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Putting Clare back on the business map


Local business people; Aoife Madden, Ger Murphy, Michelle Madden, Gearoid Mannion, Michael Leahy, Martin White and John Dillane at the launch of the Save Jobs For Ennis and Clare initiative. Photograph by John KellyBOTH Ennis Development Forum and Ennis Chamber have joined forces in a bid to put Clare businesses back on the map by being the first county in Ireland to trade through the recession.

As part of this campaign, a business forum entitled “Save Our Jobs in Ennis and Clare” with general election candidates was held last Wednesday in the Temple Gate Hotel.
Local businesses are supporting this initiative through a poster campaign that has been launched throughout the town, as well as a Facebook page that has already gained over 400 friends and businesses, with even more on the way.
More than 100 local businesses can be seen through photographs on the “Ennis Jobs” Facebook page, showing their combined support for the campaign. All businesses have been asked to display Clare flags as a sign of commitment to local jobs. Also as part of the campaign election style stickers with “Vote No. 1 Save Ennis and Clare Jobs” have also been distributed for employees and customers to wear.
Aoife Madden of the Ennis Development Forum explained that the idea for the campaign was born out of concern for the amount of business closures that have been seen in Ennis in recent times. She believes that a positive attitude with businesses and the local community coming together is needed to turn the tide.
She said that she has been amazed at the level of response she has had to the movement.
“The idea has just got bigger and bigger, everybody wants to get involved in this. We just started the Facebook page last Friday and already we have over 400 friends – that’s more than 100 a day. We’ve had messages of support from as far away as America and Canada with people saying this is a really good, positive initiative. We’ve already started to get some national media interest, it’s really catching on.”
Incoming Ennis Chamber president, John Dillane added, “We just thought, we can complain and be negative or we can come out fighting. We want to get the spirit out there that we need to get behind people, jobs and society here in Clare. This initiative is about finding solutions and not looking at the problems. We need to break down all barriers to job creation and retention. There are new and innovative business ideas out there that need to be aired.
“We need to be able to sit down with the powers that be and they need to realise that small businesses create jobs if given a chance. Everybody is interested in the welfare of Clare so we all need to pull together.”
Aoife went on, “We want Ennis and Clare to be put on the map as the first places to come out of the recession. And we believe that being positive, and coming together as a community is the way to do that. We are going to get the county back working.
“I constantly have people telling me that Ennis is such a great town with so many different shops and with great customer service, these are the things we need to promote about the town and the county,” she said.
As part of the campaign, local businesses are also being urged to fly Clare flags. She explained, “We want to create a real buzz around the town, and create awareness of what we are trying to do here. We want to make the town look like it’s an All-Ireland and show the rest of the country our positive attitude and that we are going to get through this.”
At Wednesday’s meeting, the county’s general election candidates were asked to outline their enterprise strategy for the county if elected as well as hearing issues and ideas from local businesses. As a follow up, a commitment was sought from the four successful candidates to meet with representatives from the Business Forum within a month of being elected to formulise a strategy to implement the ideas discussed.

 

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