The Dublin Chamber Annual Dinner hosted a collection of speakers including driving forces in the private sector but also Minister Michael McGrath TD. Minister McGrath acknowledged the professionalism in which Dublin Chamber’s Budget 2024 submission was put together. The Budget Submission can be viewed here.

This month, we met with Minister Simon Coveney, where we discussed the need for Enterprise supports for business and the use of the SME Test across all schemes. The NPF was also discussed in the context of Budget 2024 and the need for increased resources to allow Dublin grow.

Deputy Pearse Doherty TD addressed a full crowd at another instalment of Dublin Chamber’s Public Affairs Forum. The Deputy gave an overview of Sinn Féin’s alternative budget, giving insight into what changes could be expected given a Sinn Féin Minister of Finance. Items included using CT revenue surpluses as 'catch up capital investment' in housing, health, and sustainability. While also outlining Sinn Féin's ambitions to further decrease the cost of childcare and increase the capacity of these facilities. Minister for Housing Darragh O’ Brien TD will speak at the next Public Affairs Forum in the Chamber on the 12^th of October which you can book here.

Dublin Chamber’s Elected Council met in Google HQ this month to discuss a variety of different positions, with Chamber representatives discussing the National Planning Framework (NPF), crime and safety levels and the preliminary results of the Quarterly Business Outlook Survey, done in association with Savills, with the full report likely to be published early October.

The National Planning Framework was the largest priority for the council as the Chamber is set to make a submission during the review process of the NPF. Its key priorities; providing enough housing, social and economic infrastructure for the growing population. These are informed positions taken by research and also through contact with infrastructure providers over the course of the month including providers such as Uisce Éireann and Eirgrid.

This month, Dublin Chamber ran a roundtable discussion on safety levels. Being careful not to become complacent in regard to safety levels within the city, the Chamber held this roundtable to get an up-to-date insight into what businesses face, and the costs associated with mitigating anti-social behaviour. Roundtable discussions serve as a means for members to directly impact Dublin Chamber lobbying strategy, with a roundtable to undergo Friday the 29^th of September, registration available here. We appreciate any insight you might have on any upcoming discussions, the next discussion is regarding the labour market, more specially employment permit legislation, this will take place on the 20^th of October, which will be available to book on the Dublin Chamber website in the coming weeks.

Alongside roundtable discussions, both the labour taskforce and sustainability taskforce have met to shape evolving lobbying positions for their respective areas. This week, Deputy Emer Higgins TD engaged with the labour taskforce with the topic of discussion being the Irish corporate governance bill, which will make provision for the regulation of gender balance on the boards and governing councils of corporate bodies. Meanwhile, Brendan Kelly and Orla O’ Brien from DETE, discussed the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) with the sustainability taskforce. 

Finally, Dublin Chamber filed its lobbying returns this month for the most recent lobbying period to positive effect. Dublin Chamber will continue to lobby on behalf of its members and bring the most prevalent issues for our membership to Government and public officials.