Minutes:
Ciara O hAodha, Senior Economic Development Officer presented on the Dublin City Economic Recovery Strategy.
Comments, Feedback & questions:
The chair thanked Ms O hAodha for her presentation and commended the Economic Development team, LEO team and all departments across the City Council for their work, dedication and flexibility during the emergency period. Cllr Rachel Batten queried the numbers of applications received for date and turn-around time for the Restart grant administered by the Finance Department. Richard Shakespeare confirmed 20% of rate payers had applied for the Restart grant and advised there have been significant marketing campaigns by central government and DCC to promote the initiative. There is a responsibility on businesses to apply as the LA have put all the tools in place to deal with large volume of applications. The turnaround time is between 1.5 – 2 weeks with 3,200 applications received to date. Aidan Sweeney noted the quality of the presentation and highlighted there would be an ongoing engagement needed between the city council and central government in terms of pushing for government supports for restarting enterprise in the city. He noted the Restart grant was rushed through government with a lot of pressure on local government, without funding being available from central government. He noted the 3,200 applications was in line with the national figures but is 16% of rate payers within DCC, and believes there is a communication issue with information on grants available. IBEC has been vocal with SME campaign, notinh €15,000 equivalent in UK & Germany to get business open in other jurisdictions. He noted this will be a recession like no other & economy will reopen in stages & there will be restrictions going forward & rates will be inconsistent. There is a need to be looking at how liquidity for companies are there & believes DCC need to be vocal on what is needed in the July Stimulus package to support enterprise in city to continue. Richard Shakespeare highlighted the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) and City & County Managers Association (CCMA) are actively examining the funding mechanisms for the local government sector, and noted a fundamental shift probably will have to take place, It was also noted, whilst DCC are the largest LA in the country, one of 31 which needs to lobby for government support for the sector ,DCC we are often overlooked even though DCC are at the front line of delivering most of the services that the vast majority of citizens enjoy. Odran Reid thanked Ms. O hAodha for the detailed presentation & noted how DCC have been commendable in their immediate interventions – small but very significant actions, especially the capacity to administer the high volume of applications and can see the difference it has made. Odran noted the difficulty is this will be with us for a long time & the city will be very different with a number of industries in trouble, and there is a need to look at what we want the city to look like post 2023. There is an element now of seeing a long term view for the city, as with potential large vacancies there will be a fundamental impact to the city finances with rates lost. Perhaps a push on the local government funding mechanism needs to be pushed to central government. The broadband challenge and speed up delivery of fibre optic will be vital to this city and development of city. Confidence will be critical to getting people and businesses back into the city centre. Finally Odran noted DCC should be commended on its fast & quick changes made. Cllr Cooney welcomed the mobility measures that are taking place across the city, and requested if a map would be available to view. Cllr Cooney also queried the uptake and numbers of applications which have been submitted under the public realm initiative for extending seating onto footpaths; as she is aware of businesses who were not aware of the initiative. Ms. O hAodha highlighted the covid mobility team who have been set up and are working tirelessly to develop the mobility areas and zones across the city. They have developed a core urban village map of inner zones to the inner city. It was noted promotion of the public realm initiative has been completed via a marketing campaign and on social media. Cllr Freehill thanked Richard Shakespeare for his clarifications and queried if a gender breakdown could be provided for the grant applications. Greg Swift advised this would be possible for the Business Continuity Vouchers but advised the data could be skewed as it will be based on the applicants but may not be pure gender balanced. In previous meetings the gender balance has been provided for other grants and can be provided for the BCV also. Cllr MacDonncha thanked Ms. O hAodha for the comprehensive presentation and noted the extraordinary low statistic of 20% applications for the Restart Grant and noted even with all the marketing, businesses may be overwhelmed and may have missed it, and queried if clients could avail of the grant scheme even after the application date had closed. Cllr MacDonncha also highlighted the importance of highlighting the centrality of Dublin City Council in the recovery; and noted the impact on local government in the last recession which saw the sector the hardest hit. A concerted effort must be made to central government as it is unclear how central government will supplement local government. Hugely important that this is reflected in the recovery strategy that this is dependent on funding from central government. Richard Shakespeare noted non rates loss in order of €32 million to date. It is still unclear on the quantum of rates to be subvented back to the local government sector. Awaiting further derail on this from central government. Sector need to calculate how much the sector has spent n COVID measures & estimate how much will be spent on COVID19 up to year end. LGMA will make a case for the sector as a whole. Natalie McGuinness appreciated the presentation and the depth of work being carried out by the city council in such a short space of time. Ms. McGuinness queried the communication roadmap and the difficulty of getting message penetration in the market at the moment, and if there is a sequence of messaging for the Summer and what the focus of the message would be. It was noted the InThisTogether, Easing like Sunday morning and Shop Local campaigns worked very well. Ms. O hAodha advised, as part of the councils collaboration with Dublin Town on the Easing like Sunday morning campaign, there is a subcommittee on communications who meet weekly in getting the message out that Dublin is open for business and encouraging people back in, and details can be shared with the group as they progress.