1. Money & Jobsirishexaminer.com/business Your guide to investments, personal finance, tax, and recruitment Friday, 9.09.2016Business editor: Eamon Quinn Business desk: T: 01 5330877/8, 021 4802387 E: business@examiner.ie
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WEEK
JOB
My job:
Padraic Vallely
Job: Ahoy! The world’s oldest yacht club,
the Royal Cork Yacht Club, which was
founded in 1720 in Crosshaven, Co Cork,
wants to hire a part-time bartender.
Duties: General bar tending duties in the
yacht club’s clubhouse.
Qualifications: The ideal candidate must
have previous bar tending experience,
customer service skills, be presentable
and enthusiastic. The yacht club also hosts
the bi-annual Cork Week, one of the
country’s largest sailing regatttas, which
attracts thousands of revellers to the Cork
harbour village.
Applications: Send your CV to Gavin
Deane, General Manager, Royal Cork
Yacht Club, Crosshaven, Co Cork, or email
to gavin@royalcork.com
Building business upon firm foundations
the world, to locate in Ireland in return
for an equity stake. The International
Competitive Start Fund is a competition
open to globally ambitious start-ups
from anywhere in the world, with up to
10 winners receiving seed funding as
well as business development support
from Enterprise Ireland.
In April, the Cork branch of Con-
struction Industry Federation Ireland
joined with the Cork Foundation to sup-
port Reimagine Cork implement its
plans to refurbish and rejuvenate Cork
City — a project bringing together
artists, communities, construction
businesses, and builders.
A mural depicting the history of Cork
art, painted by children from Cork Edu-
cate Together National School, was in-
stalled in the car park, with upcoming
projects including the painting of Paul
St car park, and the Lighting the Lanes
project, geared to brighten city lanes.
“More and more Cork businesses have
been inspired by such examples and are
now looking to be more engaged in CSR
in Cork.”
Founded in 2013 with the ideal of
“Cork people helping Cork people”, the
Cork Foundation has maintained this
philosophy ever since. Despite the chal-
lenges of the downturn and its lingering
social effects, Padraic Vallely believes
Cork has an untapped potential ready
to be unleashed.
“We hope to continue to connect with
the greater Cork diaspora,” he says.
“Cork has given an abundance of talent
to the world in entertainment, business,
and sport, and we now hope to harness
some of this and give back to Cork.”
FTER almost a decade work-
ing in Leinster House, Padraic
Vallely is no stranger to strat-
egy, marketing, and campaign
management. Having run the 2007 poll-
topping campaign for Seamus Kirk in
the Louth constituency, the Crosshaven
native remained on as adviser through
the politician’s time as ceann comhairle
to 2016.
“I was just 23 when I began, the youn-
gest adviser in the country — it was a
tremendously exciting time,” he recalls
of life at the centre of political power. “I
found myself learning very quickly
about dealing with people, as well as the
ins and outs of negotiation and man-
management.”
As adviser to the spokesperson on
horticulture, the intricacies of press
relations, marketing, and communi-
cations came as essentials attached to
the job. “The work also included being
involved in a number of community
initiatives to help secure funding both
locally, nationally, and in Europe.”
All of which made for useful back-
ground preparation for his current role
as chief executive of the Cork Foun-
dation, and its main focus of connecting
funding donors with social entrepre-
neurs and community organisations to
create jobs, along with prompting posi-
tive social change in local communities.
“It is at the core of Cork, linking with
voluntary organisations, community
groups, start-ups and SMEs, multi-
national companies, and business
leaders. Even though all of these groups
come from different backgrounds, they
share the common bond of wanting
better things for the city and county — a
passion to improve and inspire greater
things,” he says.
Having graduated in government and
public policy at UCC in 2005, Padraic
more recently took the opportunity to
study a master’s in business at Liver-
pool’s John Moores University, com-
pleting a thesis on social enterprise. He
also investigated the differing impacts
of social enterprise by businesses and
communities in Ireland.
“Supporting social entrepreneurs
has been proven to have a hugely posi-
tive impact on social change, and the
Cork Foundation is a unique social en-
terprise fund, fuelled by donations from
Cork people at home and abroad. Not
only does it help community and volun-
tary groups by providing funding to cre-
ate jobs, which in turn have a positive
CorkFoundationchiefexecutivePadraicVallelysaysthefoundation’saimistomatchgreatprojectswiththefundstomakethemareality.
nity driven idealism to push Cork, with
the Cork Foundation as the centre of
that push.”
Earlier this year, three jobs were cre-
ated and a suicide-awareness initiative
rolled out at Cork Life Centre, as a re-
sult of a €120,000 donation to the foun-
dation by a business person who wished
to remain anonymous. Two councillors
and a teacher joined the full-time staff
and 70 volunteers at the Sunday’s Well
voluntary organisation, which offers an
alternative learning environment to
marginalised and vulnerable young
people.
The donation also helped fund the
rollout of Cork Life Centre’s suicide
awareness initiative, ASIST — Applied
Suicide Intervention Skills Training —
to communities and clubs across Cork.
impact on the community, it is working
to establish a sustainable community
fund to help a diverse range of local
communities in Cork. The community
fund needs the support of Cork people
locally, and around the world.”
Donors to Cork Foundation can sup-
port individual projects, or alter-
natively contribute to the community
fund. Cork Foundation can claim tax
back on an individual’s donation, but
not if the donation has been made from
a corporate or charitable entity. An
individual can chose to have the tax
benefit added to their donation, increas-
ing the donation by 31%.
“For me, it is all about Cork people
helping Cork people, finding great pro-
jects and the funding to make them a
reality. It is about developing a commu-
home and abroad who are more fortu-
nate, are willing to support emerging
businesses and communities in their re-
gion.”
Currently up to 50 students, aged 12
to 18, attend the centre, which offers
one-to-one tuition in Junior and Leav-
ing Certificate subjects. The centre
opened in 2000, with two similar
initiatives operating in Dublin and
another in Belfast. Many early school-
leavers who’ve enrolled in the project
have achieved formal school certifi-
cation.
“This is an exciting time for Cork
with new job announcements coming
on stream, the announcement of poss-
ible transatlantic flights from Cork to
Boston and New York on the horizon,
and Cork set to become the first Euro-
pean city chosen to host the Startup
Nations Summit as part of the 2016 Glo-
bal Startup Gathering in November,”
says Padraic.
“But as Cork continues to grow, so to
does the need to give back. The Cork
Foundation have recognised the in-
credible results that can come about
from companies and businesses engag-
ing in corporate social responsibility
and what it can do for growth in Cork —
in particular through supporting ini-
tiatives whereby sustainable jobs can
be created through financial donations.
It is clear that this is an opportunity
also being noticed by many Cork busi-
nesses and companies.”
In addition, Enterprise Ireland is
opening a new seed fund offering
€50,000 seed investments for mobile
start-up companies, from anywhere in
The project takes a positive approach to
the promotion of mental health among
young people through education, ther-
apy, and outreach.
“That donation was an inspirational
example of Cork people helping each
other and typical of the Cork Foun-
dation ethos, where Corkonians at
Name: Padraic Vallely
Occupation: CEO Cork Foundation
Background: Founded in 2013, Cork Foundation’s
main focus is to help connect donors with social
entrepreneurs and voluntary and community
organisations in Cork in need of funding to create
and retain jobs in the region
Record year for Irish tourism,
but Brexit concerns remain
most notably the zero rate travel tax
and the 9% tourism VAT rate, which
have enabled hospitality businesses to
support an extra 50,000 new jobs over
the last five years. Hoteliers continue to
invest in additional employment with
73% having increased staffing levels
over the last 12 months and the vast
majority planning to either take on
additional staff or maintain current
levels over the coming year.
Increased confidence is also enabling
hotels to invest more widely in their
businesses with some 89% indicating
they plan to invest in refurbishment
and increased capital expenditure over
the next twelve months, while some
63% plan to increase marketing spend.
While tourism performance is very
positive, Mr Dolan stresses the
recovery is not being felt to the same
extent throughout the country and that
conditions remain challenging for
many rural areas which rely heavily on
the domestic market. The latest hotels
barometer reveals that 30% of hoteliers
are still concerned about the viability of
their business over the next 12 months,
with particular concern the cost of
doing business in Ireland.
“Increased investment in product
development and marketing is vital to
the long-term success of our tourism
product,” he states. “Time and time
again, Irish tourism has shown itself to
be an excellent investment with every
euro spent in destination marketing by
the state resulting in €34 being spent by
visitors in the country. Now is not the
time to take this investment for
granted, notably given the uncertainty
around Brexit and the potential impact
on visitor numbers from the UK.”
hoteliers. The UK market accounts for
40% of overseas visitors, an increase of
28% since 2012. 3.55 million overseas
visitors to Ireland came from the UK in
2015, accounting for €995 million in
direct spend during their trips.
There are over 205,000 jobs in
Ireland’s tourism and hospitality sector
— supporting one in every nine jobs in
the country. The tourism sector
accounts for 1 in 4 of all new jobs
created in Ireland in the past five years
— and has the potential to create an
additional 45,000 by 2025. Total tourism
revenue for 2015 stood at €7.3 billion,
accounting for 4% of GNP and generat-
ing over €1.8 billion in taxes annually.
IHF President Joe Dolan cautions,
however, the continued recovery
remains vulnerable to external
economic shocks beyond its control.
“The concerns expressed by hoteliers
following the UK’s referendum result
reflect the significant risks posed to the
sector, with many hotels and
guesthouses still in recovery mode.
This comes at a time when the
increasing cost of doing business in
Ireland already poses a serious
challenge for tourism businesses.”
He says there can be no room for
complacency, given the potential
impact on visitor numbers from the UK
and business levels within the domestic
market. Founded in 1937, the Irish
Hotels Federation is the national or-
ganisation of the hotel and guesthouse
industry in Ireland, representing 1,000
hotels and guesthouses nationwide and
employing over 57,000 people.
Mr Dolan says the recovery in Irish
tourism continues to be underpinned
by a number of important measures —
John Daly
The recent announcement Dublin and
Galway have made it into the top six
friendliest cities in the world is yet
another good news story in what is
turning out to be a major year for the
Irish tourism industry.
In their annual reader survey,
prestigious travel magazine, Condé
Nast Traveller, ranked Dublin in third
position, followed by Galway in sixth
place. The magazine’s Readers Choice
Awards, taken by 128,000 of its readers,
voted Charleston, South Carolina and
Sydney, Australia in the top positions,
followed by Dublin, Queenstown, New
Zealand, Park City, Utah, Galway,
Savannagh, Kraków, Bruges and
Nashville. Comments from the
magazine’s readers included: “Just look
at Galway — it’s hard not to be
charmed,” and Dublin: “The people
make the place, coming together to
celebrate life.” One reader even posted
this comment in capital letters: “Love
everything about Ireland. The people
are the friendliest in the world.”
Results so far for 2016 show the
tourism industry continuing to perform
strongly at the year’s three-quarter
mark. 90% of hoteliers report business
levels up versus the same period last
year, with overseas visitor numbers up
14% — and British visitors extended by
16%. Sixty per cent of hotels catering for
corporate meetings and business events
also reported increases.
However, concerns about the impact
of Brexit continue, as the UK remains
Ireland’s largest source of inbound
tourists, and the economic uncertainty
has fuelled concerns amongst 95% of
In conversation with
John Daly