Tag Archives: business

TWO Clare business owners are encouraging returned emigrants who are setting up a business, or those living abroad thinking of returning home with an idea they want to get off the ground, to get involved in a government backed programme. Back for Business is a development programme, funded by the Government’s Emigrant Support Programme, that was established to foster and support entrepreneurial activity among emigrants returning to live in Ireland. It is aimed at those who have lived abroad for at least a year and have returned in the last three years or those planning to return in the near future. It was launched last month by Colm Brophy TD Minister of State for Overseas Development Aid and Diaspora and now the programme is looking for applications for the 2023 programme from those living or hoping to return to County Clare. There is no charge for those selected to participate and the closing date for applications is Thursday, January 12. Former participants …

BUSINESS people across Clare will be relieved that the County Council’s 2023 budget agreed on Friday, contained no increase on commercial rates. While the initial proposal from the Council executive was for a 2.5% increase, that wasn’t accepted by the Councillors and the figure will now be frozen at the 2022 level. Speaking on Tuesday, Councillor Mary Howard said it would have been impossible to justify an increase. “Having come out of a worldwide pandemic, dealing with the after affects of Brexit, the war in Ukraine and the supply chain issues that have been there for the last two years, I just think increasing rates would be the wrong thing to do, absolutely, at this time.” She said that the “vast majority” of people she spoke to were similarly opposed to increasing rates for next year, and the proposed 2.5% increase had little support. “Looking at Ennis, what I’ve seen since businesses have reopened, in O’Connell Street a number have …

RETAIL businesses in Ennis will close if new rateable valuations on businesses are implemented, a number of traders in the town have claimed. Last week saw a number of businesses receive letters about future rates bills, which left some of the traders shocked. Barry O’Driscoll of Precious Pets said the bill he is facing is set to increase from €8,000 per annum to €14,500. “When I found out what the formula was I realised, ‘Oh my God, my rates have gone up by 82%. Then I started phoning other retailers and I found they were in the same position, or even worse. We got together then, because quite frankly it is very serious and there will be no shops left if this stands.” He said that if there is no change he will go out of business. “This kicks in on January 1, 2024 and I cannot trade with these catastrophically high rates unless something radical is done.” John O’Connor …

AT the moment many companies are facing a slew of problems in terms of recruitment, retention and management of workers, according to Joe Robbins of Shannon-based CareerWise recruitment. Last week a poll suggested 63% of Irish workers were disengaged from their job, but Mr Robbins says that figure, while alarming, is actually an underestimate. “It’s far higher than that. Millennials, modern young people, they want more than just working from home, they want to be able to take time out to go to the gym or do charity work or whatever, there’s a huge disengagement around the world.” At the same time there is a huge demand for people, with labour shortages across various sectors. “The labour market is very, very tight now. You saw last week that Ireland has surpassed 2.5 million people working. “There’s a huge shortage of all sorts of people now; hospitality, production and manufacturing, finance, supply chain, R&D, there’s a shortage of people everywhere. It’s …

KILRUSH is the town in Munster with the highest rate of commercial buildings that are vacant. The town has had an issue with vacancies for some time and regularly features at the top of the periodic Geodirectory issued reports on vacancies. The most recent one showed that in the second quarter of the year there was a vacancy rate of 25.1% at Kilrush, the highest in Munster and the fourth highest in Ireland. However, on the positive side, the rate of vacancy in Kilrush was nearly 1% lower than at the same time in 2021. Jack Kelly, who has a well known business in the town, said that there has been a fairly good recovery since Covid-19 restrictions were raised. “I would say things are picking up, but Kilrush is always behind the curve on that, it is coming back, but slowly coming back. There have been a few extra units taken up around the town. “Has it changed much …

POST Covid-19 restrictions there is a significant shortage of labour across the economy, according to Joe Robbins of CareerWise Recruitment, which operates from Shannon, as well as having bases in Cork, Dublin, Galway and Mayo. While many jobs in the western world went to China over the last 30 years, he says that trend is now being reversed, which is leading to more jobs here, but they aren’t necessarily easy to fill. “It’s called in-sourcing, they’re trying to bring stuff away from China and to become less reliant on China. Obviously it’s leading to inflation, but more importantly in the long run it’s going to mean a lot more opportunities for the likes of Ireland to supply the big multinational companies. In fairness during Covid we kept everything going as a country, which was great. “A lot of the American corporates were very impressed that the Irish subsidaries kept everything going. That’s one big factor that’s going to lead to …

ORGANISERS of the Fleadh Nua festival in Ennis were “devastated” over the closure of the Rowan Tree hostel, a meeting has been told. Calls were made at an Ennis Municipal District meeting for action to be taken to secure tenants for empty business premises in the town. The hostel on Harmony Row is just one of a number of high profile businesses which have closed in recent years in the county capital, with Councillor Pat Daly insisting, “Ennis can’t afford to lose business.” Speaking at a meeting of the Ennis Municipal District the councillor urged the local authority to co-ordinate with Ennis Chamber and the owners of properties with a view to securing new tenants. Alongside the Rowan Tree which closed in October, he recalled the other locations which have shut their doors, Food Haven, O’Brien’s deli and Twomey-Walsh. Councillor Daly recalled how in a recent conversation with organisers of Fleadh Nua they outlined the closure of the Rowan Tree …

IT certainly hasn’t been the happiest of New Years at the Shannon Springs Hotel, with the prevalence of Covid-19 forcing closures and reductions in service since Christmas Speaking to The Clare Champion, co-owner Dermot Kelly said that the prevalence of the Omicron variant meant there were few options other than to scale back. “We did everything in our power to keep going but at the end of the day the safety of our team and our customers was most important. This particular variant seems to be really highly transmissible. Before Christmas Eve we had kind of said we wouldn’t open on the 26th and the 27th because they’d be too big, really and truly. “As it transpired we didn’t get to reopen until January 3 for accommodation and we’re not open to the public this coming week. We’re going to start doing take away food from this Thursday evening, we’ll have a certain amount of our team back who’ll be …