Keith Shirley

In the middle of May I received a mail from the Carlow Chamber of Commerce.

The South East continues to lag behind other regions in terms of economic growth. There is a lack of hard data that measures business confidence and performance in the region making it difficult to make a case for South East businesses.

In response, Market Dynamics has devised its South East Business Confidence Study.  Updated every six months with business leaders, it will address issues such as business environment, changes in employment levels and the key challenges facing organisations in the region.

Being a good business citizen I decided to complete the survey (of course – the fact that there was a potential prize of a navigation system has nothing to do with it). I’m pleased to say the survey was short and to the point – I hate long surveys.

I was especially happy to see 2 issues covered that are important to me – the issue of a regional university and broadband.

I spoke to Fiona Macrae of Market Dynamics for permission to quote some of the results. The executive summary is not yet available on their website so please call them if you want more info.

I personally like the idea of having a university in the South East and find it hard to believe that we still don’t have one. At the 2008 Annual Business Forum I had the opportunity to ask Brendan Maher, the MD of Unum Ireland, what his opinion was on the subject. The question was very innocent as I have sometimes wondered if it’s just posturing by those involved and possibly not important to big business. I didn’t realise that I was close to putting my foot in it – Brendan was kind enough to make clear that he is on the board of IT Waterford and therefore also a little biased (my words not his). He confirmed that it is a big issue  – and personally causes difficulty explaining it to his head office.

The report from Market Dynamics confirms that the issue is also important to businesses in the region:

• Four out of five organisations believes that a regional university would be either important or very important to the economy of the South East region.  Organisations in counties Waterford, Wexford and South Tipperary were most positive with those in Carlow and Kilkenny less so.
• When asked to what extent they felt a regional university would benefit the county they are based in, a total of 68%, or two-thirds, considered that it would be of great benefit while about one in four (26%) felt that it would be of moderate benefit.

Strangely “Carlow based businesses are the least positive about a South East University”. I hope it’s because they are happy with the work IT Carlow is doing. What really got me thinking was “Kilkenny businesses are most negative about the possibility of a South East University than any other county in the region with one in four businesses saying it would not make an important contribution to the South East regional economy.” That must be a bitter blow to the people in Kilkenny that have spent decades fighting for their own university. At the risk of really annoying people – I think all the IT’s should be given the opportunity of applying for University status.

The report also discussed broadband and tried to access the level of satisfaction among business owners. I’m generally unhappy as I’m trying to encourage people to install online backups. Bad Internet connections are a real problem for that business. In general I think the lack of good Internet connections across the country is holding back the development of dispersed small businesses and work at home ventures. More on that another day.

I realise that I’m in a small category – dealing with 100′s of Gigabytes per month means that I need faster links than most people. I was interested to see how much my biased opinion was in sync with other business owners. Pulling some quotes out of the report:

Almost 90% of respondents believe that broadband access is important to the South East economy.  However, 29% of those who have broadband say it is inadequate to meet their requirements.

One third of Carlow respondents consider that their broadband is insufficient to meet their requirements.

(In Wexford) – One in three businesses claim that their broadband access is insufficient to meet their requirement

I’ll take that as a general 30% vote for my opinion.   I guess I need to work harder to show businesses all the extra benefits they can have by getting more from their broadband connections.

Feel free to let me know your opinions on either the University issue or the broadband. I’m especially interested in hearing other points of view as to why we may not need a university in the South East.