At the beginning of June, Dublin Chamber met with James O’ Connor T.D., Chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, to discuss our key business priorities. Our discussions centred on enhancing business competitiveness and unblocking the barriers to employment in Dublin. We highlighted the urgent need to address the city’s lack of affordable housing and the gaps in vital public transport infrastructure, amongst others. We also stressed the importance of supporting smaller employers in navigating both administrative and financial pressures. We welcomed the opportunity to meet with Deputy O’Connor and look forward to continued collaboration with him under his new role.
This month, Dublin Chamber also participated in Minister Peter Burke’s Cost of Doing Business Advisory Forum. Rising costs remain a pressing challenge for firms across Dublin. Dublin Chamber had previously welcomed the push at European level to look at the cost of regulation and we are pleased to see this ambition also reflected in national government commitments. During this forum, Dublin Chamber reaffirmed our strong support for this initiative, calling for practical measures to cut red tape and protect business competitiveness.
In tandem, Dublin Chamber also wrote to the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, providing concrete examples of the administrative burdens weighing on businesses. This followed productive discussions at Dublin Chamber’s Labour Taskforce meeting, where departmental representatives engaged on the topic of legislative pressures. In our letter, we outlined practical recommendations to ease the burdens. Read our letter here.
On 6th June, Dublin Chamber met with Minister Robert Troy from the Department of Finance to discuss our pre-Budget submission for Budget 2026. Central to our submission is our proposal to cut Capital Gains Tax (CGT) to a rate of 20% for disposals of investments in unquoted Irish firms, to encourage investment in indigenous enterprises. We also advocated for reducing the administrative complexity associated with supports and schemes for entrepreneurs and businesses. We also took the opportunity in this meeting to emphasise the importance of fully funding the Dublin City Taskforce recommendations to help revitalise Dublin’s city centre, making it a safer, more attractive place to live, work and visit.
On 19th June, Dublin Chamber welcomed Jack Chambers T.D., Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Services, Reform and Digitalisation, for a member briefing on his department’s priorities. Discussions focused on speeding up the delivery of critical infrastructure projects across public transport, water, and energy to support much-needed housing development. The Minister’s newly established Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce was also a key topic of discussion, with Dublin Chamber now actively contributing to its work.
Just this week, we convened a focused discussion with Dublin Chamber members and taskforce member Sean O’Driscoll to examine the barriers to infrastructure delivery in Ireland. During this session, we proposed a series of practical, high-impact measures to inform the work of the group. We will further develop and submit these recommendations to the relevant consultation in the coming weeks.
To round off a busy month, Dublin Chamber held its Oireachtas Reception once again at Leinster House, bringing together a delegation of business leaders and Government officials. We were delighted to be joined by Minister Darragh O’Brien, Jack Chambers, and Dara Calleary on the night, as well as Deputies Cormac Devlin, James Geoghegan, and Barry Heneghan, amongst others. This event provided a valuable opportunity for Dublin Chamber members to update officials on the key challenges shaping the business community and our priorities for addressing them.