Last week, Dublin Chamber met Richard Shakespeare, CEO of Dublin City Council as well as Leo Clancy, CEO of Enterprise Ireland as part of Dublin Chamber’s first Council meeting of the year. Richard Shakespeare outlined his agenda for the City under his tenure as CEO of DCC and discussed Dublin Chamber’s upcoming local elections manifesto looking at matters such as safety, commercial rates and the promotion of Dublin. Leo Clancy spoke to the increase in exporting companies in Ireland and fielded questions from members concerning exporting. 

The first council meeting of the year produced a canon of reaffirmed Business Priorities for the year ahead which were sent to Taoiseach designate, Minister Simon Harris, available to read in full here. 

The newly elected policy Council set out our lobbying priorities for the next Taoiseach and new leader of Fine Gael, which encompassed a discussion on Local and European Manifestos. Throughout March, Dublin Chamber has engaged with the Chambers’ Ireland Network in producing both Local and European Elections Manifestos, launched last week and available to read here. Both were the subject of discussion at the March Council meeting and Dublin Chamber has already this week met with Barry Andrews, MEP to advocate on these manifestos, in addition to previous engagements with Ciarán Cuffe MEP and Billy Kelleher MEP earlier this year. 

Also last week, Dublin Chamber met with Colm Burke TD to discuss Dublin Chamber’s Business Priorities and talk to some of the policy agendas outlined by Dublin businesses feeding into the Chamber’s manifestos in the lead up to election time in June. 

The Oral Hearing by An Board Pleanála has been ongoing for the past 5 weeks and is due to finish its deliberations shortly. The evidence from the hearing will inform planners in their decision on granting the application for a Railway Order. Last week, Dublin Chamber gave evidence at the hearing where our support for the project was reiterated, with the need for quick reliable public transport links for people in Swords to the City Centre and for passengers to and from the Airport. Dublin Chamber emphasised how long this project has been mooted and now more than ever with the population of the Dublin area exceeding projections how badly an underground system is needed. 

Earlier this month, Dublin Chamber met with the Department of Housing working group to reform Strategic Policy Committees (SPCs) in Local Authorities. With March remaining an active month for engagement between Dublin Chamber and Dublin City Council. In addition to the briefing and meeting with Richard Shakespeare last week, the Dublin City Centre Business Forum remains an active medium in which Dublin Chamber engages with DCC concerning Dublin business.