Border chambers vow to remain united post Brexit

Border chambers vowed to remain united in their work on cross border cooperation at a meeting with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mary Mitchell O’Connor at Leinster House last week.

The meeting was arranged by Dundalk TD Peter Fitzpatrick and attended by Fergus O’Dowd to allow the Chambers of Commerce express their views and concerns for the Newry and Louth region following the decision by the UK to leave the European Union.

Newry Chamber, Dundalk Chamber and Drogheda Chamber of Commerce all spoke of the need to work in collaboration to represent the border business community along the M1 corridor.

President of Dundalk Chamber, Michael Gaynor said: ‘ Our Chamber members on both sides of the Border have common concerns on the practicalities of what a hard border would mean for their business.’

He added: ‘Our region is unique and we must explore all avenues possible to ensure that our industries that we have worked so hard to attract, remain here as well as work with our partners in Newry Chamber to ensure that trade development and SME collaboration remains a key priority.’

The chamber president said: ‘ We must do everything possible to safeguard our large employers in the area and work closely with IDA to ensure that Dundalk is the preferred choice for inward investors.’

Speaking about the tourism potential of the region, Dundalk Chamber PRO Paddy Malone said:

‘Carlingford Lough offers tremendous tourism potential and is within 90km, or 60 minutes drive to over 2.5million people, a figure which cannot be surpassed on the island.’

‘It is vital that closer collaboration in this area be developed and that visitors need to know that there will be no extra visa requirements in moving from Mourne to Cooley.’

He pointed out the practicalities such as time taken to travel to work, customs clearance, logistic costs would reduce cross border activity if a hard border was created.

Newry Chief Executive, Mary Meehan reflected to the Minister on how much the region had benefited from EU Interreg and Peace funds not only to promote SME cooperation and job creation but also large capital infrastructure projects.

As a result of Brexit, flagship EU projects were already under threat.

‘Newry and Dundalk Chambers have a long standing history of joint trade cooperation and have adopted a much unified approach showing strong positive leadership in the wake of Brexit,’ said Ms. Meehan

‘ This region benefits from an active partnersship approach on both sides of the border and every business profits from joint North-South cooperation.’

She added that every week, more than £1 billion of trade is conducted between the UK and Ireland, sustaining more than 400,000 jobs directly.

‘It is crucial that both Governments must work together to ensure sufficient funds are in place to promote SME .

Eddie Phelan and Padraic Kierans emphasised Drogheda and Louth’s excellent position adjacent to Dublin Airport and the excellent access to broadband.

‘ This makes the area perfectly placed to accommodate banking and other operations moving from UK.’

Meanwhile Brendan Casey outlined the excellent work being done in Drogheda by both DKIT and DCU.

The Minister reassured representatives that she has been working closely with Enterprise Ireland and IDA on the challenges and opportunities that this vote presents.

She said she was ‘aware of the retail challenge and the level of concern in the border.’

She emphasised that the Government had both long and short term plans, and said her department was working with all organisations.

The work of the chambers on both sides of the border is essential in addressing the impact of the fluctuating currency exchange.

The fall out from the Brexit vote has seen the pound weakened significantly over the last two weeks, leading to fears of shoppers from the south flocking north.

Indeed, such is the level of concern over the situation that a Dundalk councillor made a direct appeal to local people to continue supporting their own community.

Cllr. John McGahon said: ‘I would urge everyone from this town to resist the temptation to go north.’

He added ‘Keep your money in our town, support local business and we will weather the storm together.’