County Carlow Chamber were delighted to sit down with Neale Richmond TD Minister for State at for Business, Employment & Retail Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment

County Carlow Chamber were delighted to sit down with Neale Richmond TD Minister for State at for Business, Employment & Retail Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment following his visit to inCarlow | Carlow Local Enterprise Office

We have seen some great progress in the last few years and it is key to continue building on this and supporting business with their ambitions and in turn our communities. Over the course of the meeting we discussed a range of points including:
– The cost of doing business. We have see several small and vitally important increases over the recent months including min wage, vat reverting from 9%, changes to sick pay, energy costs etc and the impending auto-enrolment to mention but a few. Taken individually they are fine but when many small increases land on a small business at the same time they make a bigger difference, and the result may see many going out of business
– Auto-enrolement. There are a lot of questions and very little detail available on this at the moment and it is key that it is right for the employees and the employers, vitally important is to know when it will happen so that we can plan accordingly
– Retail in our town centres. We need to protect and encourage bricks and mortar retail in our town centres. In Carlow we continue to see the impact from vacant units including in places like Carlow Chopping Centre and on our high streets. In some cases the costs like rates are prohibitive and the growth of online while important should not be at a cost to our towns.

Brian O’Farrell, Rowena Dooley, Shane Kenneally QFA CIP RPA, Yvonne (O’ Toole) Jones, Tom O Neill, Andrea Dalton, Paul Doogue (Pictured)