On the 11th of June, Dublin Chamber’s member elected council convened to discuss and agree on Dublin Chamber’s 2025 Pre-Budget submission, informed by our business priorities and Quarterly Business Outlook surveys. This year’s Q1 survey revealed that increasing the housing supply is the number one budget priority for more than four-in-five (83%) of Dublin businesses, while investment in transport and infrastructure ranks as the second most pressing priority for approximately two-thirds (66%) of businesses. With this feedback, Dublin Chamber has carefully crafted a Pre-Budget submission and this month, has met with representatives from the Department of Finance, including John McCarthy, Chief Economist, and Garry Hynds, Head of International Tax, to discuss the outlined priorities and advocate for effective solutions in Budget 2025.
In addition to the above, Dublin Chamber continued its engagement with Dublin City Council this month, participating in the DCC Freight and Delivery Working Group. This group was set up by Dublin City Council to investigate more sustainable ways for businesses entering the City Core to make their deliveries, particularly in the last mile. While it is important for business to investigate this, many businesses have already made this switch by using electric vehicles and other models for their deliveries. As a member of this group, Dublin Chamber will work constructively with the local authority to investigate ways to achieve the aims of the Working Group that are both pragmatic and achievable for businesses.
Following the commencement of the Right to Request Remote Work and publication of the WRC’s Code of Practice, Dublin Chamber outlined members initial concerns regarding the new remote working guidelines to Emer Higgins TD, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade, and Employment with responsibility for Business, Employment, and Retail. Preliminary results from Dublin Chamber’s Q2 Business Outlook survey reveal that three-in-ten businesses find the guidelines unhelpful in processing employee requests for remote working. Furthermore, approximately one-in-two businesses are most concerned about the Code’s impact on company culture, as well as the cost of compliance with Health and Safety requirements. Dublin Chamber will meet with Minister Higgins in the coming weeks to discuss these findings and address members concerns.
This month, Dublin Chamber also engaged with the Department of Enterprise on a working group tasked to look at sustainability supports available to businesses on the journey to decarbonise, specifically SMEs. This group strongly advocated for a central hub with sustainability supports and expertise. The hub, as well as reasons for decarbonising, can be accessed here and here. Building on from this working group, Cathy Madden, Principal Officer came to speak to Dublin Chamber’s policy council looking at sustainability, stressing the importance for coordination amongst all those offering supports.