Advocacy & Representation

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fingal Chamber is represented on the following bodies:

- Fingal Local Community Development Committee

- Fingal County Council Strategic Policy Committees

- Economic, Enterprise and Tourism Development

- Transport and Infrastructure Management- Housing

- Planning Strategic Transport and Infrastructure Development

- Fingal Covid-19 Community Response Forum- Chambers Ireland Board- Greater Dublin Chamber Alliance- Fingal Tourism Stakeholder Group

A recent example of our work in this area is summarised below:

Fingal Chamber North Runway Submission

Dublin Airport a critical piece of national infrastructure. Politically and economically, Brexit heightens its importance in connecting Ireland to the world, while Covid-19 demonstrates how important Dublin Airport is for integrating us into global trade networks.

The North Runway expansion gives us the capacity to reach further out into the world. It will allow our tourism trade to grow in the wake of the Covid-19 collapse in international tourism. It will also open trading opportunities in new partner countries increasing growth.

North Runway was granted planning permission in 2007, subject to 31 planning conditions. Two of these conditions would severely reduce the future operational capacity of Dublin Airport at peak periods. If unchanged, these two conditions would significantly affect the operation of the airport and its key airline customers and would damage the entire Irish economy.

The daa submitted a planning application to Fingal County Council in December 2020 regarding these problematic planning conditions associated with North Runway.

In January 2021, Fingal Chamber made a written submission to the planning authority noting 7 business community concerns, and supporting what we see is a fair, sensible, and balanced proposal for all stakeholders which will safeguard Ireland’s connectivity to global markets.