Tag Archives: economy

Owen Ryan SHANNON digital marketing company Core Optimisation is taking on 13 new staff, bringing the total number of employees to 30. Founded in 2015, it is now one of the country’s top digital transformation agencies, focusing on digital transformation strategy, search engine optimisation, paid search advertising, paid social media advertising and conversion optimisation. Limerick man Kieran O’Brien has joined the company as its Director of Marketing and Communications. He said that Core Optimisation is going through a period of rapid growth and it now has some remote workers. “It has kind of exploded in the last couple of months, and there’s a need to ramp up. The majority of people would be from Clare and Limerick, but there are people working from Portugal and Spain. One guy is working from Granada, one woman went home to Portugal when Covid came and she’s staying out there now. At the moment no one is really in the office, but when we …

THROUGHOUT the recession all Clare County Council meetings heard stories about the complete absence of funds, but with the country coming out of Covid, things are very different. At Tuesday’s Shannon Municipal District meeting, Director of Services Liam Conneally said that at the moment “a plethora of grants are being fired at us at the moment”. He said that the “Government are trying to assist businesses, trying to assist community groups, trying to assist local authorities.” One thing he said he was disappointed about was that other Municipal Districts were doing better at accessing supports than the Shannon area, but he said this could be addressed. Mr Conneally said that there are some very good reasons to be positive about the economy at the moment. “A lot of new job creation goes unannounced. Another 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 jobs that would be added to a company, they mightn’t want it announced but it is happening. There is …

Owen Ryan on the importance of the slots THE preservation of Shannon’s Heathrow slots is of fundamental importance to much of the region’s economy, and ensuring connectivity continues beyond next September should be a priority for the region’s politicians. More than 15 years ago – well before the precariousness of the slots really came into focus after they were transferred to Belfast – Shannon Town Council had called for them to be ring fenced for the Clare airport. However, that did not happen, still has not happened, and it is very possible that next autumn they could be lost once more. In 2007 Aer Lingus hoped to bury news of its decision to transfer four Heathrow slots from Shannon to Belfast, by leaking the information on the August Bank Holiday weekend. That didn’t work at all though, and even though the economy was booming at the time, a major campaign began, encompassing politicians, tourism industry figures, some leading multinational companies …

MORE than one in four people in Clare’s workforce are currently on the live register or receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment. There are more than three times as many people in Clare getting support due to lack of employment than was the case in February 2020, before Covid-19 had reached Ireland. By any pre-Pandemic standards, the figures are incredible, reflecting a level of unemployment that would be unthinkable at any other time. This week Clare TD Michael McNamara has warned that Ireland’s approach to the pandemic over the past year will lead to economic ruin, while he compared the lack of dissenting voices to the latter years of the Celtic Tiger, when there was little criticism of economic policies that brought disaster. “The key is to work safely but we didn’t make an attempt to work safely, we just stopped working altogether. I’m not aware of any country in Europe that has dealt with it the way we have, which …

WITH the third wave of the pandemic having crushed economic activity, there is a general malaise and many businesses having closed, there is a sense of malaise and pessimism in many quarters right now. However, with a vaccine being distributed there are hopes that normal life will resume later this year and at Tuesday’s meeting of Shannon Municipal District, Clare County Council’s Director of Economic Development Liam Conneally said there is genuine cause for optimism about what may happen in the latter months of 2021. “In November and December and so far in January the number of planning applications lodged have been up on the last number of years and that is a good barometer of economic activity,” he said. Mr Conneally said that there is reason to “look forward to quarter three and quarter four with a degree of optimism,” and added that “the construction industry normally leads out on this”. Mr Conneally said that there are large projects …

DECEMBER 1 couldn’t come quickly enough for hundreds if not thousands of Clare men whose hair had grown feral since the beginning of lockdown. Ennis barber Micheál Malone has been welcoming customers back and says business has been quite brisk. “It has been very busy, it’ll be very busy for this week, people are getting Christmas haircuts as well.” Customers are very happy to finally get tidied up and get a part of their routine back. “They’re delighted to get back and to see us as well, it’s a bit of normality as well. Six weeks is a long time with people getting a haircut every four weeks.” In business for the last 25 years, he says this has been by far the strangest and most difficult one. “We’ve only worked for six months of the year really, to be honest about it. It has been strange for the staff as well, you’re not seeing them. The first lockdown was …

THE move to Level 5 restrictions has seen the domestic economy slump further, with many locally owned businesses having to close their doors again. While many people have been left out of work, at least temporarily, there is a more positive dimension to the local employment situation, with a number of multinational companies in Clare and the wider region trying to find new staff. This week saw an announcement by US company exida that it will create 25 new jobs in Shannon , while Joe Robbins of Careerwise Recruitment said the Pharma/Life Sciences/ Medical Devices sector is booming in the mid-west. “If you consider so many companies are working on a vaccine, they’ve continued to hire, and a lot of them are growing. They’re hiring from a small pool of people, and if you’re a quality engineer or a manufacturing engineer, or a chemist or a scientist, you’ve a lot of choice. I’m talking about the mid-west but in Cork …

Clare businesses have received €3,441,338 to date from the Government’s Covid-19 Restart Grant to help them get back on their feet. The figures were confirmed by local Fine Gael TD Joe Carey who said: “Clare County Council is responsible for administering the Government’s Restart Grant and has confirmed that small and micro businesses in Clare have now been allocated just under €3,5 million so far. “This is crucial to helping local businesses to get back on their feet after what has been an extremely difficult few months. The funding is designed to help businesses with the costs associated with reopening and re-employing workers following Covid-19 closures. Businesses can avail of between €2,000 and €10,000 for this purpose. “Getting these businesses back open is so important to the revival of our local economy here in Clare as they are such important employers.” Deputy Carey said his colleague, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar is overseeing “targeted supports” …