Catherine Duffy and Minister for Finance address Chamber Dinner
14 November 2014: Catherine Duffy, President of Limerick Chamber, warned of the dangers of complacency in her address to 430 of the Mid-west’s top senior business and government officials at the Limerick Chamber 200th Anniversary President’s dinner at the Strand Hotel on Friday night (13/11/15). Acknowledging that “Limerick is a very different place to that of five years ago” she warned that “both collectively and as individuals we cannot afford to sit back. We’re only two years into a 17 year plan to transform our city and region.”
During her speech she set out some of the challenges and opportunities the Mid-west faced over the coming years, particularly in terms of maintaining the current momentum of attracting and retaining FDI, putting further policies in place to support the SME sector and embracing the next generation of talent.
Highlighting the importance of reaching out to school-going children about enterprise and entrepreneurship, Ms Duffy said, “Skills are the currency of the 21st century economy and it is the extent to which we can offer a more highly skilled workforce than our competitors that will determine our future prosperity. There is an opportunity to encourage a greater unity between business and schools.”
Keynote speaker Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan TD, said “I delighted to be joining the Limerick Chamber as they celebrate 200 years of formal constitution. The members of the chamber are doing exceptional work in ensuring Limerick remains a vibrant European City. There has been significant success in recent times in securing new investment projects for the Mid West region with 17 projects secured for the region last year – a 183% increase on the 2010 figure. Limerick is a dynamic and innovative city and has been to the forefront of Ireland’s economic recovery”.
The President’s Dinner also featured the Limerick Chamber Regional Business Awards, sponsored by LIT, for the fifth year running. Eight companies were presented with awards. Click here for further details.
Dr Ed Walsh was the recipient of the Limerick Chamber President’s Award. Dr Walsh, founding President of UL, was honoured for his vision and foresight in connecting UL to the real world. “He helped educate an FDI attractive workforce and generations of entrepreneurially-minded graduates which in turn had an economic and social impact on Limerick and Ireland,” noted Catherine Duffy on presenting the award.
Click here for a copy of Catherine Duffy’s speech.
ENDS
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