“We’re poised very well to recover in the North West, but only with the required support”
AS businesses across Sligo and the north west continue to grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic, Fianna Fáil TD Marc MacSharry believes the north west is in a position to recover if the appropriate supports are put in place.
The Sligo-Leitrim TD argues that the hospitality sector can help stimulate a return to economic growth, with this part of the country particularly important to Ireland’s attraction as a tourist destination.
“I’ve raised this in the Dail with the Minister for Finance, the fact that we need a number of sector specific initiatives so obviously tourism and hospitality is a huge part of our economy in the north west and when you’ve a very specific plan with substantial reports to help them kickoff, they’re not yet in place,” Deputy MacSharry said.
“If the appropriate supports are made available then tourism and hospitality in particular can help lead the recovery in the post- Covid-19 period, they did it in the post-2008 period and they can do it again. At the moment, there is a huge lack of clarity about what needs to be done, and what can be done and the level of engagement that’s required with all sectors needs to increase rapidly and measures identified that are going have a tangible impact in assisting them.”
The SME sector, too, is in need of attention to ensure that not only the businesses survive, but that they remain in a position to employ staff.
“The SME sector, which is the backbone of the North West economy, nationally we have 250000 SMEs employing about a million people, but yet of the eight or ten schemes announced, only two apply to the SME sector and for very small money. That isn’ t sufficient to assist the recovery in the way that I feel is going to be required so there’s an awful lot more work to be done.”
The support, if delivered, can help Sligo and the North West region bounce back to some sort of economic prosperity. The support should start with an increase in funding from European level, Deputy MacSharry says, “to assist us nationally to distribute what has to be distributed locally and regionally will mean that the practice of dealing with the standard cyclical downturn which this isn’ t approach needs to be abandoned. We need to be prepared to develop solutions for a modern world and a crisis that’s unprecedented.”
“We’re poised very well to recover in the North West, but only with the required support and I think that requires imagination, it’ ll require decisiveness and certainly a flavour of radical policy initiatives to allow us to do that.” to