October has been a particularly important month for Dublin Chamber’s advocacy work, with our Annual Dinner and the announcement of Budget 2027 providing opportunities to reflect on progress across several of the Chamber’s key priority areas - housing, critical infrastructure, enterprise competitiveness and workforce development. At our Annual Dinner, Dublin Chamber President David Kelly addressed the Taoiseach on these issues, acknowledging the progress made in recent months while emphasising the need to build on this momentum to secure Ireland’s future success.
Held on Thursday, 1st October at the Convention Centre Dublin, our Annual Dinner, sponsored by AIB, brought together more than 1,000 business representatives and members of the Oireachtas. Among those in attendance were Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Ministers Darragh O’Brien and Dara Calleary, TDs James Geoghegan, Cormac Devlin, Naoise Ó Cearúil and Barry Ward, Senator Mary Fitzpatrick, and a number of Secretaries General of Government Departments.
Housing and infrastructure delivery featured prominently in David’s address. He welcomed progress made in recent months by the Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce, including the designation of MetroLink, the Eastern and Midlands Water Supply Project and Greater Dublin Drainage as critical infrastructure projects. However, he emphasised that the real measure of success will be whether these decisions translate into faster delivery on the ground. He also highlighted the interconnected nature of Ireland’s infrastructure challenges, with housing delivery dependent on adequate water, wastewater, energy and transport capacity.
The future of Dublin City Centre was another important theme. Drawing on findings from Dublin Chamber’s latest Business Outlook Survey, which found that more than half of businesses believe safety in the city centre has worsened over the past year, David stressed the importance of ensuring that Dublin remains a safe, welcoming and vibrant place for businesses, employees, residents and visitors.
He called for the full implementation of the Dublin City Centre Taskforce recommendations, with a particular focus on ensuring a visible and sustained Garda presence in the city centre. Dublin Chamber welcomed the additional funding for 1,000 Gardaí announced in Budget 2027 and will continue to advocate for Dublin to receive its fair allocation of these resources. Safety and security in Dublin City Centre will remain an important focus of our policy and advocacy work, with further engagement planned to better understand the challenges facing businesses and identify practical measures to address them.
Strengthening Ireland’s energy resilience was also a key message at the Annual Dinner. David welcomed Government’s decision to develop Ireland’s Strategic Gas Emergency Reserve and highlighted the importance of making greater use of domestic energy resources, including biomethane, to strengthen Ireland’s long-term energy security. In an increasingly uncertain international environment, ensuring that Ireland has the infrastructure and resources needed to respond to future energy challenges will be essential to maintaining our competitiveness.
On business competitiveness, David reiterated several priorities Dublin Chamber has advocated throughout the budget process, including a more competitive Capital Gains Tax regime, stronger R&D support, and practical measures to reduce the cumulative cost and administrative pressures facing businesses. He also highlighted the opportunity presented by the National Training Fund to invest more ambitiously in lifelong learning and the skills required as AI and other technologies reshape the economy.
Several of these priorities were subsequently reflected in Budget 2027, announced just days after the dinner. Dublin Chamber welcomed measures including enhancements to the R&D Tax Credit, a reduction in Capital Gains Tax, the release of €150 million from the National Training Fund to support AI skills, and measures to ease administrative reporting requirements for businesses. While these represent positive steps, further action will be needed to address the broader cost and competitiveness challenges facing Dublin businesses.
We would like to thank all our members and guests who joined us for this year’s Annual Dinner and helped make the evening such a success.
Read David’s full address here.