people from third countries to ensure we are attracting skills to our continent. Another important initiative in 2023 is the establishment of the Cybersecurity Skills Academy.

Single Market and Digitalisation

Digitalisation is a key Eurochambres

Single Market priority. Legislative proposals are expected later in the year and the digitalisation of travel documents is being given special priority. Arti cial intelligence is increasingly relevant to businesses, and the Eurochambres policy team is focused on both the Arti cial Intelligence Act and the proposed Arti cial Intelligence Liability Directive.

e ‘common European mobility data space’ is also being implemented, which is bringing together

companies, organisations and institutions that want to create innovative mobility solutions. Other areas of activity include the Cyber Resilience Act, the Data Act, the European Digital Identity and ePrivacy Regulation.

Sustainability drive

e EU is investing €600bn in the European Green Deal over the next seven years to reduce the EU’s emissions to less than half of our 1990 levels. To deliver this climate target, the EU’s Fit for 55 package will be altering energy, climate and transport legislation across the EU states. Meanwhile, the RePowerEU programme will reduce our dependence on Russian fossil fuels by expanding the renewable energy component share of the electricity, transport and heating sectors.

With these plans requiring the overhaul of the EU electricity market, the development of an EU hydrogen market and the fast-tracking of renewable projects, the greening of the European energy economy will be central to much of Eurochambres’ activities over the decade.

e right to repair and sustainable product design will be important pieces of activity on the circular

economy this year, along with the Zero Pollution Package which is due in Q4 of this year.

Economic policy

Eurochambres prioritises the advancement of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and strengthening and diversifying SME access to nance is the main priority for 2023. We are expecting a revised Late Payments Directive in the third quarter of the year which will further tighten up contract law legislation to ensure that businesses are paid for their services on time.

We are also expecting the text of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, which will create a responsibility for rms to interrogate their supply chains to ensure that no human rights abuses or activities with signi cant environmental impacts are part of their supply chain.

As ever with the EU, these are proposals which will take some time to impact businesses on the ground, but they will have a profound e ect once they do get implemented. e Commission welcomes input, but needs to have it early in the process which is why Eurochambres’ activities are so important to our members.

Policy with purpose

Shane Conneely, Director of Policy and Communications at Chambers Ireland, outlines the organisation’s top policy priorities for 2023 in response to the main challenges facing its member businesses.

Chambers Ireland uses the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to shape our policy outputs. Each is important but certain ones such as Decent Work and Economic Growth, Gender Equality and Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure have an evident overlap with our members’ interests.

As an organisation that is celebrating our 100th anniversary, we take the long view and also strongly advocate for the Sustainable Cities and Communities and Climate Action SDG goals throughout our work.

Creating any kind of analysis of the Irish economy has its challenges at the moment. We have been responding to many major uncertainties in recent years: Brexit, Covid-19 and energy, supply-chain, in ation and housing crises have all been shaping the business environment.

However, this is not an unusual experience for Irish businesses. Over the past 20 years we have known the Celtic Tiger boom, the Great Financial Crisis and a few short years of economic stability between 2012 and 2016 before the British voted to leave the EU and this cycle of crises commenced.

e Irish businesses which have traded throughout this have known serious struggles, and have survived, which breeds its own con dence. Newer businesses were created despite the disruption and di culties and so have an inherent optimism.

Looking towards the future our members

are optimistic about their businesses and the opportunities that are before them in 2023, but most also say they have a wider concern about the rest of the economy. When speaking to members throughout the country, they tell us that they’re doing well but are having trouble nding and retaining sta .

e challenges that our members are facing are ones of constraint. ey o en have to leave business on the table because they do not have the internal capacity to take on all the opportunities that are there.

Facing constraints

Housing continues to be one of the key problems that businesses are facing, because housing issues lead to the sta ng issues which constrain commercial activity.

e di culty in nding and maintaining a home is directly leading to the tightness in the labour market. Employers are routinely telling us that housing uncertainty is resulting in a cycle of taking on junior sta that need upskilling before they can be wholly productive within the rm.

However, just as they settle into the rm, leases come up for renewal, people want to move out of the family home, landlords sell up or someone just wants to purchase their own home. ese events bring in claims for higher pay to meet higher housing costs.

e time house-hunting takes results in lower productivity and this o en continues as a result of longer commutes to more distant homes. Alternatively, the search for a new home leads to the employee moving to the far side of the country or abroad, taking their expertise with them.

is cycle is particularly pronounced in regional areas where people who would have previously lived and worked locally are able to take on new jobs, further a eld, because they can work remotely. is is bringing city wages to regional areas – in the longer term this will be great for those areas, but right now it’s leading to regional skills shortages. Consequently those rms are taking on employees with less experience to ll gaps, reducing productivity further.

Top two priorities

With these concerns in mind, our top two policy priorities for 2023 are Housing & Urbanisation and Skills & Talent.

Regarding Housing & Urbanisation, we are

pushing government to take greater action on the underutilised and vacant properties which are an enormous underexploited resource for the economy; this is also key to our support of the Sustainable Cities and Communities goal.

On Skills &Talent, we are looking for greater exibility to help people who are in Ireland, but are excluded from the workforce as a result of caring duties or disability, to be able to work as much as these limitations allow them to. is complements both the Gender Equality and Decent work and Economic Growth SDG goals.

“Housing continues to be one of the key problems that businesses are facing, because housing issues lead to the sta ing issues which constrain commercial activity.”

We have a very high incidence of labour force non-participation for women in Ireland. Given that female workers are typically better educated than their male peers, this wastes a huge amount of talent. We are also looking for greater exibility with work permits and visas; o cials need to understand that because of quality-of-life issues, especially housing, Ireland is no longer an attractive place to migrate to. We should therefore be ensuring that those who want to come here don’t experience unnecessary hurdles in doing so.

The longer term

Over the longer term we continue to advocate for more ambition regarding renewable energy. Ireland has immense untapped energy resources, and also some of the most expensive electricity in Europe. Upgrading our Grid to allow us to land the renewable energy we need to be able to meet our Climate Action targets will not only help the environment but will also bring down the cost of electricity on the island.

We are looking at Productivity & Competitiveness in an overarching way. Tight labour markets and the constraints on businesses suggest that there is a risk that in ation will continue with us for longer than our peer nations. is will undermine our national competitiveness. Given that supplyside constraints are the drivers, these issues will need supply-side actions.

Speci cally, we need to greatly increase the number of homes which are available to house our existing workforce. We also need housing for the large amount of migrant labour which will be needed to deliver both the National Development Plan and Housing for All programme.

Transatlantic turmoil

While the target for recent US legislation is China, the levels of State supports involved will have a serious impact on European competitors, writes

Shane Conneely, Director of Policy and Communications at Chambers Ireland.

Transatlantic trade is one of the important areas of focus for Chambers Ireland and the EU this year, with President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and the Chips Act having created serious tensions across the two blocs. The US has implemented these new industrial policies as a result of a change in their national security stance.

The Chips Act relates to vulnerabilities that the US might experience as a result of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan (which produces 60% of the world’s semiconductors and over 90% of the most advanced ones). And the Inflation Reduction Act arises from the dominance that the Chinese have in the area of smelting the rare-earth metals that are so important to batteries and magnets.

These Acts see hundreds of billions of dollars being invested by the Federal Government in creating mining and smelting value chains within the US so that they have secure supply of the magnets that are fundamental to electric motors and turbines as well as the batteries that are vital to electricity storage.

On the semiconductor side, two thirds of the investment is in primary research to create local demand and the remainder is to build out capacity in terms of fabrication and lithography.

This shift is in part a result of the strategic weakness that Covid-19 – and the trade war that parallels Russia’s war on Ukraine – demonstrated within the long, concentrated supply chains that we have benefitted from since the 1990s.

For the US, rare earths and silicon have become critical military inputs and so we can expect those industries to receive the protectionist policies that it has demonstrated in steel and aluminium production.

Significant friction

This is causing significant friction at the EU-US Trade and Technology Council which had hoped to forge a shared approach to semiconductors and rare

earths. Given the national security pay-offs involved, the US is likely to accept large friction costs in terms of trade tariffs and World Trade Organisation disputes, and so the EU is unlikely to dissuade it from this course of action.

This suggests that if EU companies are to have a level playing field, then they too will need supports that are at least equivalent to what the US is doing.

The EU response is branded as the ‘Green Deal Industrial Plan’ and will allow EU Member States to subsidise local industry. This is good, but it is also relying on Member States to have the capacity and the creativity to know how and where to invest.

There is a real risk, as we saw with the Covid-19 Recovery and Resilience Facility, that States with the capacity to spend such as Germany will further concentrate the industrial output of the EU. Whereas Irish institutions, as was demonstrated by last year’s White Paper on Enterprise, are unlikely to have the imagination to deliver such supports at a scale that will be effective.

“If EU companies are to have a level playing field, then they too will need supports that are at least equivalent to what the US is doing.”

Supporting housing delivery

Uisce Éireann is committed to playing its part in the national drive to provide homes to people who need them by developing and prioritising the delivery of key infrastructure.

Making progress in housing provision is a top priority for Uisce Éireann and a new dedicated team has been put in place to support the Government’s Housing for All programme. Central to this is the delivery of critical infrastructure where and when it is needed.

The team works closely with local authorities to help inform their development plan preparation process, including the tiered zoning of lands to support the delivery of housing. It has also developed the first-ever capacity registers to give an indication of whether there is enough water/ wastewater capacity in an area for development. This is critical in enabling developers and local authorities to prioritise areas with services.

“We recognise that Uisce Éireann has a key role to play in helping communities around Ireland to thrive by supporting the delivery of housing in line with the Government’s Housing for All policy. We have increased our capability to support connection applications/offers and onsite quality checks,” says Yvonne Harris, Uisce Éireann’s Housing for All Programme Director.

“This is highlighted in the figures for 2022 which show an unprecedented level of connection activity. Last year saw the delivery of water infrastructure to support almost 37,000 housing connections offered during the year – up 4,500 on the number offered in 2021.”

Positive engagement

She adds: “In addition to this, our connections team have issued positive responses to over 3,190 pre-connection enquiries associated with 116,647

Last year saw the delivery of water infrastructure to support almost 37,000 housing connections offered during the year.”

housing units. Of those positive responses issued, 92% were within 16 weeks.

“We would encourage anyone considering developing housing to engage with us as early as possible through our free pre-connection enquiry process. This enables us to assess the feasibility of a connection to the Uisce Éireann network and advise on the best way to progress the project.”

Working with a wide range of stakeholders, including developers, the construction sector, business organisations such as Chambers, local authorities, government and others, Uisce Éireann has continuously refined its connections process to ensure it is fit for purpose to meet Ireland’s housing needs.

“We are proactively working to build effective partnerships to meet the housing supply challenge and are here to listen to our stakeholders and take action – for example by hosting, presenting or attending relevant conferences and events relating to housing to support our key stakeholders,” says Harris.

“We will continue to work in partnership with all those who are committed to the goal of providing homes, to ensure Uisce Éireann can deliver water infrastructure where and when it’s needed.”

Details of the many projects to support growth and development around Ireland, as well as information on the connections process, can be found on Uisce Éireann’s website, www.water.ie.

Yvonne Harris, Uisce Éireann’s Housing for All Programme Director

Sustaining family business innovation

Within a family business, generations can support each other in driving innovation and creating a shared vision through open communication of ideas and discussion on traditions and potential programmes.

Arecent report by the DCU National Centre for Family Business (DCU NCFB) and supported by AIB has revealed that family businesses can often be more effective innovators than non-family businesses.

In the report, entitled ‘Continuity through Regeneration and Resilience: Key Metrics of Success and Sustainability for Irish Family Businesses 2022’, five case studies from across Ireland illustrated how resilient family businesses can adopt innovative practices faster to sustain their business. Family businesses are integral to the Irish economy, accounting for over 64%

of all firms and employing more than 938,000 people nationally (DCU NCFB 2020). That is why it is important that family businesses are sustained from one generation to the next in order to support the communities they’re based in.

The family businesses in the DCU NCFB report recognised that knowledge, traditions and learnings are passed through generations, which goes on to create intergenerational and innovation success in a family business. The following three steps can go on to support innovation within the business.

Ideas

The first step in developing innovation

“It

family businesses are sustained from one generation to the next in order to support the communities they’re based in.”

within the business is to create a healthy culture for ideas and opportunities. If a family business has a good culture, this can create an environment which can allow employees to make out-of-the-box suggestions which can go on to have an impact on business performance. It is important to look at the way things are done within your family business and ask does your culture support idea generation?

Traditions

The second step is to know how best to connect innovation to the accrued acumen and traditions of a family business. The ability to combine traditional materials and techniques with new ideas can often lead to products or services that simply can’t be imitated by competitors and offer an appealing proposition for consumers. It is important to look at what traditions are an important cornerstone of your family business and how can they grow.

Programmes

The third step is to adapt and transition new ideas and concepts into successful and sustainable business programmes. Innovation in family business does not need to be one big project; it can involve multiple programmes over time. Many businesses are choosing to tackle one UN Sustainable Development Goal at a time in order to make their business more sustainable into the future. It is important to look at what innovation you want to make to your business today and what would success look like at the end.

For more information and guidance, go to AIB’s family business webpage https:// aib.ie/business/sector-expertise/familybusiness.

is important that

Spotlight on pensions

of the vast swathe of the Irish workforce which currently has no occupational pension provision. According to government figures, there are around 750,000 workers over the age of 23 and earning at least €20,000 per annum currently in that position.

At present, many of them face the prospect of their sole income in retirement being the contributory State pension of around €13,780 per annum at the current maximum rate.

AE will therefore represent a major step forward. But it will not necessarily provide a solution for everyone and in many cases will offer benefits that are actually very different and may not suit those already enjoyed by members of workplace pension schemes.

Addressing adequacy

The first matter to be considered is the question of adequacy. Contribution levels to the AE scheme will start at an extremely low level and won’t reach the same levels as those of many workplace schemes for several years. This means that the real benefits of AE may not be seen for many years.

Niall Fitzgerald, Head of Retirement Solutions, Zurich

The advent of the Auto Enrolment (AE) Retirement Savings System is one of the most significant and welcome developments in the pensions landscape for very many years, writes Niall Fitzgerald, Head of Retirement Solutions, Zurich.

Regardless of what else Automatic Enrolment (AE) achieves when it eventually becomes a reality, it has already succeeded in shining a spotlight on the pensions issue and has generated unseen levels of interest in the topic.

We have seen evidence of that in the increased number of enquiries being received from employers wishing to set up a pension arrangement for their employees or to make improvements to their existing arrangements. In recruitment, employers are also reporting a heightened focus on retirement benefits as well as an impressive level of technical knowledge in relation to pensions among candidates. The AE scheme is aimed at addressing the needs

“The average contribution rates for schemes which are part of the Zurich Master Trust are 5% for both the employer and the employee.”

Contributions start at 1.5% for the employer, 1.5% for the employee and a government top-up of 0.5% in year one. That increases to 3%, 3%, and 1%, respectively, in year four; rises to 4.5%, 4.5%, and 1.5% in year seven and reaches the maximum level of 6%, 6%, and 2% in year 10.

On the other hand, the average contribution rates for schemes which are part of the Zurich Master Trust are 5% for both the employer and the employee, with many of the schemes having significantly higher levels of total contributions, which means improved pension adequacy for these members when they come to retirement.

Companies which offer a defined contribution pension scheme with contribution levels designed to deliver an adequate pension in retirement will enjoy a distinct advantage in the talent market while also enjoying an enhanced employer brand. And they can achieve that with the Zurich Master Trust which offers market-leading active investment performance, great investment fund choice and governance expertise – all in a highly cost effective package.

For more information, call 01 209 2299 or visit zurichcorporate.ie. Zurich Life Assurance plc is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.

Something for every table

Having met the craftspeople and designers at the Barlaston potteries in the UK, Wedgwood thought it was about time it showed o some of its hospitality portfolio. Here is a glimpse into Wedgwood Hospitality’s designs.

Cra ed with love since 1759, from the iconic Jasper material, to their world famous silky white nebone china, all Wedgwood pieces have a wealth of historic manufacturing techniques and centuries of pattern inspirations behind them, creating timeless objects that enrich every dining experience.

The beauty of Gio

Add contemporary sophistication and tactile interest with Gio’s distinctive embossed texture and brilliant white, translucent backdrop. Standalone beauty – with the added versatility to layer with accent pieces and create alternative looks – changes the mood of the occasion and provides even greater impact.

Both dishwasher and microwave safe, this collection is designed to be used every day in busy catering environments and its shapes and serveware are ideal for sharing food moments such as tapas and the latest ‘grazing’ experiences.

An achievement in classless design, Gio will grace any table from a casual setting to a more

formal ne-dining arrangement. It carries Wedgwood’s lifetime edgechip warranty and a guarantee that it will retain its perfectly sheened glaze.

Gio Gold

Sleek, stylish and contemporary, Gio Gold is as suave as a tuxedo at the baccarat table, but as

approachable as an unbuttoned collar and a loose dickie bow. Black, white and gold are the main players in this modern collection, bringing style and sophistication to your table.

For more information on Wedgwood Hospitality, contact Tom Walsh at tom.walsh@ skars.com.

Lost in Cyberspace

The EU is introducing new cybersecurity legislation— will your company be prepared for it?

AEuropean Commission report detailed how, from 2015 to 2020, cybercrime almost doubled globally, to $5.8 trillion. This realisation of the growing threats prompted the EU to draft new legislation to tackle concerns around cybersecurity, data privacy, as well as the Internet of Things (IoT).

In this report, we discuss the cybersecurity framework and impact of these new directives with experts in the field. Puneet Kukreja, Senior Partner and Head of Cyber Security Practice, EY Ireland, has worked all over the world and seen policy and practice in every region.

He warns that, no matter how many regulations are in place, “Compliance does not equal to having the tools and technologies with operating processes

They note that, “In cybersecurity there is limited leeway to postpone actions that aid in the avoidance and mitigation of future risks; one must continuously anticipate approaching threats.” In other words, the best time to act is always now.

Demand for cybersecurity experts is only going to increase, so it’s time to start planning ahead strategically in terms of building in a recruitment plan for staffing your organisation or considering your budgets for working with trusted external experts.

Education across the workforce is key—cybersecurity threats are a threat to all staff and everyone from C-suite to accounts to hybrid workers need to be up to speed on risk factors. It’s not an issue to be siloed within the IT department. However, someone should be tasked with taking the

implemented that make your organisation a secure and resilient organisation.”

Deep diving into the requirements, fully understanding them and sweating them out, doing more than just box-ticking exercises, will be crucial to keeping on the cutting edge of security in the future.

In its Foresight Cybersecurity Threats for 2030 report, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) advises that organisations (and EU member states) “recognize shifts in the threat landscape and already begin preparations to ensure security and resilience in the face of morphing threats.”

lead on reviewing new regulations and the impact they will have on your business and, to a certain extent, supply chain. Will there be company-wide implications? Will you need to change company policies and procedures? What training will be required and for what cohort of staff? What budget will be required?

The cybersecurity regulatory framework is certainly a deep dive for those who have never swam in those waters before, but it’s too late to stand by the edge dipping a toe in the water. Read on for an introduction, sound advice and practical steps to take.

IN CYBERSECURITY THERE IS LIMITED LEEWAY TO POSTPONE ACTIONS THAT AID IN THE AVOIDANCE AND MITIGATION OF FUTURE RISKS; ONE MUST CONTINUOUSLY ANTICIPATE APPROACHING THREATS

Are you cyber resilient?

With the EU focusing on a raft of new cybersecurity regulations, Puneet Kukreja, Senior Partner and Head of Cyber Security at EY Ireland, believes that organisations will become more aware of the risks and threats and grow their monitoring and response capability to increase their resilience against cyber threats, in many that goes well beyond just ticking the compliance boxes.

Organisations spend a lot of time

coming up with policies, ensuring that they are appropriately governed and they have a positive compliance posture. However, “compliance is not equal to security,” he warns.

“Compliance is not equal to actually having the tools and technologies in place, with operating processes implemented that make your organisation secure and resilient.”

Moreover, it’s not just businesses that need to be resilient, it is society as a whole. An increase in cyber-attacks during the Covid-19 pandemic shone a spotlight on

the importance of protecting critical infrastructure for example, increasingly connected hospitals and medical devices. According to reports from the European Commission, the annual cost of data breaches is estimated to be at least €10 billion, and this figure jumps to at least €65 billion when it comes to the annual costs of malicious attempts to disrupt internet traffic.

Among agencies focused on cybersecurity within the EU are the EU Cybersecurity Agency (ENISA), the Computer Emergency Response Team for the EU institutions (CERTEU), and the European Cyber Crime Centre (EC3)/Europol. The European Defence Agency (EDA) is also extremely concerned with cyber resilience that is the ability to detect, withstand, and recover from any cyber-attack. According to the EDA, “Cyberspace is today recognised as the fifth domain of warfare, equally critical to military operations as land, sea, air, and space.”

Puneet Kukreja, Senior Partner and Head of Cyber Security, EY Ireland on preparing your company for the new EU cyberspace regulations

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CYBERSECURITY IN THE EU

Since the introduction of the rst Network and Information Systems Directive (NIS) in 2016, there has been a continuous focus on bolstering the strategy, framework, and regulations around cybersecurity within the EU. NIS 2 replaced the original Directive in December 2020.

e rst signi cant impact felt by the business community – and consumers – came with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was introduced in 2016 and came into e ect in May 2018.

e June 2019 Cybersecurity Act strengthened the role of ENISA, the EU Agency for Cybersecurity, giving the agency a permanent mandate and more resources to try and keep up with the ever-moving cyber goalposts. en in 2020, the new EU Cybersecurity Strategy was adopted.

In May of last year, the European Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement for the new legislative cybersecurity measures, calling for stronger risk and incident management and cooperation, and including a wider range of rules and regulations falling within its scope.

In September 2022, the European Commission published the Cyber Resilience Act, which is the rst ever EU-wide legislation mandating cybersecurity requirements for so ware and connected hardware throughout their entire lifecycle.

“It is about manufacturers improving their security products and enhancing the transparency when building those products, testing them and ensuring what is shipped is Secure By Design,” explains Kukreja.

“ e most critical pieces we need to be talking about are the NIS 2 Directive and the Critical Entities Resilience (CER) Directive,” he notes.

e NIS 2 Directive and the CER Directive entered into force on 16th January 2023. Member states of the EU have until 17th October 2024 to transport the Directive with the measures coming into e ect on 18th October. e new CER Directive replaces the European

Critical Infrastructure Directive of 2008 and aims to strengthen the resilience of critical infrastructure and essential services—which are vital to the functioning of society and the economy—to a range of threats, including natural hazards, terrorist attacks, insider threats, or sabotage.

e sectors to be covered by the CER Directive include energy, transport, banking, nancial market infrastructures, health, drinking water, wastewater, digital infrastructure, public administration, space, and food.

e Directive is a response to global events such as the acts of sabotage against the Nord Stream gas pipeline and the new risks brought by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Each EU Member State will be required to adopt a national strategy and carry out regular risk assessments to identify entities that are considered critical or vital for their own society and economy.

Incident Response Planning

Make your business resilient against a cybersecurity breach

“Across small to medium businesses, in Europe, the US and Asia-Pacific, 97% of the cyber breaches happen through ransomware, stolen credentials, and basic web application attacks,” says Kukreja. His advice for businesses is to have an incident response plan incorporating the below principles:

• Focus on resilience and response capability.

• Ensure your hosting, endpoint and application environment is patched and misconfigurations remediated.

• Ensure you have continuous monitoring in place for critical services

• Make sure there are no misconfigurations.

• Ensure there is continuous training focusing on the risks of social engineering and phishing.

Puneet Kukreja, Senior Partner and Head of Cyber Security, EY Ireland

IT IS ABOUT MANUFACTURERS IMPROVING THEIR SECURITY PRODUCTS AND ENHANCING THE TRANSPARENCY IN BUILDING THOSE PRODUCTS”

“The Cyber Resilience Act will be enforced by the CER and the NIS 2 Directives. There are commonalities in what needs to be covered off within these acts,” Kukreja suggests. “All of these acts and all of this legislation is really coming together to ensure that there is appropriate governance and appropriate preparedness, and should any event take place, that we can respond to it in time with the right level of control and in a standardised manner.”

HORIZONTAL SECURITY REQUIREMENTS

The concept of a software bill of materials (SBOM) and hardware bill of materials (HBOM) are, says Kukreja, “two very critical areas that are being looked at in the US and Europe, and this is where horizontal cybersecurity requirements will come in.”

devices, which are IoT devices, across multiple sectors, including energy, mining, manufacturing and health, connected to IT infrastructure. “That then creates that standard mix of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT). Then how do you ensure that there is security, resilience, and the right level of control in both environments? And how do you make sure that a piece of ransomware that has impacted an organisation from the IT side does not spill over into the OT side and vice versa?”

Because there are also software elements in hardware, it is at risk of being compromised and providing a backdoor into the broader organisation; this is why there is a call for the CE marking for hardware devices, which will be coming into effect in 2024.

also understand the full lifecycle of how a hardware element has been manufactured.”

GLOBAL BENCHMARKING

Having worked in cybersecurity at a high level all over the world, Kukreja has seen the best and worst of cybersecurity policies and implementation., “If you want to look at how processes need to work and what documentation should look like, Europe will have the guidance, governance and oversight requirements nailed down. But if you actually want to see how technology should be implemented, and what technical controls are required to be in place, then the Americas is where we need to look at, given their technology-first mindset However, I’m not saying it’s always the right approach as they often tend to be implementationrich, but documentation-poor.”

A SBOM is essentially an inventory list of all the ingredients that make up a software, and similarly for a HBOM. With the Cyber Resilience Act coming into force, Kukreja explains, it will force people to consider, “How do you ensure, like in software development, that the hardware lifecycle development of a product is appropriately managed with a defined framework of security controls, that is open, can be independently audited, and can be verified through all of the stages of its lifecycle?”

He continues, “It’s all about the openness of the security properties of a product that is being developed. That then puts the focus on the other side of cyber, which is the Internet of Things (IoT) and connected devices, which are prevalent not only in our critical infrastructure but across industry at large in every sector—banking, energy, critical infrastructure and others.”

He cites the example of connected

“The end user—a manager, a business user, a CFO or CEO—what they need to understand is that the requirements of cybersecurity, which were within their IT environment, as such, are now being expanded and extended into their OT environment,” Kukreja advises. “They need to ensure that the hardware and software products that are being developed, or that are being bought, follow a coherent cybersecurity framework. They need to ensure that the concept of Secure By Design, that already exists on the IT side, has now expanded, and extended into the development of hardware products.”

This is not just something that applies to the manufacturers of hardware, he underlines. “The consumers need to ensure that through appropriate procurement, governance, security, and the onboarding of technology equipment within their organisations, that they

In his experience, it is often the spend-constrained organisations of the Asia-Pacific region who have taken a best-of-both-worlds approach, and lead the way in melding best practice in both documentation and implementation to focus on what works and create a fit for purpose, fit for use model. With new regulations coming down the line, he predicts there will be a huge increase in demand for expertise. “There is a known and recognised demand for cyber talent, not only in Ireland. Globally, organisations are finding it a challenge to fill roles across the cyber dimension, and with the onset of these regulations the demand for expertise is set to increase which will lead to more opportunities in this space.”

Kukreja’s advice now is to look for people with both compliance and implementation expertise. “If you only take on people who have generic knowledge across governance, risk and compliance, and are lacking the specialist skills required to address these…it will be a paper tiger with no teeth.”

THERE IS A KNOWN AND RECOGNISED DEMAND FOR CYBER TALENT, NOT ONLY IN IRELAND. GLOBALLY, ORGANISATIONS ARE FINDING IT A CHALLENGE TO FILL ROLES ACROSS THE CYBER DIMENSION”

DHL Global Connectedness Index

The DHL Global Connectedness Index analyses data from 171 countries and territories and reveals how flows of trade, people, capital, and information move around the world

There are di ering views of what recent global crises will mean for globalisation: the war in Ukraine prompted some to predict its end, while others argue it will continue but change. e recent DHL Global Connectedness Index 2022, an in-depth report on the state of globalisation and its prospects has shown that international ows have actually been remarkably resilient in the face of recent shocks.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. A er a modest decline in 2020, the DHL Global Connectedness Index rebounded to above pre-pandemic levels in 2021, and currently available data points to another increase in 2022. International ows have proven remarkably resilient through recent crises, strongly rebutting the notion that globalisation has gone into reverse.

2. ere is evidence of decoupling between the United States and China across most types of international ows, but this has not yet led to broader fragmentation of international activity between rival blocs.

3. Trade ows stretched over longer distances during the pandemic, contrary to predictions of a shi to regionalisation. Roughly half of all international ows already happen inside major world regions, and it is still an open question whether regionalisation will increase signi cantly in the coming years.

4. e volume of world trade in goods reached 10% above its pre-pandemic level in mid-2022, and trade in services also surpassed pre-pandemic levels. Trade growth, however, is forecast to slow in 2023, mainly due to slower global economic growth.

5. Foreign direct investment ows, which re ect companies buying, building, or reinvesting in international operations, rebounded to above pre-pandemic levels in 2021, before starting to weaken in Q2 of 2022.

6. e globalisation of information ows continued in 2021, based on measures such as the growth of international internet tra c and voice calls. e proliferation of data ow restrictions, however, raises questions about future prospects for global information ows.

7. People ows remained below prepandemic levels through 2022, due to the continued e ects of the pandemic on international travel. e number of people traveling to foreign countries roughly doubled in 2022, but was still down 37% from 2019.

8. e Netherlands was the most globally connected country in 2021, a er falling to second place in 2020. Singapore ranked second overall and rst in terms of the size of international ows relative to domestic activity. e United Kingdom had the most globally distributed ows.

9. Europe is the most globally connected region, with 8 of the 10 most globally connected countries. Europe leads on connectedness of both trade and people, while North America leads on capital and information.

10. e public policy environment has become less favourable for globalisation, increasing the risk of a costly decline or fragmentation of international ows. Present challenges should motivate a focus on making globalisation work better to preserve and expand the bene ts of a connected world.

e DHL Global Connectedness

Index analyses data from 171 countries and territories. It reveals how ows of trade, people, capital, and information move around the world.

To read a more in-depth version of the report scan the barcode to visit the site.

Guidance designed to take the uncertainty out of waste segregation for businesses is now available from MyWaste, Ireland’s o icial guide to waste

This government funded initiative provides a free and extensive suite of signage and training materials to help workforces make accurate recycling decisions. is will assist Irish businesses to achieve greater Circular Economy performance through increased recycling and composting rates.

Planning O ces, Kevin Swi , Connacht Ulster Region Waste O ce said: “ is initiative will empower small and medium size businesses, particularly those in the retail, hospitality, manufacturing and corporate sectors to further improve how their waste is managed. With clear language and visuals, the materials will make it easy for sta

A waste characterisation study by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that almost 70% of materials being placed in the general commercial waste bins is waste that should be placed in the recycling or food waste bins. Targeted materials (those suitable for recycling) accounted for only 60% of the materials in the mixed dry recycling bins, with food waste among the contaminants. e study found that by improving waste segregation practices, businesses could divert signi cant amounts of waste from the general waste stream annually.

Speaking on behalf of the Regional Waste Management

to quickly understand what waste goes in what bin. is should help signi cantly increase the amount of recyclables and food waste diverted from the general bin and correctly placed in the recycling and food waste bins.”

e toolkit is free to download or order from www.mywaste.ie/business

THIS INITIATIVE WILL EMPOWER SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZE BUSINESSES, PARTICULARLY THOSE IN THE RETAIL, HOSPITALITY, MANUFACTURING AND CORPORATE SECTORS, TO FURTHER IMPROVE HOW THEIR WASTE IS MANAGED”

Proud Sponsor of Ireland's Afternoon Tea Hotel Award

Sod turned on AIM Centre in Sligo; Carrick-on-Shannon awarded prestigious Purple Flag accreditation; and Roscommon gets a Greenway and fouryear Digital Strategy.

Contracts signed for major regeneration project in Letterkenny; UPSURGE project plans begin to take shape in Belfast; and Belfast secures funding to develop green hydrogen technology plan.

Cost of Living Increases for Sporting Organisations in €26m Core Grant Investment Package for 2023

Sport Ireland announced an investment of over €26m to National Governing Bodies for Sport (NGBs) and to the network of Local Sports Partnerships (LSPs) for 2023. This year’s figures see a €1m (6%) increase in allocation to the National Governing Bodies on 2022 funding. The total core funding to the NGBs in 2023 is €16m. This increased investment provides Sport Ireland with an opportunity to support the majority of governing bodies with a cost-of-living increase for 2023 along with continued targeted investment in a number of specific areas. The rising costs of sports administration is also acknowledged by Sport Ireland, with NGBs having been provided with additional funding to absorb this expenditure. Investment into the Local Sports Partnerships has maintained the same level of support for 2023, with a total investment of €10,365,000 being allocated across the 29 Local Sports Partnerships. Human resourcing in the Local Sports Partnerships has been prioritised, with additional funding for the resourcing of Local Sports Partnership Development O icers and Sport Inclusion Disability O icers to assist with the ongoing vital work being undertaken across the country.

Fingal moves forward on climate change; LEO Kildare launches on-demand tech accelerator; Meath County Council launches GoRemote campaign; and Fingal Active Travel projects receive €17.11m funding.

Limerick Twenty Thirty and ISIF announce partnership to develop One Opera Square; County Cork schools embark on Climate Literacy Course; and Charleville gets 64 new social housing units.

Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media Catherine Martin TD and Minister of State with responsibility for Local Government and Planning Kieran O’Donnell TD with senior representatives of the 31 Local Authorities at the launch of 31 new Local Authority Creative Ireland Culture and Creativity Strategies (2023–2027) at an event at Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park. For more information about Creative Ireland’s programme of Creative Communities initiatives, visit creativeireland.gov.ie.

Photo by Barry Cronin.

Fingal moves forward on climate change actions

Fingal County Council presented its third annual progress report on the Climate Change Action Plan to Fingal Councillors. The plan sets out four key targets and 133 actions that the council will undertake in the areas of energy and buildings, transport, flood resilience, nature-based solutions and resource management. All departments of Fingal County Council are responsible for the successful rollout of actions within the Climate Change Action Plan.

The Climate Change Action Plan 2019-2024 (CCAP) was launched in 2019 following collaboration with the Dublin Local Authorities in partnership with the City of Dublin Energy Management Agency (Codema) and Dublin’s Climate Action Regional Office (CARO), and a progress report is presented annually.

The 2022 progress report reveals that Fingal County Council is currently taking action on 111 of the 133 items laid out in the five-year Climate Change Action Plan, with a further 19 actions completed and just three yet to be progressed.

Some of the actions already taken or completed include a review of energy efficiency across the organisation, conversion of public lighting to climate-friendly LED lighting and significant advances with retrofitting of council social housing with 91 homes completed in 2022 and a further 150 to be completed in the coming 12 months.

€17.11M

funding awarded to Fingal Active Travel projects

Fifty-two Active Travel projects across Fingal have been granted €17.11m in National Transport Authority (NTA) funding as part of an overall €290m to be spent on 1,200 walking and cycling infrastructure projects across Ireland this year. Projects to receive funding in Fingal include Safer Routes to School spread across the county, Active Travel upgrades for Skerries, Rush, Lusk and Portmarnock, connections to Dublin Airport, the Swords Cycle Network as part of the Sustainable Swords initiative, Broadmeadow Greenway, the Royal Canal Cycle Route and a series of routes planned for Blanchardstown, Clonee and Castleknock.

LEO Kildare launches on-demand tech accelerator

Local Enterprise Office Kildare invited Mid-East tech companies to MERITS – Mid-Eastern Regional Innovation Think Space for Local Enterprise Week and launched their own digital product, an on-demand business accelerator.

The goal of this platform is to serve top growth-stage start-ups with tailored strategy, export, and leadership training from global industry experts. This content is accessible on demand, anywhere and on any device. Its objective is to help businesses accelerate their ability to grow and export in a learning environment that is customised specifically to their business needs and journey as an entrepreneur.

Speaking during Local Enterprise Week, Jacqui McNabb, Head of Enterprise and Economic Development, Kildare County Council said, “We have huge ambition to expand the capabilities of this offering, providing an on-demand learning environment for entrepreneurs across multiple sectors. This platform tailors the learning journey to each entrepreneur based on their stage in business, sector and goals.”

Much of the video and workbook content was developed in collaboration with Colm Reilly, OCO Global. Dr Colm Reilly developed the first global accelerator – Sirius programme and was involved with the creation of the MENA Hub for the international acceleration of technology companies globally.

Fingal County Council’s Biodiversity Officer, Hans Visser

Meath County Council launches GoRemote campaign

The Civil Defence K9 Unit recently added two new search dogs to their Victim Recovery Unit and announced the recent qualification of their first female dog handler. Meath volunteer handler Karen Kelly and her victim recovery dog Rossi recently qualified after a year-long training programme. Civil Defence is a volunteer-based organisation that supports frontline emergency services, assists local communities and has approximately 2,500 volunteer members throughout Ireland. It acquired its first search dog in 2006 and now has four search dog teams based in Dublin, Meath and Tipperary.

Meath County Council recently launched its GoRemote campaign to highlight the opportunities for workers to do their jobs remotely either from their homes or a co-working hub. Residents across Meath have the longest commuting times in the country with over 20% commuting over one hour to get to their jobs daily. This has a significant impact on not only their own lives but the quality of family life and the community around them.

The campaign features stories of workers who’ve transitioned to working remotely from home or from a co-working space in the county as well as signage and a dedicated webpage, meath.ie/ GoRemote directing residents to more information on Connected Hubs offering co-working desks and Grow Remote’s Jobs Board.

Liam Staff, a financial consultant living in Trim who features in the campaign launch video, details how he was spending up to four hours a day commuting to work, time that he now has back since he availed of the facilities in Trim’s Flat Out Co-working and Coffee.

Liam Staff pictured outside Flat Out Co-working and Coffee, Trim.

Limerick Twenty Thirty and ISIF announce partnership to develop One Opera Square

Limerick Twenty Thirty (LTT) and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), part of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) announced the creation of a unique joint venture partnership to finance the development of the One Opera Square project in Limerick city centre.

This announcement was boosted by confirmation that LTT has appointed John Sisk & Son for the design and construction of the circa 10,000 square metre Opera Square site-wide basement and the six-storey One Opera Square office building. Works on the project have commenced and will be completed in January 2025.

The LTT and ISIF joint venture of €80m is the largest direct commitment by ISIF to date under its €500m investment programme for five regional cities –Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick and Waterford – announced last summer. The programme is a cornerstone of ISIF’s new investment strategy that will result in major investment being targeted to each city in the form of new places to work, places to live and enabling investments resulting in the regeneration of regional city centres.

One Opera Square will be developed over six flexible-use floors located at the corner of Michael Street and Ellen Street, in Limerick city centre. The wider Opera Square development is a 3.7-acre landmark commercial development that will be significant for both the region and national context, reflecting Limerick’s status as a leading city in sustainability and innovation. It will encourage additional people to work in the city of Limerick, boosting its status as a vibrant place to work and delivering significant economic benefit.

Mayor visits social housing developments in Charleville

Mayor of the County of Cork Cllr Danny Collins visited four social housing developments in Charleville that will provide 64 new homes. The developments consist of a Cork County Council Turnkey Development at Foxglove Close providing 12 units with a completion date of September 2023, and three schemes undertaken in partnership between the council and approved housing bodies Charleville Sheltered Housing Services (nine units at Church View, Love Lane due December 2023), Tuath Housing (34 units at Cedar Court, Rathgoggin North available in two phases, 11 in October 2023, and 23 in August 2024) and Peter McVerry Trust, which recently completed the refurbishment of the old Christian Brothers school, delivering nine homes. The council and its approved housing body partners delivered 552 housing units in 2022 under the Government’s Housing for All Programme. A similar figure is anticipated for this year.

The remains of a medieval church and graveyard in the North Cork village of Dromtarriffe have been uncovered and restored with the support of Cork County Council’s Community Monuments Fund. The ancient Parish Church was in use as a place of worship up until July 1651 when it was burned by Cromwellian soldiers with the loss of 24 lives in the fire, evidence of which is still visible in the shattered stonework today. Following two years of careful conservation works overseen by Cork County Council’s Kanturk Mallow Municipal District, the remaining structures have been uncovered and restored, safeguarding this important historic structure into the future.

Cork County Council has announced funding of nearly €145,000 through its Arts Grants Scheme 2023. There has been a sharp rise (over 33%) in applications to the scheme this year, indicating that arts and cultural activity has finally returned to pre-pandemic levels. The scheme is designed to support events, activities and new initiatives that enhance public access to the arts and support cultural development in all eight of the county’s Municipal Districts.

County Cork schools embark on Climate Literacy Course

Cork County Council has teamed up with social enterprise Education for Sustainability to deliver a ten-week climate literacy course to eight secondary schools in the county. The weekly interactive course sessions are fun and solution focused, encouraging students to learn through game-based activities.

€1.8M for Cork community and voluntary sector

Cork County Council announced support to the value of over €1.8m to support local communities in 2023. The Council’s Community Fund Scheme provides financial support to a range of groups and organisations across the county annually. The scheme is administered locally by the eight Municipal Districts and provides financial assistance to a range of community, sporting, and voluntary organisations under three distinctive fund types: The Capital Fund, Community Contract, and Amenity Fund.

The Climate Literacy programme encourages students to connect the dots between the environment and their everyday lives by providing workshops, teacher training, teaching resources and lesson plans. Topics covered include climate change, sustainable development, climate justice, plastic pollution, fast fashion, biodiversity loss, sustainable transport, food, soil and taking action.

Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr Danny Collins says, “Education is the key to change and our young people are serious about the environment, they can drive real change when it comes to environmental matters and sustainability.”

The participating schools are Bandon Grammar, Carrigaline Community School, CBS Midleton, Edmund Rice College Carrigaline, Scoil Mhuire Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh, St Mary’s Charleville, St Mary’s Midleton and Kinsale Community School.

Funded by Cork County Council, the course is delivered by Education for Sustainability, a non-profit social enterprise working to increase climate literacy and foster behaviour change in Ireland.

Pictured is dancer Sara Hernandez at Macroom Town Hall. Photo by Karol Kachmarsky.

Minister Calleary turns the sod on AIM Centre in Sligo

Minister of State for Trade Promotion and Digital Transformation, Dara Calleary TD, turned the sod on the site of the new Advancing Innovation in Manufacturing (AIM) Centre in Sligo. The new facility will focus on developing capability in cutting-edge manufacturing technology in companies across the North-West region. This innovative project is driven by Atlantic Technological University (ATU), Sligo County Council and Leitrim County Council and is supported by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment administered through Enterprise Ireland.

Welcoming the commencement of construction work, Cllr Michael Clarke, Cathaoirleach, Sligo County Council, said, “Today marks a huge step forward in bringing this very innovative and forwardlooking project to fruition. I want to acknowledge the huge effort, vision and collaboration of all the key players, including the Atlantic Technological University, Enterprise Ireland, Rhatigan Architects, the contractor, Joseph McMenamin & Sons Ltd, Julie Dowling, Director of the AIM project and of course, my colleagues and staff in Sligo County Council. This project has the potential to be a gamechanger for industry in Sligo and beyond, while also boosting local trade.”

The redevelopment of Stephen Street car park into a fully pedestrianised public space known as Queen Maeve Square, funded by Fáilte Ireland, the Urban Regeneration Development Fund and Sligo County Council, began in January. The development of Queen Maeve Square will greatly enhance the public realm, creating an area that will be suitable for a broad range of uses including outdoor concerts, cultural events, and farmers’ markets. It is here that visitors will gravitate to, upon arrival in the town, and where families can spend time enjoying a unique space overlooking the Garavogue River. It is expected that Queen Maeve Square will be completed in 2024.

From left: Cllr Marie Casserly; Frank Feighan, TD; Cllr Thomas Walsh; Cllr Martin Baker; Cllr Rosaleen O’Grady; Minister Dara Calleary; Cllr Michael Clarke, Cathaoirleach; Cllr Tom MacSharry; Cllr Paul Taylor; Cllr Donal Gilroy; Martin Lydon, CE Sligo County Council

Roscommon County Council, with the support of Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), is developing a project for the delivery of a Greenway that will link the towns of Athlone and Ballyleague/Lanesborough. At the southern end, it will tie into the proposed Galway to Athlone Cycleway at the newly constructed cycleway bridge in Athlone town. The Greenway will improve access to East Roscommon and the Lough Ree catchments and entice one to explore its many towns and villages, and unspoilt scenery, connecting them with this natural and historical environment.

Roscommon County Council launches Digital Strategy

2022-2026

Roscommon County Council launched its new Digital Strategy 2022-2026, which will introduce and embed a digital ethos through the council’s service delivery, enhancing the county’s impact as a great place in which to live and work. The strategy also sets out the council’s strategic goals and objectives and will maximise digital opportunities for the county.

The vision of the Roscommon Digital Strategy is to ensure Roscommon has a thriving and competitive digital economy. The document establishes the overall digital direction of the county and sets out how technology

Carrick-on-Shannon becomes the newest area to fly the Purple Flag in 2023

Carrick-on-Shannon has been awarded the prestigious Purple Flag accreditation for its evening and night-time economy (ENTE). The Purple Flag Award is an initiative given to towns that offer residents and visitors an enjoyable and safe night out. It aims to raise the standard and broaden the appeal of the town between the hours of 5pm and 5am. Areas awarded the Purple Flag are recognised for providing a vibrant and diverse mix of dining, entertainment and culture while promoting the safety and wellbeing of visitors and local residents. Just as a Blue Flag indicates a beach is safe for swimming, a Purple Flag indicates that a town is a safe and versatile place to spend an evening out.

will support and enable County Roscommon to grow and develop.

Key to this ambition is connectivity and access to services previously only enjoyed by capital cities. To achieve a thriving digital economy Roscommon County Council will enhance its digital innovation hubs and oversee improvements in its citizens’ digital skills.

Further objectives include the adaptation of appropriate community, economic and cultural digital initiatives and equipping schools with the latest information for teaching. A further ambition is to connect healthcare

providers to leading medical centres and patients to global expertise. Other ambitions include a reduction in the costs of public services and the renewal of community engagement in the democratic process as well as strengthening the resilience of the region in dealing with emergencies. The delivery of the strategy in conjunction with the rollout of the National Broadband Plan will see Roscommon securing more sustainable economic growth and greater future prosperity, introducing measures and actions to create and develop a Digital/Smart county.

Contracts signed for major regeneration project in Letterkenny

Contracts for the design and development of the Letterkenny 2040 Strategic Urban Regeneration Site which will include the new Alpha Innovation Centre and Beta Business Centre have been signed.

Donegal 2040 DAC, in partnership with Donegal County Council, have signed a contract with Vincent Hannon Architects for the development of this major regeneration project in Letterkenny which will see the transformational development of town centre lands in the heart of Letterkenny between Pearse Road and Port Road.

The development comprises three main elements: the Alpha Innovation Centre – a seven-storey digital innovation centre with the objective of building a strong innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystem enabling businesses, both start-ups and existing, to scale, internationalise and respond effectively to emerging market opportunities and challenges; the Beta Business Centre – an eightstorey business and enterprise building providing state-of-the-art workspace facilities for a range of knowledge-based businesses in the region; and public realm – the installation of high-quality pedestrian/cycle infrastructure enabling easy accessibility through the site, facilitating strong connections between Main Street, Pearse Road and Port Road.

€7.6M

PEACEPLUS funding for Donegal

Donegal County Council has been awarded an indicative allocation of over €7.6m under Theme 1 Building Peaceful and Thriving Communities Investment Area 1.1 PEACEPLUS Codesigned Local Community PEACE Action Plan. This is financed through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Union with match-funding provided from the Executive Office NI and the Department for Rural and Community Development Ireland. PEACEPLUS is a new EU funding programme designed to support peace and prosperity across Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland.

A new visitor centre documenting the history of Belfast City Cemetery and the people buried within it has opened. The building is a key element of a £2.8m heritage project funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Belfast City Council and the Department for Communities. The centre includes an interpretive exhibition, digital touchscreens, interactive features for children, genealogy research workstations and indoor and outdoor educational space for schools and youth groups. Belfast Lord Mayor Cllr Christina Black (pictured with Dr Paul Mullan from The National Lottery Heritage Fund) says, “Belfast City Cemetery opened in 1869, and it is the final resting place of many notable figures including Sir Edward Harland, co-founder of Harland & Wolff; Margaret Byers, suffragist and founder of Victoria College; and Sir William Pirrie, chairman of Harland & Wolff in the Titanic era. Their stories, the history of the cemetery and the wider development of the city of Belfast are all told within the new visitor centre.”

[ COUNTY ANTRIM ]

UPSURGE project plans begin to take shape in Belfast

Belfast City Council has initiated the first stage in the development of a scientific and environmental demonstrator site in Lower Botanic Gardens. This is following the successful award of funding from the Horizon 2020 EU UPSURGE Project.

The project focuses on testing nature-based solutions in five demonstrator cities across Europe, with the aim of sharing learning and good practice on pollution alleviation, citizen health and climate resilience.

Chair of Belfast City Council’s Climate and City Resilience Committee Cllr Séanna Walsh says, “The UPSURGE project was co-designed by community and statutory stakeholders as part of three workshops and conversations that took place throughout 2022. Belfast City Council and Queen’s University are two local partners who are taking the project forward as part of the Horizon 2020 project. The first phase of the project will see a research garden which will be used by QUB where soil enhancement, food production and digital testing can be undertaken. It is hoped the project, which will also utilise bee monitoring, will lead to the stimulation of community resilience in relation to climate, community integration in the area with volunteers, residents and students learning together.”

The UPSURGE Project was co-designed with local stakeholders and will utilise land at Lower Botanic Gardens, close to Queen’s University Physical Education Centre.

Belfast secures funding to develop green hydrogen technology plan

A consortium bid led by Belfast City Council has successfully secured Phase 1 funding from the UKRI’s Pioneer Places Fund. The funding will be used to develop a pioneering plan to tackle key barriers in the delivery of green hydrogen technologies in the city.

The ‘Net Zero Belfast’ project will have a geographical focus on the Innovation District and will be led in partnership with Catagen and Artemis Technologies along with support from Belfast Met, Queen’s University and Ulster University.

Chair of the council’s Climate and City Resilience Committee Cllr Séanna Walsh welcomed the funding and the opportunity to accelerate the transition to net zero in Belfast: “Belfast is uniquely positioned to produce green hydrogen due to its abundant wind resources, storage capacity and a hydrogen ready gas network. At a time when there is a pressing need to decarbonise and step away from our reliance on fossil fuels, this funding will enable us to develop and unlock new green hydrogen technologies within the Innovation District.”

The Innovation District comprises 400 acres of the city and is home to Belfast Airport, Belfast Port, international manufacturing businesses, indigenous Greentech companies, academic research, and education centres. It spans from Ulster University’s new campus in the city centre to Queen’s University research centre at Queen’s Island in the Harbour Estate.

Informing you about the work of local authorities in supporting the business needs of their community...

To tell us what your local council is doing for business email sorcha.corcoran@ashvillemediagroup.com

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Noise

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InBUSINESS SPOKE WITH AMY JANE KEATING, HOST OF THE GO DO YOU PODCAST, ABOUT MAKING BIG MOVES, ESSENTIAL GOAL DETOURS AND THE RIGHT TIME TO PUSH YOURSELF TO THE TOP OF YOUR OWN PERSONAL QUEUE.

Could you tell us about Go Do You and why you created this podcast?

‘Go Do You’ started as a passion project, which stemmed from my own big dreams of being a TV presenter. I have always had fantastic self-belief and so far, I have not yet quite made it as a TV presenter. I began to doubt that my big dream really would come true. I realised that if I was feeling like giving up on my big dream. I was sure there was many others who were feeling the same way.

What is the message/goal of the Go Do You podcast?

The goal of ‘Go Do You’ is to remind people that if they want to make their dreams come true that they need to make the big moves now. You must do it yourself and sooner rather than later, as time is indeed running out.

The Go Do You podcast gives your listeners some insights into putting themselves back on their own priority list. Do you think there is pressure to balance everything in our lives and maintain a successful career?

Absolutely! For me, when I became a Mum, I didn’t have time or honestly the desire to be anything else only the best Mum I could possibly be. I now feel I can put myself back on my own priority list and get back to working towards my dream career and hopefully inspiring others to do the same along the way.

How important are the detours and bumps in the road on the journey to your dream job?

Essential. From what I have learned throughout Season 1 of the podcast is the detours and bumps make us firstly and realise how much we want it and second of all teach us how to appreciate it, hold on to it and overcome the continued challenges.

How important is it to push yourself first in your own personal queue to succeed?

In my opinion, when the time is right and you feel the hunger to go, then yes, it is of great importance

Is there anything new you have learned from your podcast guests or have your own views changed during the making of the podcast? It doesn’t matter how “successful” one is, we are all the same underneath it all and I think we all just want to be happy at the end of the day.

Is there anyone you would love to appear on the podcast?

Yes, so many, but keeping it Irish, I would say Ryan Tubridy, so Ryan if you’re reading this, I am coming for you.

EAR TO THE GROUND

InBUSINESS RECOMMENDS THREE PODCASTS TO SUBSCRIBE TO THIS QUARTER.

A female take on Ireland and the world, this weekly podcast hosted by Róisín Ingle and Kathy Sheridan, is packed full of feminism, humour, health, politics, sex and is by women for everyone.

Free State is a podcast for the curious that stimulates, provokes, challenges, covering topics from sport to politics, love to loss, the human condition and how to fix the world while never taking itself too seriously.

The Build, hosted by real estate developer Rick Larkin, focuses on the challenges of providing housing and features interviews with leading personalities working in the housing sector both in Ireland and globally.

Amy Jane Keating

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