Deputy Lord Mayor of Cork City, Deputy Mayor of the County of Cork, Guest of Honour Sean Kelly MEP, Title Sponsor, Rémy Martin, Headline Sponsors EHS International, Smart Office Automation and Mercedes Benz Cork, Award Finalists, Guests and Friends joining us this evening, on behalf of Business Cork as your host, I welcome you all to 19th year of The Rémy Martin Cork Business Awards 2023 tonight.
Firstly, I want to thank sincerely every person and organisation in Cork for their great work in promoting Cork over the past 12 months since we last hosted this event. Business Cork will celebrate its 35th year in business next year and its remit has always been, and always will be to promote Cork positively and proactively.
Our remit as a media organisation is to work with everyone to assist in advancing the brand of Cork in every way possible, make the area attractive to local and global inward investment and ensure that we have a unified city and county community that works for everyone.
So much has happened since this event last year, so much progress has been made in all parts of Cork and so many new projects are now operational here.
So much investment has been made by the companies that are based here with over €1 billion of capital investment in Cork businesses so far this year.
The new Macroom bypass is now fully open and is a key piece of infrastructure that connects Cork and Kerry much better.
The new €215m Dunkettle Interchange is now 95% complete and will be fully completed in Q2 of 2024.
The key investment by companies like PepsiCo of €127m in their new R&D facility in Little Island that the Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment Simon Coveney opened in May, and a further €39m investment by PepsiCo in their manufacturing plant also in Little Island has also been announced.
This is just one Cork based company with almost €170m of capital investment in one of its 3 facilities in Cork and that has a proud near 50 year relationship with us.
The €650m purchase of Laya Healthcare by AXA Insurance is a great vote of confidence in this Cork headquartered company.
A new state of the art small animal veterinary hospital with its €5m investment will open in Q2 of 2024
Thousands of new homes throughout Cork city and county are ahead of national expectations on numbers and timelines.
Last week Qualcomm Technologies announced a $127m expansion of its research and development facility in Penrose Dock in the city with 150 new jobs.
O’ Callaghan Properties have announced the real start of the Cork Docklands homes regeneration project where on the South Docks, Cork City Council have granted permission for a €350m office and residential project with the potential to create 5,000 new jobs is a major boost for the revitalisation of the city’s docklands.
The development, which also includes plans for a 130-bed private hospital and their overall plans for the area also include 1300 new and much needed apartments. Cork Docklands on the South and North channels of the river Lee have over 400 acres of land stretching from the city to Tivoli and close to the new Dunkettle interchange. This one development will transform our city and there are many others in the pipeline for 2024 and beyond with more homes, more retail and more hospitality elements as part of them.
Apple as we know are operating here in Cork for 43 years since 1980, with over 7,000 employees now representing more than 90 nationalities, and further plans are in the pipeline for expansion of the Cork campus in Hollyhill.
The pipeline of investment, job creation and innovation in all sectors around Cork is looking very positive for 2024.
The global Pharma, Life Sciences and Technology brands in Cork are all doing exceptionally well.
Our small business sector is key to the lifeblood of Cork with 95% of all Cork jobs in this sector. There is no doubt that more focus, more support and a better strategy for this sector is needed locally and nationally from Government as far too often we are left to fend for ourselves when in actual fact we are the key to what the nation relies on for consistent exchequer returns.
Here in Cork, we are very fortunate to have 3 of the senior ministers at cabinet with The Tanaiste, Minister for Finance and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment as well as the Caithleorach of Seanad Eireann, all working for Cork and all hugely supportive of this event over the years, and if we are very honest about that return on investment from our politicians, Cork IS getting its fair share of support from ALL of our public representatives working for us at local, national and European levels. Then again, as Ireland’s second city with endless opportunities available for expansion and growth at our airport and elsewhere, it is only correct that the regional distribution of funds and investment should come this way.
When we see the pans for the new €100m tourist village in Carrigtwohill with the potential of 800 jobs and the opportunity of attracting 200,000 visitors annually to Cork, and how it will support the overall Cork retail offering where we have the great opportunity of bringing our city and county retail strategy together and working together fully in unison with what the incoming customer requires from us. New hotels in the city have opened and are ready to open and it is clear that we need a new mindset of working much more closely as a city and county so that we can provide that real alternative strategy to that of our capital city of Dublin which we are equally proud of. The long awaited 6,000 seater Cork Convention Centre is as we know long overdue, and while all of us would have preferred it to be operational by now, it is and will be the catalyst for so much for Cork and our business, tourism and events offering, and it is great to that we are on the final stages of getting an actual construction start date for it that will be announced next week, and I want to thank everyone that has stood by it, stood by their word and worked to deliver this for Cork and the greater Munster region.
The future certainly continues to be very bright for Cork from a business and economic perspective and as always we in that business community must ensure that the people and organisations in the civic sector that need our help, are supported and encouraged in every way possible. As a maritime city and county, the rising tide that lifts all boats must ensures that the smallest of boats can sail side by side with the giant ships that our economy has placed a lot of its reliance on. Those small boats will always sail the high seas, so we must never forget that the economic policy, particularly government economic policy, should therefore focus on broad economic efforts.
To conclude, with 45,000 businesses in our great city and across the North, South, East and West of our incredible county, employing 265,000 people, and with a current population of 540,000 citizens that is expected to grow to over 1m by 2040, Cork has the capacity to offer far more than many other regions in Ireland to national and international companies and citizens seeking a place to call home and to do business in. All of us, and especially all of our business organisations must work better together to do our part to continue to progress this vision, so that future generations will thank us for that civic inheritance that we have a duty to leave behind for them.
I want to wish each of our finalists here tonight in The Rémy Martin Cork Business Awards 2023 the very best now and into the future. You are and have created amazing businesses of all sizes and in all sectors and you can be justly proud of what you are doing from a corporate, social and civic perspective.
Our role with these awards is to focus on honouring and recognising the Cork business people, the Cork businesses and the Cork civic organisations and people that make Cork what it is, a rich, vibrant city and county with future potential in abundance that each of us has a duty to help in delivering.
Thank you
INTRODUCING OUR GUEST OF HONOUR
Our Guest of Honour tonight is with us on the 50th anniversary of Ireland’s membership of the European Union, a relationship that has and continues to be very positive for us.
He has been an MEP for the Ireland South constituency for close to 15 years. He is a member of Fine Gael, who are part of the European People’s Party in the Parliament.
He served as the 34th President of the GAA and was the first person from Kerry to hold the office, being elected at his first attempt by a record margin at the GAA Congress in 2002. His presidency is seen as a landmark one in moving forward the Association on so many fronts. In 2006, he took up the position of Executive Chairman of the Irish Institute of Sport, a body that was set up in Ireland to support elite athletes and players, and served as Executive President until he announced he stepped down in 2008.
He has received many awards including Person of the Year, Community Entrepreneur of the Year and was also awarded an honorary doctor by Dublin Institute of Technology.
In the European Parliament he is a member of the European Parliament‘s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, the Committee on International Trade and the Committee on Constitutional Affairs. In the week when his other Fine Gael colleague and MEP Deirdre Clune announced her retirement from politics, and Deirdre has been an outstanding Councillor, Senator, TD, Lord Mayor of Cork and MEP, our guest speaker tonight will no doubt receive great Cork support when he goes for re-election next year. Ladies & Gentlemen, please welcome the MEP for Ireland South Sean Kelly
