‘Exploit the opportunities we have’

The opportunities available to the region were emphasised in an upbeat speech by North-East Regional Steering Committee chairman, Richard Hanlon.

Addressing a well-attended launch event for the regional enterprise plan to 2024 last Thursday, he confessed that they have been “squirrelling away in the background over the last six to nine months”.

“The fact that we have project delivery team in place, five working groups already up and running having met numerous times - I know the Department might like to hear me say that we kind of jumped the gun but that’s the kind of passion and energy that’s here in this region to drive entrepreneurship.”

He gave Caroline Brady, North-East programme manager, recognition for helping get those project teams in place, and it was those which gave him “real confidence in this plan”.

He noted that previous enterprise plans dating back to 2015 had up with 157 actions but they have “boiled the ocean” and distilled those down into five strategic objectives and 10 supporting actions for the current plan, which he described as the “pure drop”.

“And by that, I mean, we’ve moved on from job creation, to really truly, trying to exploit the capability of this region.”

A Louth native, Mr Hanlon said he was “fed up” of hearing about this north-south axis and the M1 corridor and was eager to focus on East-West connectivity. “And the opportunity that now presents itself to us because of the pandemic. And the way in which we can eliminate that waste of commuting, you know, all those buses going to Dublin or across to the east coast. There’s a phenomenal opportunity that we can access because of it.”

Messaging architecture

He proceeded to discuss the importance of “iconic messaging architecture”.

“It’s about the identity of this region and I’ve constantly challenged people to explain to me how the North-East ends up being Louth, Cavan and Monaghan.”

He admits to being “confused” by how the counties designated as Northeast change depending on the forum.

“It is what it is, and it’s there for very good reasons, but I think we have to constantly challenge ourselves to unlock the identity and create the messaging architecture about this region being a wonderful place to live and work. I think that should be our North Star.”

He said part of that North-East identity was agri-tech.

“In our stakeholder consultation, there was a passion for agritech in this region. It was passionate. It was jumping out of the room. And I think we need to exploit that because I think it’s one of our key opportunities because it’s part of our identity.”

He added that the pandemic had “absolutely transformed the way we see the digital economy”.

“It’s less important and relevant where we physically are, but it’s so much more important that were exploiting the capability of having a particular region and being ambitious, that our borders are not the borders with the other regions, and the border with Northern Ireland, it’s borderless. The digital economy is absolutely borderless.”

Climate change

He finally noted the challenge of the climate crisis.

“There is a big focus in our objectives about the journey to lower carbon footprint and climate change and actually reducing our commute is one of the best ways to address that on an individual basis. So let’s just exploit the opportunities we have because of our place as a region of this country and the messaging architecture that we can create through this plan to bring people along with this journey with us.”