Charleville Chamber hosts An Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar TD

Charleville Chamber of Commerce hosted a meeting last Friday 27th May in Charleville, which was attended by An Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The meeting was also attended by Michael Creed TD, Michael Moynihan TD, representatives of Cork Co Council, members of the board of Charleville Chamber.
Ray Lee, Chairperson of the Chamber of Commerce outlined the chamber’s progressive vision “To establish Charleville as a vibrant economic town in which to work, live and invest.” The Chamber presented a macroeconomic picture of Charleville which clearly displayed the caliber of world leading businesses operating here and the significant expertise built up over the years in the Agri/food, engineering, and health care/education sectors. The meeting also included a visit to BCD at Railway Rd, Charleville, which highlighted to the delegates the extendt of world class businesses in operation in the town.
During the course of the meeting, the significant challenges and opportunities facing the town were clearly outlined. The chamber highlighted the need to promote expansion and diversi-fication of the employment base in the area and for the need of all stakeholders to prioritize the identification of future employment opportunities for the town.
The various infrastructural challenges facing the town were discussed, including the need for addressing accessibility of zoned development lands to ensure availability of sites for potential inward investment opportunities. There was also a discussion on the ongoing saga of the N/M20. Charleville Chamber re-iterated their support for the proposed N/M20 but said it was critical that this project is aligned with the sustainable economic development of Charleville. Ray Lee outlined how “Charleville could be a real model for balanced regional development, which is a priority for the government under the national development plan”. An Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar TD outlined to the meeting that the Government was fully committed to the completion of the N/M20 project by 2030 and echoed the sentiments of Charleville Chamber, that it should lead to balanced regional development in towns such as Charleville, and not solely the larger urban centre’s of Cork and Limerick.
The meeting was also presented with details of the recent €6.5 million Rural Regeneration funding application which has been submitted for the town. The application which will lead to transformational changes and development of the facilities and public realm of Charleville town centre is currently in review stage. Ray Lee outlined that this would be the largest investment by the government in Charleville’s history and would be hugely beneficial to the development of Charleville into the future. He clearly stated that for too long, Charleville has suffered from being a town on the fringes of a large county and has lacked any real investment. He appealed to An Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar TD, and to all local political representatives, to give this funding application their full support.
Commenting after the meeting, Ray Lee Chairman of Charleville Chamber of Commerce stated “We were delighted to host the Tánaiste as well as all the other attendees. It presented us with a fantastic opportunity to outline our vision for Charleville and to engage in a broad discussion relating to various issues and challenges that we need to address together. I believe that it was a positive step towards a more regular and structured engagement process which will undoubtedly lead to greater alignment between the various stakeholders on the key issues facing the future development of our town.”