“Despite all of the challenges, the future is bright for Galway, and for Ireland, but only if the right decisions are made today. We have to get people back to work, we have to get enterprise back, we need to come out of this crisis with an ambition to build a national economy at the heart of which are our regional towns and cities.”
This is the view of Sinn Féin president, Mary Lou McDonald, who was the guest speaker on Monday at the first Galway Chamber Live Leader series. The virtual meeting was attended by members of the Western Region’s business community.
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While restrictions around the Covid-19 pandemic have eased and there has been a partial re-opening of society, the impacts of the pandemic are still being felt, especially by businesses and numerous sectors of the economy. Dep McDonald said, it is vital to reassure “every small business owner, every worker, that for so long that there is a national public health emergency that forces you to close your doors, or that means that you cannot go to work, the State will support you”.
She said the “building of infrastructure and connectivity has to be at the heart” of rebuilding the economy, but that supports for those made unemployed by the pandemic must continue. “When you are in an emergency, you deploy emergency devices,” she said. “You don’t leave hanging over either business, or the working population, the prospect of that getting pulled prematurely.”
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JP Gilmartin, president of Galway Chamber echoed this view. “With existing State supports in place until June, businesses must be given certainty on how long these supports will be available for beyond then,” he said, “and what the revised qualifications criteria will look like, enabling them to then plan accordingly. Many sectors will require some degree of financial support for the remainder of 2021 and others into mid-2022.”
