With gender pay gap reporting requirements set to extend to businesses with more than fifty employees in 2025, Dublin Chamber wrote to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to highlight member concerns. While compliance is generally straightforward for larger businesses, SMEs face significant challenges. Dublin Chamber emphasised the need for the reporting requirements to be manageable for smaller businesses next year and called for increased support for these businesses in navigating the reporting period. We also proposed key recommendations for the upcoming gender pay gap portal, including ensuring that the database is responsible and supports fair and constructive data interpretation, as well as establishing clear media guidelines to avoid misleading portrayals of gender pay gaps. You can read the letter in full here.
At the beginning of December, Dublin Chamber met with Councillor Punam Rane to discuss findings from our Q3 Business Outlook Report. Key concerns included infrastructure delivery, with 45% of businesses dissatisfied and a further 9% very dissatisfied with the delivery of infrastructure for Dublin under the National Development Plan (NDP). We also took the opportunity to reiterate our call for removing Dublin Airport’s Passenger Cap, emphasising the importance of international air connectivity for four out of every five Dublin businesses. Dublin Chamber welcomed the opportunity to engage with Councillor Rane and we look forward to continued collaboration in the new year.
On December 10th, Dublin Chamber held its final Council meeting of the year where we were joined by Dr. Sean McSweeney, Project Director for MetroLink. Dr. McSweeney emphasised Metrolink's potential as a transformative, nation-building project, capable of not just delivering high-capacity, sustainable transport, but also addressing the country’s crippling housing crisis. Dublin Chamber has long advocated for the timely delivery of MetroLink to provide Dublin with the integrated and sustainable transport network that is needs to thrive and we will continue to amplify this message.
This month, Dublin Chamber also met with the Chambers Ireland network to set out a common platform of priorities for 2025. During this meeting, we highlighted our ongoing advocacy across our key policy areas - Infrastructure and Transport, Budget and Competitiveness, Sustainability and Labour Market. We also emphasised our General Election calls – such as accelerating the delivery of critical infrastructure projects not just in housing but in transport, water and wastewater services and energy, removing the passenger cap at Dublin Airport and transitioning to a public childcare model – as key to our agenda for 2025. Dublin Chamber looks forward to building on the momentum of our General Election campaign and driving these priorities forward.
On December 16th, Dublin Chamber met with Minister for Finance, Jack Chambers TD, to discuss our priorities around supporting entrepreneurship. During these discussions, we highlighted the need to reduce Capital Gains Tax (CGT) for unquoted actively trading SMEs. Dublin Chamber has long advocated for a reduced rate of 20% as we believe that it would provide a much-needed funding stream to small Irish businesses. Dublin Chamber looks forward to further engagement with the Minister on the matter.
In addition to the above, Dublin Chamber attended a meeting with the Dublin Regional Skills Forum (DRSF) this month to layout the forum’s priorities for the year ahead. As part of a national initiative of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, the DRSF supports businesses in the region to develop workforce capabilities, access state-funded provisions and future-proof talent pipelines. Dublin Chamber is proud to represent its members on this forum. For queries relating to Dublin Chamber’s skills agenda or if you have any interest in engaging with the forum, please contact policy@dublinchamber.ie.