Fingal Business News

Fingal County Council launches free outdoor public Wi-Fi across Fingal towns and villages

9 September 2021

A total of 47 Wi-Fi access points have been installed in 18 locations throughout Fingal. There are seven live access points in Swords, with five in Malahide, Howth and Skerries and four in Rush.

Donabate and Blanchardstown Village will have three live access points with two in Lusk, Naul, Blanchardstown Civic Centre and St. Catherine’s Park. Garristown, Portrane, Portmarnock, Clonsilla, Castleknock, Mudhuddart and Ongar will have one live access point each.

The initiative is supported by the WIFI4EU voucher scheme which aims to provide high-quality internet access across the EU to citizens and visitors via free of charge Wi-Fi hotspots in public spaces such as town and village centres, parks and civic spaces.

Councillors approve Fingal County Council’s €784m Capital Programme

13 October 2021

Councillors have approved Fingal County Council’s €784m three-year Capital Programme which provides for significant investment on projects across the County during period from 2022 to 2024.

It represents a €17m increase on the previous Capital Plan with the 2022-2024 programme identifying 237 individual projects with an estimated spend of €783.73m over the three years.

The Programme projects a capital spend in 2022 of €237m, followed by €265m in 2023 and a further €282m in 2023.

Just over half of the €784m has been allocated to Housing with the €393m budget underpinning the Council’s commitment to delivering a significant housing programme under the Government’s new housing plan, Housing For All.

Transformation of Ireland’s youngest town continues

27 October 2021

Two years on from the launch of the Our Balbriggan Rejuvenation Plan 2019-2025, the transformation of Ireland’s youngest town is taking shape, with substantial progress made across a range of objectives in all five of the Plan’s pillars.

The latest advancement in the improvement of the public realm has seen demolition commence of the derelict O’Shea’s building at the Harbour, where work is expected to be completed by the end of January 2022.

Over the period 2020- 2027, Fingal County Council anticipate making a total projected public investment of between €54m - €57m in Balbriggan. To date the Council have made property acquisitions totalling €3.9m in the town, with acquisitions for strategic redevelopment projects including the O’Sheas site, the buildings at De Bruns (comprising 6, 8, 8A, 10 & 12 Bridge Street), 14 Bridge Street and 2–4 Dublin Street.

Riot Games announce global production boost to be driven from new Fingal facility

29 October 2021

The news that Riot Games, the developer and publisher best known for League of Legends, has chosen a location in Swords for its new Remote Broadcast and Content Production Centre has been welcomed.

Announcing that the new digital broadcast and production facilities will open in Airside Retail Park by January 2022, the decision by Riot Games to expand their operations means over 120 new jobs will be created locally.

October Saw Almost 1.6 Million Passengers Travel Through Dublin Airport

4 November 2021

Close to 1.6 Million passengers travelled through Dublin Airport in October, a 46% drop when compared to pre-COVID19 levels.

Passenger volumes to and from Continental Europe were down by 35% compared to 2019, as almost 1,003,000 passengers travelling to European destinations last month.

UK traffic declined by 51% in October when compared to pre-COVID levels as almost 429,000 passengers travelled to and from Britain.

Passenger volumes to and from North America were down by 75%, as more than 96,000 passengers travelled on transatlantic routes in October this year versus two years ago.

Other international passenger traffic to the Middle East was down by 67%, as almost 25,000 passengers travelled during the month. The number of passengers on domestic routes was down by 18%, as over 7,000 passengers travelled within Ireland last month.

Over 241,000 passengers passed through Dublin Airport during the October Bank Holiday weekend, making it the busiest Bank Holiday Weekend of the year to date.

Almost 5.9 million passengers have travelled through Dublin Airport in the first 10 months of this year, representing 79% decrease when compared to pre COVID levels in 2019.

Rush producer wins inaugural Sustainable Business Competition

5 November 2021

A local producer of Irish cucumbers has been named by Fingal County Council as the winner of its firstever Sustainable Business Competition. Welgro Produce, based in Rush, won the accolade as part of an initiative aimed at encouraging businesses across Fingal to implement more sustainable approaches into their day-today operations.

The farm, only began operations in 2020 after taking over Thomas Collins and Jim Carthy’s threeacre cucumber farm. Since then, Welgro has been successfully delivering its locally grown produce to retailers around the country, including the likes of Dunnes Stores, Sam Dennigan and Keelings. Being one of only a very few commercial producers of cucumbers in Ireland, they are hoping to cut the import cost for vendors and allowing consumers to enjoy fresh Irish produce.

The business has already shipped some 600 tonnes of cucumbers from their Rush base in 2021, which equates to a staggering 1.6 million individual cucumbers. They are expecting demand for all Irish grown produce to increase approximately 25 per cent in the coming year, mainly due to issues with international supply chains limiting the availability of imported produce.

As part of the award, the business will receive a sustainability assessment and action plan from Balbriggan based Patel Tonra Ltd. Environmental Solutions, one of Ireland’s most respected and experienced environmental consultancies. They will advise Welgro on how to introduce more sustainable practices to their business and help inspire the burgeoning farm to make the most of their ambition to be a sustainable producer.

Fingal Chamber hosts its first indoor live networking event since the pandemic

10 November 2021

Following the interruption to indoor events due to restrictions associated with the pandemic, the Chamber was delighted to welcome members back to a safe indoor environment for a live networking event at the new Holiday Inn Dublin Airport.

Members once again had the opportunity to meet and network face to face, or mask to mask, in a laid-back environment. The limited capacity outdoor event was held subject to COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines.

The guest speaker was successful entrepreneur and founder of One4all Gift Cards, Michael Dawson, who shared the story of his extensive and inspiring career with attendees.

Fingal Chamber welcomes commencement of the Aircraft Noise Competent Authority’s public consultation on Dublin Airport’s new North Runway

11 November 2021

Fingal Chamber of Commerce welcomes the commencement of the Aircraft Noise Competent Authority’s (ANCA) 14-week public consultation process regarding night-time restrictions on Dublin Airport’s new North Runway.

Welcoming this consultation phase in the delivery of North Runway, Fingal Chamber, CEO Anthony Cooney said that now, more than ever it is critically important that the right decision is taken to enable Dublin Airport the operational flexibility to grow so that local and national businesses can build resilience and flourish.

The original planning conditions, which date from the grant of planning permission in 2007, placed an overall limit of 65 aircraft movements across the entire airport campus between 11pm and 7pm. In 2019 before COVID19 arrived, Dublin Airport had its busiest year ever welcoming almost 33 million passengers. That year, even before the addition of North Runway, there was an average of about 100 aircraft movements during that time period.

Look for Local campaign urges consumers to shop Fingal this Christmas

12 November 2021

A new campaign by Fingal Local Enterprise Office is asking consumers to look local when they are shopping for products, services and experiences this Christmas. The Look for Local & Shop Fingal campaigns, supported by Enterprise Ireland and Fingal County Council, aim to raise awareness of the benefit of spending in your local area.

The “Shop Fingal” and “Look for Local” sets out to highlight the importance of shopping within the locality during the shopping period leading up to Christmas. When consumers support one local business, they also support many more behind the scenes, such as suppliers, service providers, and manufacturers. Essentially, shopping locally helps grow the local economy through creating jobs and maintaining Irish industries.

This campaign aims to strengthen that sentiment and to educate consumers on the domino effect that local spending has throughout their community. Every €10 spent in Fingal on Irish products and services generates more than €40 of benefit to Fingal in terms of employment.

Judicial system needs significant extra resources to avoid costly infrastructure delays, says Chambers Ireland

23 November 2021

Chambers Ireland, the voice of business throughout Ireland, has said that our country’s infrastructure ambitions are in serious jeopardy unless significant reform of our under-resourced judicial system is implemented.

The chambers of commerce network says that the caseload and scale of activity within the courts is leading to costly delays and improved resourcing and restructuring is needed.

Fingal to benefit from joint effort to boost economy between Dublin and Belfast

24 November 2021

A new cross-border partnership established to foster economic growth along the key strategic route between Dublin and Belfast has announced its inaugural political leadership team who will help drive employment opportunities, address barriers impacting trade and encourage the delivery of better transport infrastructure.

Speaking at DBEC’s first Oversight Board meeting, Deputy Chair Cllr Seána Ó Rodaigh said: “Alongside the obvious social and economic benefits of closer cross border collaboration in order to develop the corridor, what we are looking to help drive is greater inward investment, the boosting of trade opportunities for local businesses, increased production in key sectors and higher employment. This will be increasing important as the population along the corridor continues to grow.”

Economic Pulse hits eight month low, with conssumer and business sentiment both dropping

29 November 2021

The Bank of Ireland Economic Pulse stood at 83.2 in November 2021, its lowest reading in eight months. The index, which combines the results of the Consumer and Business Pulses, was down 4.4 on last month but up 16.2 on a year ago.

Setbacks on the COVID and Brexit fronts were to the fore this month, with households and firms anticipating some tweaks to the public health guidance and unsettled by UK threats to trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol and warnings from the EU that such a step could have serious consequences, including for the broader trade agreement. Against this backdrop, consumer and business confidence took a turn for the worse.

Commenting on the November Economic Pulse, Dr Loretta O’Sullivan, Group Chief Economist for Bank of Ireland said: “There was a step down in the Economic Pulse this month, with both the consumer and the business mood souring. Some sprinkles of festive cheer were evident in the survey results but not enough to offset COVID concerns and Brexit blues. Households downgraded their expectations for the economy over the coming year and with all four of the business sectors posting softer readings in November, economic sentiment fell to an eight month low. FINGAL CHAMBER - NETWORK MAGAZINE 5