business limerick magazine april 2010

April 2010 € 3.50

Inside:

• e56 Million Research Investments

• HSE sign contracts for e35 million

• Limerick’s skyline is transformed

www.businesslimerick.ie

Your Chance to win Tickets to Bob Dylan & Pink Concerts & Ireland V’s Barbarians.Simply answer the following question:

What year was Thomond Park redeveloped?Answers to: [email protected]

“The Medical Technology Industry is Thriving”

– Bill Doherty, Cook Medical.

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04 BL COVER STORYThe Medical Technology Industry is Thriving

BL NEWS €20M Revenue Boost Expected from Skyfest

BL GALLERYOut and About with BL

BL NEWSCyclists Gear Up for the Skyride Etape Hibernia

37 BL FEATURE “Branding Your Business”

BL RUGBYWith Mick Galwey

BL FEATURE“Protecting Our Environment”

BL DIRECTORY A-Z of Mid-West Business

Business Limerick FOR BUSINESS LEADERS

C O N T E N T SApril 2010

FROM THE EDITOR

Cities Drive RegionsIt is encouraging to see that we are finally going to confront the ‘boundary issue’ which has been a massive obstacle and a total block to the development of Limerick City. It is farcical that three local authorities are responsible for the Limerick urban area. We have now reached the stage where the boundary issue is directly responsible for the demise of business in the city centre. ‘Cities drive regions’ and we find ourselves seriously underperforming as the third city of Ireland.

Our politicians and ministers have viewed the confrontation of this important issue as political suicide and for years have hedged their bets on both sides of their respective fences, but at a cost to the competitiveness of the region.

The poor planning decisions by the individual authorities have seen the many new shopping centres develop on the outskirts of the city, outside the city boundary, yet effecting the overall growth of the city centre creating the ‘doughnut’ effect on our commercial development. Empty shops on O’Connell St, William St, Saresfield St, Cruises St, Henry St, and Catherine St, are a sorry sight in the heart of our city.

The time has come, it is imperative that the three local authorities grasp this opportunity offered by Minister Gormley with the set up of the new Limerick Local Government Committee. This is a totally independent body committed to the revival of the city and the region. One strong authority can guide business and investment back into the city centre and get the heartbeat of the region ticking again.

Frank CollinsEditor

[email protected]

Business Limerick Patrons

Business Limerick Magazine is a full participating member of the Press Council of Ireland and supports the Office of the Press Ombudsman. This scheme in addition to defending the freedom of the press, offers readers a quick, fair and free method of dealing with complaints that they may have in relation to articles that appear on our pages. To contact the Office of the Press Ombudsman go to: www.pressombudsman.ie or www.presscouncil.ie.

EditorFrank [email protected] Mobile: 086 245 1153

Advertising ManagerMarguerite [email protected]: 087 245 1153

Advertising SalesYvonne [email protected] Mobile: 086 8072088

Business JournalistsRachael FinucaneDavid Raleigh

PhotographyKeith Wiseman

Photographic ContributorsPress 22Kieran Clancy - PicSureDave GaynorMichael CowheyBrendan Gleeson

ContributorsMal KeaveneyMick GalweyKevin Meaney

Published byBusiness Limerick Publications Ltd.

DirectorsFrank CollinsMarguerite Finnan

Business Limerick Magazine is published monthly by Business Limerick Publications Limited.© 2008 Business Limerick. All Rights Reserved. The information contained in the magazine is believed to be accurate and authorative, however it is not intended to substitute for legal, accounting, tax or other professional advice. Statements and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of Business Limerick. No responsibility can be assumed for any unsolicited materials and submission is construed as permission to publish without any further correspondence and the fee payable (if any) at our usual rates. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval sys-tem or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publishers.

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Even as the manufacturing sector faces challenging times, the medical technol-ogy industry is thriving and Cook Medical, which has a base in Limerick, is one of its biggest success stories.

Limerick native, Bill Doherty is the Execu-tive Vice President of Cook Group Europe and he believes that supporting existing companies in areas like ‘med-tech’ and a strong approach to regional development is key to getting the mid-west back on its feet.

Speaking with Mr Doherty at the compa-ny’s state-of-the art manufacturing and development plant, it is hard to believe that 570 employees are working within.

“I started with Cook Medical in 1994. They bought the site here in Castletroy and were looking for someone to man-age the plant. I was with EG&G in Shan-non at the time and I decided that it would be interesting to make the move into the medical technology sector. Fifteen years ago, it was one of the growing sectors

in general. Limerick was Cook’s first site in Ireland. There are plants in Denmark, Australia and about six or seven in the US. There are different parts of the organisa-tion all over the world. It’s a truly global organisation,” he explained.

Cook is an American company which has been growing steadily since it was found-ed in the sixties; its main area is making medical devices for minimally invasive surgery-an area which ensures constant demand.

“The Medical Technology Industry is Thriving” – Bill Doherty, Cook Medical.

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“The business is structured along the lines of medical specialties like vascular, gastro-enterology, urology, radiology and others. There are hundreds of areas. This kind of technology is win-win, first of all for patients because procedures are far less traumat-ic and in many cases, they are back on their feet faster. From an economic point of view, the less invasive the surgery the faster people can get in and out of hospi-tal. That cuts down on healthcare costs,” he said.

In a major coup, the Limerick plant is soon set to become the only site to manufac-ture a revolutionary new device called Zilver PTX, which is for the treatment of Peripheral Arterial Disease.

The product is the “first and only approved drug eluting stent of this type” in the world and is designed to keep vessels open using a special coating to stop cells multiplying and scar tissue forming.”

According to Bill, clinical trial results were “very very promising” and Cook is currently perfecting the manufacturing technique and standards with the process expected to “be fully validated here by the middle of the summer”.

“We have already recruited 40 to 45 peo-ple since we made the announcement last summer. As it goes into the market over the next few months, and various markets globally, we’re hoping to add to those num-bers. It’s busy, exciting and nerve-wracking. There is a lot of responsibility. The plant will be the only source for this product; we have to make sure the product and the process works and is repeatable. In all of these things, the patient comes first.”

Cook is one of several strong ‘med-tech’ companies in the mid-west, including Stryker, Vistakon and Teleflex but “there is a lot of potential”, he added.

“It’s a challenging time for Ireland and glo-bally, particularly for the manufacturing sector. This region had an above average amount of manufacturing companies and it is suffering as a consequence as some have moved off-shore. The medical technol-ogy area is one of the sources of hope and strength in the country at the moment. Most med-tech companies in Ireland are doing well; some are expanding,” he said.

“The west coast is particularly strong. It’s on a par with major players like Mas-sachusetts or Minneapolis in terms of its concentration of companies and manufac-turing expertise. In the last 10 years, we are seeing the growth of small, indigenous companies. Creganna, based in Galway, just bought another company in the US. Developments like that are very good for the country. We have the basis of a very strong medical technology industry going forward.”

Cook works with the University of Limerick in research and other areas while NUI Gal-way collaborates with companies there; the two institutions recently established a formal link and Bill believes that these kinds of partnerships are vital.

He has also done a lot of work with Atlantic Way, which aims to be “a positive force of key public and private sector decision-mak-ers, collaborating for progress” in develop-ing the western corridor.

He feels that co-operation is key to working toward the greater good but if he had the power to create a ‘quick-fix’ for the mid-west, what would it be?

“Well that’s the $64,000 question; it’s very difficult to answer. When we look at the region, we have to look at our competi-tors. The area around Barcelona in Spain is a good example or Frankfurt-Cologne or some areas in Denmark and Sweden. It’s important to try to get rid of local bounda-ries and differences and present ourselves as a larger region. Limerick City has three local authorities running it; it doesn’t make sense. It’s like having three management teams running one company,” he said.

“When you’re competing internationally, it’s a question of scale. We need to be look-ing at promoting the whole western area, and think outside of Limerick and the mid-west. That said, we need to have a very strong city for a strong region. We could also take a ‘twin’ approach for Galway and Limerick and use the draw of two strong cities; the travel distance is only an hour. It could be like Minneapolis and St Paul.”

“The medical technology area is one of the sources of hope and strength in the country at the moment. We have the basis of a very strong medical technology industry going forward.”

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“Infrastructure is particularly important and Shannon Airport is a key element of this. Shannon Airport is operating with one hand tied behind its back because it is still part of the Dublin Airport Authority. It has its own board but that can’t make major decisions or control the budget. All the Irish airports are competing with each other and if Shannon had its own author-ity, it would be competing on a more level playing field. It has a lot to offer, such as a full pre-clearance facility, which it is hoped will be extended to freight in the next few months.”

Bill thinks that the establishment of the proposed Lynx Cargo facility at the airport would be very beneficial-becoming a hub to allow multinationals to ship products to Eu-rope and America more easily.

“People in the mid west need to get over Aer Lingus. As long as Shannon has the Heathrow connection, that is the impor-tant one. And that came back. There are other airlines using the airport, like Conti-nental, which is very strong and supposed-ly looking at more flights. The problem with Aer Lingus is the uncertainty. Is it going to stay or leave? As long as there are other carriers, you never know what will happen. If they decide to move, it may open oppor-tunities for other airlines.”

Originally from Rosbrien, he attended the Model School and CBS Sexton Street be-fore going to study engineering in UCD; he also has an MBA from Trinity College Dublin.

He first started working with Koll Morgan in Shannon and went on to work with com-panies including Atari and Digital Equip-ment.

“I had various manufacturing roles related to engineering and I progressed through the ranks to engineering management, op-erational management and general man-agement. Engineers tend to be hands-on but when you’re in management you have to leave the hands-on stuff to other people. The instinct is always there to jump in.”

Having garnered a lot of experience from multinational companies, Bill draws on this as chairman of the American Chamber in the mid-west.

“It’s important to give the multinationals a voice. The IDA strategy, using low corpo-rate tax, to encourage companies to come to Ireland really worked and could work well again. Multinationals have gotten a lot of bad press with people saying that they arrived, made their profits and left but that isn’t the case. The legacy they have left in this country is huge. They developed management structures and expertise that would not have been here otherwise. All those companies paid taxes here for years,” he said.

“The biggest challenge is unemployment. There is an obvious financial loss, a loss of revenue to the State, but there is also a human side. It has huge consequences socially. People feel frustrated and unable to contribute. Getting people back to work has to be the priority. There are cycles in industry and as the next phase comes along Ireland has to have the people and knowledge to engage with it.”

“The biggest challenge is unemployment. There is an obvious financial loss, a loss of revenue to the State, but there is also a human side. It has huge consequences socially. Getting people back to work has to be the priority. There are cycles in industry and as the next phase comes along Ireland has to have the people and knowledge to engage with it.”

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specsavers is located at:

Cruises Street, Limerick. Tel: 061 312 811 Crescent Shopping Centre, Dooradoyle, Limerick. Tel: 061 302 120

Limerick’s Professionaleyecare & Hearing Aids specialist

Director of Shannon Airport, Martin Moroney joined with the region in wel-coming the opening of the first phase of the Western Rail Corridor linking Limerick, Sixmilebridge, Ennis and Gal-way.

Mr. Moroney said, “this is a very im-portant day for the region as this rail link offers a major improvement in connectivity and further strengthens the economic ties between Clare, Limerick and Galway. Improvements in connectivity are vital in support-ing business development which in turn enhances the economics of the region. I believe this new rail serv-ice has the potential to expand the airports catchement area. Options for transferring passengers directly to/from the airport via Sixmilebridge Station are currently being examined ,so as to maximise the benefit to the airport and its customers. I would like to wish Iarnród Éireann every success with this service and look forward to working with them in developing busi-ness for the region.”

Airport Welcomes Opening of Limerick/Galway Rail Link

The four star Hotel Doolin in the tradi-tional village of Doolin recently picked up a Silver Award for excellence in Environ-mental Management from the Green Hospitality Awards programme.

The GHA programme has been funded by the Limerick, Clare and Kerry Waste Management Office since 2007 and continues to be the most successful en-vironmental management programme for the hospitality sector in Europe. The Green Hospitality Award provides a step-by-step approach to environmental man-agement with awards given at Bronze, Silver and Gold levels and has swiftly become the standard for environmental management within the hospitality sec-tor in this country.

Delighted with their Silver Award for Hotel Doolin, Eric Murrihy, General Man-ager said “Since joining the Green Hospi-tality awards we have made substantial reductions in our waste going to landfill, we have also reduced our water and en-ergy consumptions. Even by changing our light bulbs to low energy bulbs has a positive effect on the environment and we are delighted to see from our own customer satisfaction surveys, that our guests are very happy that we are tak-ing a proactive approach to becoming a Green Hotel. Both myself and the team here are delighted to have been recog-nised for our efforts to date with this Sil-ver award and environmental manage-ment will continue to be a key focus for us going forward”

Green Hospitality Award for Hotel Doolin

Picture from left shows James Hogan, Director of the Green Hospitality Award, Eric Murrihy, General Manager Hotel Doolin and Philippa King, Regional Co-Ordinator with Limerick/Clare/Kerry Regional Waste Management Office.

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The annual Small Firms Association(SFA) Awards took place recently in Dublin, with a Limerick company getting the gong in one of their most prestigious categories. An Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, TD, present-ed the Awards to each category winner at an Awards Ceremony on Thursday, 4th March 2010 in Trinity College Dining Hall.

The Manufacturing Award went to Lim-erick company, BMS Ireland. Electronic torque manufacturer BMS Ireland has a strong focus on exports, having secured deals with Nissan in India and the US Navy in the past year with its Paddy brand. With recent support from Enterprise Ire-land, it plans to invest €600,000 in R&D in the next two to three years. Now 30 years in operation, Liam Ryan, manag-ing director of BMS Ireland is confident that his Paddy range of torque wrenches, torque screwdrivers, torque testers and analysers are the market leader for tools

which produce extreme accuracy for the aerospace, automotive industries, etc.

“Our torque tool range are easy to use complete with a display screen with a choice of multiple languages and a high level of accuracy. Our Paddy range soft-ware and hardware development is done here in BMS in Limerick. We also use components in our tools produced locally by Analog Devices and Molex. Designed, manufactured and marketed from Limer-ick. Our torque tools are sold worldwide,” smiled Liam. “We see an emphasis on re-search and development playing a major part in continuing success of our compa-ny going forward and we acknowledge the support and funding received to aid our R&D from Enterprise Ireland.”

BMS employ 18 work-ers full time and 12 on a sub-contractual ba-sis, based in Annacotty Business Park.

SFA Award Winners 2010

Pat Carroll Chartered Accountants Ireland, Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Liam Ryan BMS Irl., Aidan O Boyle SFA Chairman. The Award was the SFA National award for Innovation, manufacturing & export.

Applications for the Munster Rugby Supporters Club (MRSC) are now open with the objective of adding 2,000 members to Munster Rugby’s ‘six-teenth man’. Supporting the Launch in Cork were Doug Howlett, Tom Glee-son and Tommy O’Donnell with Jenni-fer Kiernan, the MRSC Manager.

Two new initiatives have been intro-duced this season to encourage ex-isting members to help sign up their friends and to reward new members, “Refer a friend” and the “Golden Tick-et”. Jennifer Kiernan, MRSC Manager outlined these initiatives “In order to build our new membership we are asking our existing members to refer a friend and they will receive credit’s in their ticket account, we will also have a number of “Golden Tickets” where a number of new members will be selected for free membership and a Magners League season ticket for Thomond Park.”

Munster’s Doug Howlett, at the launch of the 2010/11 membership cam-paign, said ‘The Supporters Club are the core of the 16th Man on match days and having met with many mem-bers at their Q&A’s I found their knowl-edge of the game and interaction with the players is great .... It really is like an extended family in Munster’.

Existing members can renew from 31st March and new members can join from Wednesday 7th April. Mem-bership costs €30 for the coming season. Full details of membership and benefits are available on www.mrsc.ie.

Munster Rugby Supporters Club target 2,000 New Members

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CentreStage Youth Theatre presents the Broadway musical RENT Sunday April 25th in the LIT Millennium Theatre, Lim-erick.

CYT is a new Youth Theatre Company causing quite a stir in Limerick. Centre-stage Youth Theatre have already focused their talents on a tremendous production of Les Miserable’s in UCH last April and ‘A Night at The Musicals’ and ‘CHESS in Con-cert’ at CentreSPACE Studios, Alphonsus Street, Limerick.

RENT is a rock opera with music and lyr-ics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera, La Boheme. It tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York’s Lower East Side in the thriving days of Bohemian Alphabet City, under the shadow of AIDS. It tells the unforgettable story of a group of young artists learning to survive, falling in love, finding their voices and living for today.

HAVE you ever wondered just what an ar-tisan producer really is?

Quite simply an artisan is someone who is skilled at their craft and in the case of food producers this goes a lot further as artisan foods are made from really high quality ingredients, in small batches with a full hands on approach by very talented people.

Their efforts result in some of the most amazing food and drinks you will ever taste.

In Limerick we have some of the best Artisan producers in the country, and yet they are one of our best kept secrets. Locally produced food has become very desirable as people have started to real-ise the importance of it in everything from the economy to the ecosystem. A trip to the Crescent Farmers Market to meet the producers could be they start of a whole new way of looking at food.

The Crescent Farmers Market, every wednesday from 9:30am to 2:30pm.

SIMI Pleased with IncreaseThe Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) today released the official industry figures for new cars registered in March 2010 which at 13,813 are up 78% on March 2009 (7,764). Commenting on the figures, SIMI Press Officer Suzanne Sheridan said, “At the end of Q1 2010, the industry is now in a far stronger position than it was this time last year. New car sales are up 78% in March which brings the year to date increase to 31%. This represents an Ex-chequer gain of €284million (VAT & VRT), a significant increase of €57million com-pared to the same period last year. We hope that these very strong figures rep-resent a turning point for the industry.”

Radisson is Europe’s largest Upscale Hotel Brand Radisson is Europe’s number one! The re-cent MKG Hospitality ranking establishes Radisson as Europe’s largest upscale ho-tel brand. Radisson is Europe’s number one! With 170 hotels and a total of 38,079 rooms across the continent, Radisson is Eu-rope’s largest upscale hotel brand – uni-fying Radisson Blu and Radisson Edward-ian hotels and leaving Hilton International with 146 hotels and 37,806 rooms as well as Marriott with 86 hotels and 20,806 rooms behind (source: “Upscale Brands Top 10 in Europe” by MKG Hospi-tality, Paris).

17KM Of New Motorway Now OpenLimerick County Council has announced that the M7 motorway, currently open to traffic along a section of the Nenagh bypass, will open to traffic as far as the Birdhill Interchange (Junction 27) from 01 April 2010.

Traffic coming from the Dublin direction can exit the M7 on the Birdhill link road (R494), which will lead to the Birdhill roundabout on the existing N7. Traffic coming from the Limerick direction along the existing N7 may access the new mo-torway via the Birdhill Roundabout on the R494 to the Birdhill interchange (Junc-tion 27). The additional section of the M7 is approximately 17km in length.

Traffic restrictions currently in place to the North of the Carrigatogher In-terchange (Junction 26) will remain in place.

Simon Delaney Launches Summer Camps

Simon Delaney launches Limerick’s CentreStage Performing Arts SUM-MER CAMPS at the University of Lim-erick / UCH.

Irish television and theatre director, Simon Delaney, whose works includs the ITV drama series Cold Feet and Donovan, the RTE series Bachelors Walk the title character in the film Zonad, launches Limerick’s Centre-Stage Theatre School’s Performing Arts Summer Camps at UCH with lo-cal director/producer Richie Ryan. Full details are now available on

RENT at LIT

Crescent Farmers Market Puts the ‘Art’in Artisan Food

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BL | NEws


A high profile delegation from the newly formed Mid Black Sea Development Agency in Turkey were in Ireland recently on a fact finding mission to study the Irish experience of regional development. The group is meeting with Shannon Devel-opment, Ireland’s only regional develop-ment agency, which last year celebrated its 50th anniversary. During their stay

the group will receive a comprehensive brief on all aspects of regional economic development from key Shannon Develop-ment personnel. They will learn about the many innovative and pioneering actions and strategies devised by the Shannon Development over the years to generate regional economic development in the Shannon Region.

Dr Vincent Cunnane, Chief Executive, Shannon Development (right) greets Serif Yilmaz and Hasan Basri, Regional Governors from Turkey during a visit to the Shannon Region of a delegation from Turkey.

5 million Austrian Tourists Targeted

Over 5 million Austrians will be reading about reasons why they should holiday in Limerick City and County thanks to a major tourism promotion undertaken by Shannon Development, Austrian tour operator group Blaguss and Tourism Ire-land. This follows the visit to Limerick this week by a group of high profile tourism travel journalists from top Austrian news-papers and magazines.

Shannon Development organised a famil-iarisation tour for the group to highlight some of the Limerick’s top visitor attrac-tions including; the Hunt Museum, St. Mary’s Cathedral, King John’s Castle, and Georgian Limerick. The group visited the Irish Harp Centre in Castleconnell where they enjoyed a performance by the Junior Harp Orchestra. They stayed overnight in the Absolute Hotel in the city and dined at the Locke Bar and Restaurant.

Pictured with members of the Austrian travel writers group is (far right); Oonagh Kelly, European Tourism Market-ing Executive, Shannon Development.

Turkish Agency on Fact Finding MissionLeisure Centre to Deliver 18 Jobs The €1.4m redevelopment of a swim-ming and leisure facility in Shannon, County, Clare, will result in the creation of 18 new jobs. The Chairperson and Directors of Shannon Swimming & Lei-sure Centre Co. Ltd. announced that work has commenced on the redevel-opment of the facility, which will include a 25 metre swimming pool, gymna-sium, skateboard park, climbing wall, two sports halls, dance studio, floodlit outdoor tennis courts, café, steam and sauna, treatment rooms, and wet and dry dressing rooms. All the facilities will be accessible for persons with a disabil-ity. Management say 12 full-time and 6 part-time positions will be created when the facility opens on Saturday July 3rd.

The estimated cost of the renovation and restoration works, as well as the delivery of new outdoor facilities, will be €1,236,673. The replacement of the Air Handing Unit, Retiling of The Pool and Surround, Fitting out of Kitchen and Lounge Area will cost an additional €135,213.

For more information see www.shan-nonleisurecentre.ie.

THE operations manager of the UL Ac-tivity Centre is celebrating being part of a crew which recently completed the massive feat of rowing 5,000km across the Atlantic.

A jubilant Mike Jones was one of two Irish members on an international team-reaching Barbados on March 10 almost 58 days after setting off from Morocco.

Meanwhile, this week Limerick-man Sean McGowan has less than 1,400km to go on his own epic at-tempt to be the first Irish person to row solo across the huge ocean.

UL rower reaches Barbados

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Tánaiste announces €56 million research investment

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment Mary Coughlan T.D. recently, a welcome €56m boost to com-panies determined to succeed and grow in the Smart Economy. Conceived by her Department as part of the Government’s Strategy for Science, Technology and Inno-vation, the Competence Centres are being delivered jointly by Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland. Clusters of companies will work together to overcome common re-search challenges and drive opportunities for innovation, growth and jobs.

The Competence Centre for Bioenergy & Biorefining will be based in NUI Galway, and co-hosted by UL and UCD. Bioenergy is energy that is latent in plants and the Competence Centre for Bioenergy & Bi-orefining researchers will focus on ways to convert that energy into useful forms like heat, energy and fuels for transport.

According to John Travers of AER Ltd., one of the Irish SMEs involved in the Bioenergy and Biorefinery Centre: “The value of inter-national markets for bioenergy and biore-fining is €40 billion and that’s growing at 12% each year”. There is an opportunity for Ireland to leverage its natural resourc-es as according to Travers, we have some of the highest yields of grass in the world and we have prolific growth of algae and

both of these are sustainable raw mate-rials for producing the next generation of bioenergy and biorefining products.

There will be 180 SMEs and multinational companies involved in nine centres, five of which are now established. Those estab-lished cover Bioenergy & Biorefining, IT Innovation, Applied Nanotechnology, Com-posite Materials and Microelectronics. Four more – Manufacturing Productivity, Energy Efficiency, Financial Services and E-learning - are at different stages of com-pletion. Each centre will be based in a Uni-versity with support from partner Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) to deliver on the research needs of the companies.

Enterprise Ireland has already ring-fenced €32 million in funding for the initial five centres and it anticipates investing a fur-ther €24 million over the next five years across the nine centres. There are cur-rently six Universities involved: NUI Galway, NUI Maynooth, UCD, UL, TCD (CRANN) and UCC (Tyndall) and more HEIs are ex-pected to join. One of the key benefits to the HEIs involved is that they get access to industry and the real problems that they are facing. This will assist the HEIs to align their research agendas with what indus-try is looking for.

Tánaiste Mary Coughlan T.D. with John Travers AER Ltd (left) and researcher J.J Leahy, UL at the launch of the Competence Centre for Bioenergy & Biorefining in Dublin. The centre which is based in NUI Galway, will research ways to convert energy from plants into fuel, heat and power, and is one of nine centres in this €56million joint Enterprise Ireland & IDA Ireland initiative to increase levels of industry-led research in Ireland.

BOSI Announces Closure Date Bank of Scotland (Ireland) has an-nounced the closure date of its Lim-erick Halifax branch and will shortly begin writing to each Halifax and Bank of Scotland (Ireland) Intermediary cus-tomer on how the withdrawal of these businesses affects their accounts.

The Limerick branch, on Shannon Street will close on Wednesday 23rd June 2010. All 44 Halifax branches are due to close over two phases to-wards the end of June this year. 21 branches will close on Friday 18th June and the remaining 23 branches will close on Wednesday 23rd June (see Editors Notes for details). To coin-cide with the first branch closure date, the final date for customers to close their accounts has been extended to 18th June 2010.

Shortly, the Bank will begin writing to each Halifax and Bank of Scotland (Ire-land) Intermediary customer detailing how the closure of these businesses will affect their account and the ac-tions and options available to them. The Bank recommends that custom-ers visit the Limerick branch and speak to a branch colleague who will talk them through exactly what needs to be done. Alternatively, customers can visit the website, www.halifax.ie

International Architects go into LiquidationThe announcement that highly ac-claimed architects, Murray O’Loaire are to go into liquidation has come as a major shock to many. The inter-national company has always been a great ambassador for Limerick and its professionalism and expertise are world renowned. It is most saddening to see the de-mise of this most successful company brought about due to the cumulative customer bad debts and the failure of getting paid on time if at all. Mur-ray O’Laoire Architects are thirty-one years in business with 127 staff based in Limerick, Cork, Dublin, Slovakia, Lib-ya, Germany, Russia and Barbados.

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‘Flannagans on the Lake’ Opens with Stylish Party

we can to support our own. Taking over a restaurant in the current climate is of course a challenge but doing so with such high quality produce to work with makes it a lot easier.”

Brian has worked with all international cuisines and says that while the downturn has hit the restaurant industry hard, it has realigned prices, which is good for the con-sumer. “People now tend to dine out only at weekends but restaurants have had to re-spond to that challenge and at Flanagan’s we will be unveiling a range of themed nights, that will be built around value, to en-

courage diners back during mid week. We have already begun with an Italian night which is proving immensely popular and really now it’s about value, creativity and, of course, quality food.”

‘Flanagan’s on the Lake’ opened its doors under new management recently at a glamorous launch party. Flanagan’s first opened in 2007 and is now under the management of its head chef Brian Hayes and Tipperary businessman Cathal Quinn, who has worked in the café and bar busi-ness for many years and has extensive front of house experience.

At ‘Flanagan’s on the Lake’ launch party in Ballina/Killaloe were the new management team of Brian Hayes and Cathal Quinn.

Speaking at the launch of the Mid-West’s latest exciting new restaurant, ‘Flanagan’s on the Lake’ in Ballina/Killaloe, Brian Hay-es, who returned last year after six years working as a chef in Australia, said there has been a dramatic improvement in the quality of Irish produce, not least beef, lamb and fish, since he left for Australia in 2003.

The former Adelaide based chef, whose vast overseas experience included a stint at the award winning South Australian Jockey Club, is part of the new manage-ment team at Flanagan’s On the Lake res-taurant and bar in Ballina/Killaloe.

“Since I returned home I definitely saw changes in the quality of Irish food, changes for the better. It is fair to say now that Irish produce is among the best in the world. In Australia they place a huge importance on the quality and freshness and we are right up there with the best in the world now here in Ireland. Given that this huge effort has been made to raise our standards, each and every one of us must do what

12BL201004.indd 1 08/04/2010 15:24:38

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Tourism chiefs are predicting that the National Lottery Skyfest event in Limerick could generate as much as €20 million in revenue spend for the local economy. Speaking about the success of the Skyfest extravaganza which took place recently (Saturday 13th March 2010) Eoghan Prendergast, Shannon Development’s Limerick Development Division Manager said; “When all the sums are done we es-timate the revenue generated for the city from Skyfest could yield as much as €20 million, or to measure it another way it would be the equivalent of the spend gen-erated from two Thomond Park Stadium events. This combined with the positive national and international media cover-age will be of major benefit to us our in ef-forts to promote Limerick as a ‘must visit’ tourist destination.” “As the tourism authority for the Shannon Region we are delighted to have secured the Skyfest event for Limerick. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Na-tional Lottery and the St. Patrick’s Festi-val Committee for bringing the event to Limerick. It provided us with a superb plat-form to showcase the best of Limerick to

a national and international audience. We were delighted to work with journalists, TV and radio crews from Ireland, the US, China and the UK, who broadcast from the City during the event.” “Our pre-Skyfest programme of entertain-ment worked well drawing people to the heart of the city centre to experience its fun side. Preliminary estimates show that our work with hotels, the service sector and transport providers, to put together special short break packages and enter-tainment to entice visitors for the Skyfest and Limerick’s St. Patrick’s festival proved very successful,” he said. “We were delighted to provide King John’s as the launching platform for the fireworks and the images of this iconic visitor attraction featured in TV cover-age will help brand Limerick internation-ally. Skyfest was a wonderful vehicle and put Limerick centre stage as a fun loving place to be. We will continue to use the positive images of Limerick created from the event in our future tourism marketing campaigns,” he concluded.

€20m Revenue Boost Expected From Limerick Skyfest

“a kind-a different”

“The flowers are burstingFrom every bough and twigAs the bells of Easter ring;

Each pure white lily’s waking,To welcome infant spring”

Designer Florists Rachel Han-non and her team of Flowers Forever Raheen have better reasons than most for welcom-ing infant spring, as this time of year gives them unlimited scope to create flower arrange-ments that are a cut above the ordinary. Its no wonder then Rachel says that “ our spring flowers with their soft delicate petals, sprouting young buds and radiant colour are a per-fect way of saying whatever you want this easter. not only that “ our flower arrangements are the perfect way to add warmth, radiance, and feelings of cheer to any easter celebration” - they are a fitting symbol for the sea-son.. Rachel and her team go on to inform us that “easter flowers awaken the senses and remind us of new beginnings.

why not call in and see our spring Collection soon !!

Raheen Roundabout,Raheen, Limerick.

Tel/Fax: 061 307123www.flowersforever.ie

13BL201004.indd 1 02/04/2010 17:01:55

BL | NEWS


UL Awarded €5 million for Composites Research Centre

The University of Limerick (UL) has been se-lected by Enterprise Ireland (EI) and the In-dustrial Development Agency (IDA) to lead and support four national centres of excel-lence announced today by the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan TD.

UL will host the Irish Centre for Compos-ites Research with initial funding of €5 mil-lion and will co-host Competence Centres for BioEnergy, Microelectronics and IT in-novation. Enterprise Ireland has already ring-fenced €32 million in funding for the initial five centres and it anticipates invest-ing a further €24 million over the next five years across the nine centres.

University of Limerick President, Profes-sor Don Barry welcomed the announce-ment saying; “The University of Limerick has an excellent track record in research in the key areas of composites, energy, ICT and microelectronics and our significant involvement in four of the five centres of excellence announced today is testament to the quality of our researchers in these fields. We welcome UL’s leading role in the Irish Centre for Composites Research and look forward to continuing partnerships in the three other competence centres of bioenergy, microelectronics and IT innova-tion.”

Professor Brian Fitzgerald, Vice President Research at the University of Limerick said; “The Competence Centres build on the strengths of each institution and will support our focus on research which has a direct impact on industry. The Irish Cen-tre for Composites Research at UL is a

major step in furthering Ireland’s leading role in advanced research and innovation in an area that has far-reaching impacts while building on our success in a transla-tional approach to research.”

The Irish Centre for Composites Research will provide a national focal point for world-class composites research, innovation and technology transfer, with a research agenda set by Irish industry partners in-cluding ÉireComposites, Henkel Ireland, Bombardier Aerospace, Element Six, Tyco Electronics, AMPAC and Cavanagh Foun-dry.

Dr Trevor Young of the University of Limer-ick led the proposal to host the Centre at UL said; “The world’s largest aircraft manu-facturers, Airbus, Boeing and Bombardier have committed to significantly increase the use of advanced composites on the next generation of aircraft. This revolution-ary decision is having a massive impact on the composites industry, increasing demand for research and development of future composites and cheaper manufac-turing techniques.”

The new centre will assist Irish industry to undertake the R&D needed to compete in this high-tech industry.

Composite materials have been a major focus of research at UL for nearly two decades and a key aspect of the research conducted in the Materials and Surface Science Institute (MSSI) based at UL. UL has worked with almost every major aero-space company in Europe on more than 35 funded research projects, including 14

funded by the EU. The reputation built up through these projects has led to directly funded contracts from Airbus, EADS and Bombardier Aerospace.

Michael Ryan, Vice-President and General Manager, Bombardier Aerospace, Belfast, said: “We are delighted to be able to build on our existing relationship with the Uni-versity of Limerick through this new cen-tre for composites research. Research and development is the backbone of com-petitiveness, and collaborative research such as this into advanced composites technologies will enable companies to de-velop their processes and capabilities, and ultimately improve their competitiveness in an extremely challenging global market place. Within the aerospace industry, this research will also provide an important opportunity to take further steps towards developing more environmentally friendly aircraft of the future.”

The University of Limerick is fortunate to possess the best research infrastruc-ture for composites in the country, with additional, state-of-the-art equipment ac-quired through a recent €1.5 million in-vestment in laboratory facilities. Through the investments in infrastructure and the development of world-leading expertise in this field, the University of Limerick is well equipped to lead a research agenda which will support innovation and development in the composites industry at a national and global level.

For further information about Irish Centre for Composites Research at the University of Limerick go to www.ul.ie

Dr Trevor Young, UL composites research, Professor Brian Fitzgerald, Vice President Research and University of Limerick President, Professor Don Barry celebrate the award of e5 million for the Irish Centre for Composites Materials to UL. Pictured with the new state-of-the-art equipment for composites research at the University of Limerick.

14BL201004.indd 1 30/03/2010 16:52:58

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Applebox Media are ‘the Business’

Apple Box Media Ltd. is the brainchild of Simon McGuire and Mark Griffin. The idea came about to create a new video production company to supply corporate businesses with broadcast standard productions for their websites. This is no easy feat with the current economic climate however both Mark and Simon feel it is something that businesses in the mid-west of Ireland can avail of instead of employing Dublin based companies at a higher cost.

The Company doesn’t just have video pro-duction on offer. Both Mark and Simon are tutors in two third level colleges in the Lim-erick area. Mark is a tutor in the Limerick College of Further Education, on Mulgrave Street in Limerick. And Simon is an assist-ant Lecturer in Video Post Production at Limerick Institute of Technology in Moylish Park. With this experience Apple Box Me-dia is offering either Group or One-On-One tutoring sessions on Video Production and Post Production using Broadcast equip-ment and software such as Avid Media Composer and Final Cut Pro.

Apple Box Media has been in action since March of 2009. They have a number of business clients and have been involved in the production of live events for Limerick City as well covering sports conferences for websites and businesses. Clients in-clude: Bank of Ireland, BDO, Bigwave Me-dia Training, Business Limerick Magazine, Limerick City Council, Limerick Co-Ordina-tion Office, Limerick Independent Newspa-per, Limerick Sports Partnership, Limer-

ick Youth Service and Tidi. Simon started his career at a very young age as a boom operator for Creative Visual Productions (now known as Matt Kelly Productions). One of the first jobs was a UTV news report on the Good Fri-day agreement and the local talks in his hometown of Limerick City in the Republic Of Ireland. An instant attraction to the me-dia art form ensued and Simon went on the study camera operation and editing. He was taken on as a freelance VT Editor with the independent broadcaster TV3 in Dublin. He returned to Limerick when a new opportunity in video streaming and compression came along with an e-learning company Thomson NETg. Later, he teamed up with Pat Shortt and with Short Comedy Theatre Company, he be-came part of the editing department for the popular Irish sitcom ‘Killinaskully’. Pat Shortt is currently working on ‘Mattie’ a new Limerick based sitcom. This pilot was well received last Christmas and Simon was at the helm as editor.

Mark is a freelance editor and an Adobe certified trainer, and conducts training for Ireland’s premier digital media special-ist, Bigwave Media Training. They provide Adobe and Apple certified training at their training centres in Limerick, Dublin and Belfast. He worked as an assistant editor on “Killinaskully Series 5” (RTE 1), and is currently assistant editor on Pat Shortt’s new sitcom with Simon McGuire. He re-cently provided camerawork for the big Screen for Heineken Cup Semi Final (Lein-ster V Munster 2009) in Limerick.

Local Photographer Wins Award

Peter O’Donnell A.I.P.P.A, Q.E.P. from Lisnagry, Co Limerick was named the Irish Professional Photographers As-sociations (IPPA) - RSA Insurance Professional Photographer of the Year 2010.

Peter, whose stunning pictures of the Irish landscape are gaining an interna-tional reputation, was presented with the coveted award by IPPA President Paddy Clarke The awards ceremony took place in Co.Louth recently. He is currently preparing for the opening of his gallery in Castleconnell.

This year saw over 2000 entries in the competition from IPPA profes-sional photographers from all over Ireland. Chairman of the judging panel Vincent O’Byrne FIPPA, commented on the very high standard achieved in the 30 categories of the competition. This is the 15th year that the RSA In-surance has sponsored the Irish Pro-fessional Photographers Associations (IPPA) National Photographic awards and touring IPPA exhibition. The win-ners’ exhibition will shortly start its countrywide tour. All IPPA members are qualified, registered and insured professional photographers.

Peter can be contacted on 061 219836 and his award winning panel viewed at www.thewidereye.com

Mark Griffin and Simon McGuire, Applebox Media

15BL201004.indd 1 30/03/2010 16:48:58

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You’re a Star winner, Leanne Moore, model Ruth Griffin and Limerick Co-ordination PR guru, Laura Ryan launched the 2010 Fashion Targets Breast Cancer campaign ib Brown Thomas, Limerick recently.

Pictured with IPU President Liz Hoctor at the graduation ceremony, which was held in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, are (left – right) Maria McBrearty and Evelyn McDermott, both from Medicare Pharmacy in Castletroy

Also at the ceremony was Magdelena Bratus, Unicare Pharmacy, Thomandgate, pictured here with Irish Pharmacy Union President Liz Hoctor

Bernie Moloney, Assistant CEO, Limerick City Enterprise Board Donncha Hughes, EAC Manager at LIT and MarketLink Co-ordinator Ronan O’Brien, Head of Depart-ment of Business, LIT Mark O’Connell, Director, Marketing BDO Simpson Xavier and MII MidWest. MarketLink, the innovation and entrepreneurship programme at LIT.

Michael Gleeson, Limerick City Centre Traders Association; with Chief Superind-endent David Sheehan; Kieran McSweeney, President, Limerick Chamber of Com-merce; and Superintendent Frank O'Brien in the Savoy Hotel for a meeting between Gardai and Limerick City Centre Traders.

Limerick County Council Cllr. and Chairman of the Mid West Regional Authority, Leo Walsh leads the Limerick New York St. Patrick’s Day parade group down 5th Avenue on 17th March 2010.

The Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Councillor Michael Wilkes (centre) and his wife Lady Mayoress Vivienne share a joke with Cllr David Naughton, Cathaoirleach of Limerick County Council, during their visit to the County Hall, Dooradoyle, Limerick.

Gallery

16BL201004.indd 1 02/04/2010 16:00:44

At the HSE contract signing for the €35 million Critical Care Unit at the Mid-West-ern Regional Hospital, Limerick were: from left: Hugh Murray, Murray O Laoire architects; Brian O’Connell, O’Connell Mahon architects and John O’Brien, HSE Na-tional Director.

At the HSE contract signing for the €35 million Critical Care Unit at the Mid-West-ern Regional Hospital, Limerick were: from left: Joe Hoare, HSE Estates Manager Mid-West; Fergal Flynn, Acute Services Manager Mid West; Geraldine Shaw, Di-rector of Nursing MWRH; and Anton Dempsey, Clinical Director MWRH.

Barry Kiely, Mags and Tony Enright celebrating Barry’s 30th birthday in Chocolat recently

Christine Conway, Lady Captain Limerick Golf Club, Gaye Moore, Special Olympics and Pat Murray, Manager Limerick Golf Club at the launch of the Open Golf Day held at the club on Good Friday, a fundraiser for the Special Olympics.

Sharon McMeel, Funion Events, Anthony Foley, Munster, Gaye Moore, Special Olym-pics, Ian Costello, UL/Bohs, Fergal Dempsey and Peter Shane, UL students Union at the launch of the fundraiser ‘Grab a Tag for Special Olympics’.

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A CHARITABLE ‘CARRIe’-ON: Susan Fitzpatrick, James Collins, Edel Cassidy, Eamon Jones and Tracey Larkin of the Limerick Thomond and Limerick-Shannon Rotary Clubs at the launch of details of their Sex And The City 2 charitable fundraiser.

At the HSE contract signing for the €35 million Critical Care Unit at the Mid-West-ern Regional Hospital, Limerick were: seated: Brian Gilroy, HSE National Director of Estates (left) and Joe McLoughlin, Director, John Sisk & Son. Standing: Dr Paul Burke, MWRH and John O’Brien, HSE National Director.

Stephen McNamara with Prof Peadar Cremin, President MIC; and Prof Teresa O'Doherty, Dean of Faculty of Education, MIC. Stephen was awarded a scholarship in the University of Notre Dame valued at $80,000.

17BL201004.indd 1 09/04/2010 17:42:53

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Proprietors Brian Hayes and Cathal Quinn pictured at the launch of New Manage-ment of Flanagan’s on the Lake in Killaloe, Co. Clare.

Gearoid and Maria Prendergast pictured at the launch of New Management of Flana-gan’s on the Lake in Killaloe, Co. Clare.

Sarah, Brian and Kathryn Hayes pictured at the launch of New Management of Flanagan’s on the Lake in Killaloe, Co. Clare.

Barry Duggan, Finan Waters and Philip McLoughlin pictured at the launch of New Management of Flanagan’s on the Lake in Killaloe, Co. Clare.

Keith Morrissey, Denis Barry and Seamus Coady pictured at the launch of New Management of Flanagan’s on the Lake in Killaloe, Co. Clare.

Sandra Blaser, John Wood and Brenda Murphy pictured at the launch of New Man-agement of Flanagan’s on the Lake in Killaloe, Co. Clare.

Jane Mulcair, Sandra Blaser and Kirsty Hayes pictured at the launch of New Man-agement of Flanagan’s on the Lake in Killaloe, Co. Clare.

Tara Hartigan, Colette Acton, Erin Hartigan and Karen McInerney pictured at the launch of New Management of Flanagan’s on the Lake in Killaloe, Co. Clare.

Launch of the new Flanagan’s on the Lake

18BL201004.indd 1 30/03/2010 17:13:18

Jean Slattery, Therese Smith, Marie Threrse Hates and Claire Smith organizers of the Heart Children Ireland, annual ladies lunch held in the Strand Hotel last Friday.

LIT President Dr Maria Hinfelaar with John Gerrard, artist attending the opening of the EV+A 2010 held in the Limerick School of Art and Design, LIT on Clare Street last Friday.

At the inaugural MarketLink Open Forum ‘Business Growth through Focused Mar-keting’ at the Limerick Institute of Technology were: from left: Glyn Billinghurst, Sales & Marketing Managaer, Munster Rugby; Dr Maria Hinfelar, President LIT; and Shane McAllister, Founder, MobaNode. MarketLink in an eight week multidisciplinary programme for 3rd level students at LIT.

Sheila Deegan Limerick City Arts Officer with her mother Patsy attending the open-ing of the EV+A 2010 held in the Limerick School of Art and Design, LIT on Clare

At the official opening of the Centre for Expertise in Mathematics and Science Teaching and Learning at the Limerick Institute of Technology, were staff members Reegina Kelly, Teresa Bradley, Majid Guanbari and Leah Wallace.

At the official opening of the Centre for Expertise in Mathematics and Science Teach-ing and Learning at the Limerick Institute of Technology were from left: Dr Maria Hinfelaar, President LIT with Dr George McClelland, Director NCE-MSTL and Prof. John O’Donoghue, Director NCE-MSTL., holding response pads(or clickers).

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Official Opening of Limerick’s first Specialist School of Mathematics Education by Mr. Willie O’Dea TD pictured here with head of the school, Mark McGrath in Castletroy last Friday.

Jean Touhy, manager Savins, Peter Lee, Sales Manager, Panasonic Ireland , Martin Smith, Panasonic Ireland and Matt Billing, Panasonic UK among the first in Ireland to view the new Panasonic 3D HD home entertainment system on a 65” screen in Savins, Panasonic Centre on O’Connell Street last Monday.

19BL201004.indd 1 12/04/2010 10:53:32

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HSE Sign Contracts for €35M Critical Care Unit at MWRH

The HSE has announced that it is proceed-ing with the development of a new €35 mil-lion Critical Care Unit at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Dooradoyle, Limerick. HSE National Director of Estates Brian Gil-roy signed a contract on behalf of the HSE at the Hospital today with John Sisk & Son Ltd for the design & construction of the new unit. The development of the Critical Care Unit is a major step forward in the reconfiguration of acute hospital services in the Mid West and follows on radical im-provements in the provision of emergency care, diagnostics and acute surgery. HSE chief executive, Dr Brendan Drumm, said the developments now under way in the region are setting a headline for the rest of the country.

Commenting Brian Gilroy said, “This is one of the largest capital projects being under-taken by the HSE this year and will provide the Midwest with a state of the art criti-cal care facility. The overall project budget includes for the construction of the new unit, a provisional equipping budget and an allowance for other costs associated with the project. It is anticipated that a plan-ning application will be lodged within the next two months with construction due to commence in August subject to achieving a grant of planning without any undue de-lays. The project is due to be completed by the end of 2011”.

John O Brien, HSE National Director and Integrated Services Manager Mid West added: “This project is a key element of the reconfiguration of our health serv-ices in the Midwest. It will provide essen-tial critical and high dependency care for

patients across the region and address safety concerns raised by HIQA and other external reviews of acute health care in the region.”

Dr Paul Burke who is leading the recon-figuration project across the hospitals in the region added, “This new facility is a tremendous boost to the health care infrastructure of the entire Mid-West. It will help ensure that critical and coronary care services of the highest level will be available and easily accessible to all people of the region”.

The development, which will link with the existing hospital, will consist of a six sto-rey block over two levels of basement car parking. A new 12 bed intensive care unit will be located on the first floor along with supporting accommodation. The sec-ond floor will provide a new 14 bed high dependency unit while the third floor will provide a new 16 bed coronary care unit. The fourth floor will accommodate a car-diac non-invasive investigations unit along with two catherisation laboratories and a nine bed day ward. The ground floor will be available for later development while the fifth floor will be required to accom-modate the building services plant. Each level will have a floor area of approximately 1450 sq m. The facility will be state of the art, meeting the highest infection control standards. Strong emphasis has been placed on the segregation of the different users of the building which is very impor-tant from an infection control perspective. The development includes 19 full isolation rooms spread over the first, second and third levels.

The first Aer Lingus Regional flights took to the air recetly as the franchise agreement between Ireland’s regional airline, Aer Arann, and the national car-rier, Aer Lingus, began on 12 routes from Dublin and Cork. Of the 12 routes, 6 will operate from Dublin to the UK, with the remaining 6 serving the UK and France from Cork. The new route network increases frequency on busy business and leisure services between Dublin and both Glasgow and Edin-burgh, while also offering direct con-nectivity from a number of UK regions to Aer Lingus trans-Atlantic services.

Speaking at Dublin Airport as the first Aer Lingus Regional flight departed Stephen Kavanagh, Aer Lingus Chief Commercial Officer said;

“The expanded route network will en-able us to serve key UK regional des-tinations with improved frequency and schedule options, while providing connectivity with our transatlantic net-work.” Also at Dublin Airport today for the first departure was Aer Arann Chief Executive Paul Schütz who welcomed the franchise agreement saying; “With our franchise partner we have created a product that offers a customer-fo-cussed schedule with increased fre-quency and both regional and trans-At-lantic connectivity. The additional flights on existing routes combined with new direct services linking regional centres in the UK with Ireland offers a signifi-cant boost to both business and the tourism industry at a time when it is badly needed.” The Aer Lingus Regional service is operated by Aer Arann ATR 72-500 aircraft and crew. All franchise flights are sold and distributed through www.aerlingus.com. In addition to the UK routes, new sea-sonal services from Cork to Jersey in the Channel Islands and La Rochelle in France will begin operating in May.

Aer Lingus/Aer Arann Franchise Takes Flight

20BL201004.indd 1 30/03/2010 16:46:41

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Limerick’s Skyline is Transformed Ireland’s largest single-support canopy is installed at Limerick’s Milk Market. The once-familiar sight of cranes graced the skyline of Limerick again in recent days as Ireland’s largest single-support canopy was installed at the city’s Milk Market. This was part of the ongoing €2m refur-bishment project there, which is due for completion this summer and will trans-form the Milk Market into a unique, all-weather, 7-days-a-week venue.

The installation of this specially-designed canvas canopy, which was manufactured in Wales, involved a major logistical exer-cise. This included the transportation by road from Rosslare of the 79-foot-high central support column, comparable in height to an 8 storey building. This ne-cessitated special traffic arrangements en route. Upon arrival in Limerick, the 5- tonne steel mast was then hoisted into position with specialised equipment, so that it could support the 1.8-tonne canvas canopy, spread out over a surface area of approx. half-an-acre, making it the biggest single-support canopy in Ireland.

Clare-based construction firm, L&M Keat-ing, is the lead partner in the Milk Market refurbishment project, which was com-missioned by the Limerick Market Trus-tees; a not-for-profit organisation set up in 1852 “to expand and manage the affairs of markets within the boundary of Limer-ick City and one mile beyond.”

While still upholding this brief, nowadays the Trustees have direct responsibility for the running of two markets in Limerick; The Milk Market, which operates on Sat-urdays all year round and The Riverside Market on Bedford Row, which is open on Sundays during the summer.

Both markets were recently awarded the “Certificate of Good Practice Standard for Farmers’ Markets” by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in conjunc-tion with Bord Bia. Contrary to its name, the Milk Market (www.milkmarketlimerick.com), which is one of the longest-operat-ing markets in Ireland, does not specialise in the sale of milk. Instead, it offers a wide range of premier produce from the land and sea for sale there weekly, showcased by some 40 traders from the Region and

beyond. The Milk Market received a Euro-pean Heritage Award in 1995. A not-for-profit organisation, the board of the trus-tees is made up of members of Limerick

City Council, Limerick County Council and Limerick Chamber, who are re-elected annually.

Picture taken with a fisheye lens from the crane shows the canopy on the ground before hoisting on the column.

The new canopy installation at the Milk Market supported by a 79-foot central column.

21BL201004.indd 1 30/03/2010 17:10:03

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73 NEW ‘HIGH POTENTIAL START UP COMPANIES’ IN 2009

The Minister for Trade and Commerce, Billy Kelleher TD, an-nounced that the Government, through Enterprise Ireland, has supported the establishment of 73 new high potential start-up companies (HPSUs) in 2009. These young companies are an integral part of the Govern-ment’s blue print for the Smart

Economy. They will create over 900 new jobs over the next three years, bringing total em-ployment in these businesses to almost 1500. Total sales over the same period are expected to reach €600m, with exports accounting for over 80% of this figure.

Making the announcement at Enterprise Ireland’s annual High Potential Start-up Show-case event, Minister Kelleher said: “It is absolutely critical for the development of the Smart Economy that we do everything possible to drive the continued growth of entrepreneurial, in-novation led companies that will underpin Ireland’s reputation world wide as a centre of innova-tion excellence. They are at the forefront of innovation, creating the products and services that

add value for customers, open-ing new markets, increasing export sales across the globe, and securing economic growth and jobs here at home. This is a very strong performance by these new companies that will contribute to the Government’s strategy for positioning Ireland centre stage as the internation-al hub for innovation.”

The Minister stressed the im-portance of supporting the con-tinued successful commerciali-sation of third level research. “The Government is focused on developing Ireland into a ‘smart’ or knowledge-based economy and over the last decade has continued to increase its invest-ment in the generation and ex-ploitation of intellectual proper-ty developed in Ireland’s higher education institutes. With the

Technology Transfer Strength-ening Initiative set up by Enter-prise Ireland in 2007, we are supporting Technology Trans-fer Offices across the higher education institutes providing a world-class system for transfer-ring valuable intellectual proper-ty from research into commer-cially viable propositions.”

Greg Treston, Head of High Po-tential Start Ups at Enterprise Ireland said: “We are greatly encouraged by the perform-ance of these 73 companies, and their potential for continued growth. Their backgrounds may be different, but they all show that ability to see a business op-portunity and to tap into market trends for new and innovative businesses. Start-up business activity in Ireland is showing no let up.”

Billy Kelleher TD

City Prepares For Great Limerick RunWith just under eight weeks to go to the in-augural Great Limerick Run in association with the Irish Times, the organisers are de-lighted to announce full details of the event sponsors and the event programme which will cement Limerick’s place as Ireland’s number one Sports tourism destination, at a Press Reception in Thomond Park. The event which takes place on May 2nd 2010, forms part of Limerick’s Riverfest and in-corporates a new marathon, half marathon and 10k run into one single event for the first time ever in Ireland. The run offers participants from social joggers and walk-ers to professional athletes the chance to take part in a fun filled, well organised event that has already captured the imagination of runners across the country.

Speaking at the press reception announc-ing details of the Great Limerick Run Expo and corporate sponsors, Martin Tynan, Event Organiser, said, “Firstly, I would like to thank all the corporate sponsors and sup-pliers who have come on board to support the first year of the Great Limerick Run. I’m also delighted that the iconic Thomond Park Stadium has become a supporter of the event and will play host to the Great Lim-erick Run Expo that will take place on Satur-

day May 1st where it will double as a regis-tration area for all those taking part and an interactive event showcasing all the latest running apparel and equipment, including that of New Balance, the official sportswear partner of the Great Limerick Run. ”

The Great Limerick Run Expo on Saturday will ensure thousands of participants will converge on Limerick city for at least two days adding colour and atmosphere to the Riverfest weekend and it is expected that the economic contribution to the economy could reach €10million in year one alone.

The Great Limerick Run in association with the Irish Times, is being supported by New Balance, Thomond Park Stadium, Newstalk, Spin South West, Shannon Development, Limerick City Council, Limerick County Council, Limerick City Enterprise Board, Health Services Executive, Limerick City Sports Partnership, County Local Sports Partnership, Limerick Regeneration Agen-cy & the Limerick Coordination Office. For those looking to take part, you can register on www.greatlimerickrun.com or by calling 061 609627.

22BL201004.indd 1 19/03/2010 11:30:37

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The legal framework of eCommerce – is your website ready to sell goods to the eConsumer?

By Keith Burke

It is now fifteen years since the launch of some of the world’s most well known “on-line shops” such as amazon.com. In that period, the volume of eConsumers or online shoppers has grown at an impressive rate. It was thought that the law would struggle to keep pace with the growth of the on-line marketplace and the legal conundrums posed by rapidly advancing technology. On the contrary, a considerable body of stat-ute law enacted in the past ten years has served to supplement existing consumer protection law and ensures robust protec-tion for the eConsumer when shopping on-line. Is your business ready to market its products online?

1. Allow your customers to “cool off”Under the 2001 “Distance Selling” Regu-lations, subject to certain exceptions, the consumer has a 7 day cooling off period within which he/she may cancel a contract concluded by means of distance communi-cation (e.g. via online shopping). For goods purchased online, the period will generally begin to run from the day on which the consumer receives those goods. A contract may be cancelled during the cooling off period without reason and the consumer is entitled to a full refund (less only the direct cost of returning the goods).

2. Keep the consumer informedIn order for a contract concluded with a consumer online to be enforceable, you must supply the consumer with full infor-mation about the product they are purchas-ing before the contract is concluded. This information includes the price of goods in-cluding taxes, delivery costs, arrangements for payment and the right of cancellation referred to above. In addition, you are obliged to confirm such information to the consumer in a durable format (e.g. in writ-

ing or via email) no later than the time of delivery of the goods to the consumer.

3. Are you entitled to substitute goods?You may be entitled to offer substitute goods of equivalent quality and price to the consumer, where the original product is out of stock. In order to avail of this right, you must notify the consumer of the entitlement prior to his/her placing the order. Even where the consumer has been notified of this however, he/she will retain the right of cancellation during the cooling off period and in this case, the cost of re-turning the goods is to be borne by you as seller of the goods and not the consumer.

4. Keep your terms and conditions fair...It is important to protect your business via a set of terms and conditions but you must keep them fair. The EC (Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts) Regulations 1995-2000 strengthen the consumer’s position when contracting with suppliers, where they have not had an opportunity of nego-tiating the specific terms of the contract. Where a term is “unfair” within the mean-ing of the Regulations, an online supplier will not be able to rely on the fact that the consumer has clicked the ever present “I Accept” button to a set of standard terms and conditions. “Unfair” terms include mat-ters such as giving the supplier the sole right to determine whether goods are in conformity with the contract or enabling the seller to alter the terms of the contract unilaterally without a valid reason which is specified in the contract.

5. Not only modern legislation is relevant...

Although much of our consumer law pre-dates the advent of the online market-

place, many of its provisions are equally applicable to online transactions. Accord-ingly, the terms of a contract implied under the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Acts 1893-1980 will ensure that the con-sumer has for example, a right to goods of merchantable quality in that they are “fit for their purpose”.

6. Let your customer know who you are…

Treat your website as you would your com-pany letterhead. Under the EC (Companies) (Amendment) Regulations 2007, Irish lim-ited companies are now obliged to publish on their website details such as the legal name and form of the company, the com-pany number with which it was registered and the address of the company’s regis-tered office.

Businesses should not be intimidated by selling online but it is paramount that when doing so, they are fully cognisant of the eConsumer’s rights. An appropriately drafted set of terms and conditions will provide clarity for both your business and the consumer. Encompassing statutory ob-ligations, such as those set out above, in your terms and conditions will instil con-sumer confidence in your business, ensur-ing that your online presence enjoys the same level of integrity as your on-street presence.

Keith Burke is a solicitor in the Intel-lectual Property & Technology Unit of Holmes O’Malley Sexton Solicitors and may be contacted at 061-313222 or via email at [email protected] .

This article is intended to be a general guide and is not intended to act as a substitute for specific professional advice on a given matter. Nei-ther the author or the publisher will accept any responsibility for loss or damage occasioned to any person as a result of their acting or failing to act as a result of the information contained in this article

23BL201004.indd 1 08/04/2010 11:44:42

BL | NEws


David Cronin, CEO, University of Limerick Foundation; Orla Rimmington, Operations Manager, Kernel Capital; Prof. Don Barry, President, University of Limerick; Frank Casey, CEO, Resourcekraft, announcing a €500,000 invest-ment in Resourcekraft by the Bank of Ireland Seed Fund.

Bank Of Ireland Seed Fund Leads €600k Investment In Resourcekraft

Kernel Capital confirms that the Bank of Ireland Seed and Early Stage Equity Fund has led a €600k investment in Limerick based energy cost control technology spe-cialist Resourcekraft. The Fund commit-ted €500k and the remainder of the funds were raised through Enterprise Ireland.

Resourcekraft, founded by UL Post Gradu-ate Liam Relihan and Frank Casey in April 2007, delivers dynamic energy manage-ment software that enables their clients to maximise the efficient usage of elec-tricity and other energy resources such as oil, gas, water and heat. To date, the ResourceKraft’s technology has been de-ployed in over 40 customer sites resulting in substantial customer savings.

Commenting on the announcement, CEO of Resourcekraft, Frank Casey said: “Our unique approach focuses on managing energy as a cost, providing smart decision making tools for companies. The funding from the Bank of Ireland Seed Fund will be used to expand our market coverage beyond Ireland and the UK and to recruit additional software developers to join our team.”

Don Barry, President University of Limer-ick said: “This investment in ResourceKraft epitomizes the type of innovation-based start ups that the University of Limerick Foundation is keen to support through our investment in the Bank of Ireland Seed Fund. ResourceKraft was born out of sci-entific research carried out in UL in 2007 and creating success from university spin-outs like this one is crucial if we’re to spark new growth and job creation opportunities in Ireland.”

Denis Minihane, Regional Business Man-ager, Bank of Ireland added: “This invest-ment and the strong pipeline of prospects for the Bank of Ireland Seed Fund confirms our commitment to supporting domestic early stage companies developing innova-tive technologies that have a strong IP plat-form with the ability to grow.”

Dr. Daniel McCaughan, Chief Technol-ogy Officer, Kernel Capital added: “Re-sourceKraft has developed a product suite which is very timely for the marketplace and by extracting and presenting intelli-gence on energy consumption and costs it leads to real energy savings. This Com-pany has a great future.”

Pulitzer Prize Winner Confirmed For Limerick FestivalThe programme for one of Ireland’s largest annual gatherings of contem-porary poets and writers was an-nounced in County Limerick recently. Pulitzer prize winning US poet Jorie Graham has been confirmed among the line-up of participants for Éigse Michael Hartnett, which is organised by the Limerick County Arts Office and takes place in Newcastle West from 22-24 April 2010.

Michael Hartnett, who wrote both English and Irish poems, was born in Croom, County Limerick, in 1941 and died in Dublin in 1999. He is regarded as one of the most significant voices in late 20th century Irish writing.

Other confirmed participants of the 2010 literary and arts festival include Fintan O’Toole, author, cultural and po-litical commentator, and Irish Times Deputy Editor; Mark Pollock, profes-sional speaker, adventure athlete, au-thor, broadcaster, and the first blind man to reach the South Pole; Patrick Hederman, author and Abbot of Glen-stal Abbey; Eileen Sheehan, award win-ning Kerry poet; Gearóid Mac Loch-lainn, ground breaking performance poet; and Rita Ann Higgins, poet and dramatist.

The festival will be officially launched at Newcastle West Library on Thurs-day April 22nd when keynote speaker Abbot Mark Patrick Hederman OSB presents ‘Irish Poets, learn your trade: Poetry as speaking Truth’. Other events include an ‘Open Mic’ session where prizes will be awarded for the best performed original poem and the best performed Hartnett poem. The competition adjudicators will be Eileen Sheehan, Gabriel Fitzmaurice and John Cussen.

Full details of the Éigse Michael Hart-nett programme are available from the Limerick County Arts Office on 061 493498/496300 or www.lcc.ie

24BL201004.indd 1 08/04/2010 17:00:30

ILM (Institute Of Leadership & Management)

From pure management and leadership to specialised programmes in coaching and men-toring, ILM has a range of qualifications that have been carefully formulated to meet the varying learning and development needs of employers of all sizes and across all industries and sectors.

Entry routes to these practical and relevant management programmes can be at Level 5 or Level 7. Further details of these programmes will be in the May ’10 Business Limerick Issue

Education and Career Planning Information Day at EBC on Fri 16th April, 11.00 am to 3.00 pm

SUMMER TRAINING E.B.C will be delivering short term cours-es over the summer months. These will have flexible training schedules covering areas of Computing, HR, Marketing, Ac-counting and short business modules.

Education & Business Training CompanyNo. 6 Pery Square, Limerick.

Tel: 061 446534E-Mail: [email protected]

www.limerickcitycampus.comBLOG: www.ebclimerick.blogspot.com

E.B.C MANAGEMENT PROGRAMMES

E.B.C BUSINESS TRAINING PACKAGESCreate an employee training plan by choosing one of these training packages or select four individual

programmes from the categories below for the same cost

Find more programmes on our website under our Professional Business Training section

EBC.indd 1 09/04/2010 13:41:27

BL | news


National Spring Clean Campaign

Hundreds of community groups from across County Limerick are expected to participate in the 2010 Spring Clean Campaign, details of which were announced today. Limerick County Council, in conjunction with An Taisce, is once again asking groups to reg-ister their planned clean up as part of the 12th annual National Spring Clean Campaign. The local authority says organised clean ups will be held throughout the month of April and that the participation local community groups in Ireland’s leading anti-litter initiative is paramount to its success. It added that National Spring Clean is an ideal opportunity for communities to take responsibility for their local en-vironment and to take action against litter.Over 150 organisations from across County Limerick participated in the 2009 campaign. Sports clubs, Ti-dyTowns organisations, businesses, schools, community development groups and Residents Associations from every corner of the County came together to undertake clean up their local areas. To register a clean up with An Taisce and to receive a free clean–up kit visit www.nationalspringclean.org, call: (01) 400 2219 or email: [email protected]. If additional equipment or bagged waste collection is required, please contact Limerick County Coun-cil’s Environment Section at 061-496264.

Aer Lingus Concluding Services Review

Model Sarah McGovern pictured with Gretta Purcell (left) and Mary Killeen Fitzgerald (right) of Limerick County Councils Environment section at the County Limerick launch of National Spring Clean 2010 on Thursday, 18 March 2010

The Head of Aer Lingus says the airline expects to complete a comprehensive re-view of its long haul and short haul serv-ices at Dublin and Shannon Airports in the next four weeks.Christoph Mueller was responding to a letter from Clare T.D. and Minister of De-fence, Tony Killeen who asked the company CEO whether the development of services at Shannon Airport was being sacrificed to prop up operations at Dublin Airport. Minister of Defence Killeen explained: “I contacted Mr. Mueller on behalf of nu-merous business and political interests in the Mid-West region to make the case that Aer Lingus proposals as they relate to Shannon Airport are unjustified on the basis of the performance of the airline’s Trans-Atlantic services at the airport. I also outlined that any reduction of serv-ices will impact negatively on business in the West of Ireland and that the airline will be poorly placed to benefit from an upturn in the economy as a result of such a deci-sion.”He continued: “I am deeply concerned that any proposed reduction of existing serv-ices will impact negatively on cabin crew and other staff at Aer Lingus’ Shannon base. Notwithstanding the difficulties for the airline in the current downturn, I did point out to Mr. Mueller that options which could be taken on the basis of passenger numbers and income on Shannon serv-ices appear to have been avoided to prop up Dublin operations.”“I informed the CEO that a former Aer Lin-gus employee has confirmed that manage-ment at the airline was actively dictating policy to staff over the last two decades to downgrade Shannon. I told him that this appeared to be a repeat designed to wrong foot him as the new CEO. I respect-

fully suggested that he seek independent advice before reaching final decisions”, added Minister of Defence Killeen.In response to Minister of Defence Kil-leen’s representation, Mr. Mueller stated: “Aer Lingus remains committed to the Shannon region as an important part of the Aer Lingus network. Since my appoint-ment I have visited the area several times and in addition to meeting our staff, I have met with a wide variety of business, tour-ism and airport interests. There has been much talk about Aer Lingus’ approach to Shannon. I deal in facts only.”He added: “The Shannon market is an ex-tremely seasonal one and in the case of the New York route, Aer Lingus has lost money every winter for the last 10 years and has made a profit over a full year in only 2 out of the last 10 years. The per-formance on Boston has been marginally better. Despite what you may believe to be the case, profitability from Dublin is equally challenging in the current environment. As we set out at a recent Investor day, Aer Lingus is a demand led business.”“We must serve the markets where pas-senger demand exists. In this regard, we are currently carrying out a comprehen-sive review of our long haul and short haul network in the context of our short and medium term schedule planning. This re-view is expected to be completed within the next 6 weeks. While I am very cogni-sant of the importance of connectivity to the region, Aer Lingus must serve mar-ket in the most efficient manner. We will continue to work closely with the Shannon Airport Authority and the various tourism interests so that we can continue to serve Shannon and the wider region to the ben-efit of all stakeholders”, the airline CEO concluded.

New Minister of Defence, Tony Killeen.

26BL201004.indd 1 12/04/2010 10:54:10

BL | NEWS


Doug Howlett, Munster and New Zea-land All-Black’s popular rugby star, was mobbed by enthusiastic young rugbyites when he visited the Co-Op SuperStores Family Fun Day at Raheen (Limerick) and Mallow (Co. Cork) recently. Marking the official launch of the stores under the Co-Op SuperStores brand, celebrations in-cluded a whole suite of attractions includ-ing the Agri-Aware Mobile Farm with live animals, the Dulux Dog and lots of in-store demonstrations. Doug said: ‘While I get a great kick out of playing rugby, it means a lot to me to meet people face to face, particularly young

sports enthusiasts and their parents who turned out in their hundreds today. The Co-Op SuperStores are really welcoming places to come to and have something to offer everyone in the family, hence the great reception we got here.’ Co-Op Superstores is the retail division of Dairygold Co-Op Society Ltd which has re-cently acquired 7 stores, formerly trading as 4HOME. The company now operates 39 stores across Munster providing a range of Hardware, Household, DIY and Gardening as well as the traditional Agri offering.

Doug Howlett Visits Co-Op SuperStore Raheen

Advances in technology and the massive growth in digital and mobile communica-tions are shaping the future of marketing today, delegates heard at the inaugural MarketLink Open Forum at LIT recently. The Forum was organised in conjunction with the Marketing Institute of Ireland (MII) and was attended by over 100 students and members of the business community in the MidWest. MarketLink is an eight-week multidisciplinary careers, innovation and entrepreneurship programme for 3rd Level students studying in LIT.

Speakers at the event included Lucy Mee-han, Managing Director, Impact Media, John Anslow, Retail Marketing Manager, Meteor, Shane McAllister, Director & Founder of MobaNode and Glyn Billing-hurst, Sales & Marketing Manager, Mun-ster Rugby. The event was chaired by Ro-nan O’Brien, Head of Business at LIT and the Official Welcome given by Dr. Maria Hinfelaar, President of LIT. All speakers pointed to the exciting challenges and op-portunities for businesses today in relation to embracing the advances in technology and the new media.

Said Lucy Meehan of Impact Media, “Through social media sites such as Twit-ter and Facebook, companies can now tap into the emotional side of their target audi-ence more than ever before . This is enor-mously powerful and allows companies and brands to enter into a dialogue rather than a monologue with customers.”

However, Ms Meehan cautioned against reducing your marketing spend in the cur-rent downturn, “In challenging economic times, a knee jerk reaction in business can often be to reduce the budget and resources within the marketing function. However, the reality is the only way to grow your share in a decreasing market is through marketing.”

Glyn Billinghurst, Sales & Marketing Man-ager with Munster Rugby said, “We, Mun-ster Rugby, have worked closely with LIT over the years with its close proximity to Thomond Park and our Branch Offices currently on the Campus. I was delighted to provide the students and local entre-preneurs with an overview of the business and objectives of Munster Rugby off-the-pitch and how we are looking to establish a benchmark sporting business to challenge the clubs across Europe.”

Concluded Ronan O’Brien, Head of Busi-ness at LIT, “We were delighted with the attendance at our first MarketLink Forum and with the insights provided by the speak-ers into how to harness marketing for busi-ness growth in today’s environment.”

The first MarketLink programme ran dur-ing October and November 2009 and the second is scheduled for October and November once again this year. A key in-gredient of MarketLink is the interaction between LIT students, local entrepreneurs and SME managers in the MidWest. A Shannon Consortium Initiative, the Mar-ketLink programme is a collaboration between LIT’s Department of Business, Careers Office and the Enterprise Acceler-ation Centre. The programme is support-ed by the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) and the Enterprise Boards in the MidWest Region. www.lit.ie/marketlink.

MarketLink Hosts Inaugural Open Forum at LIT

Doug Howlett, Munster & New Zealand All-Black’s popular rugby star, pictured with Jake Grace (Clarina, Co. Limerick) at the Family Fun Day at Co-Op Super-Store, Raheen.

Ronan O’Brien, Shane McAllister, Lucy Meehan and John Anslow.

BL | news


ilovelimerick.com Celia Interview

Ahead of her 60th birthday, Celia Hol-man Lee looks back at the highs and lows of her amazing 40 year career in the fashion business. In an inter-view with ilovelimerick.com presenter Olivia O’Sullivan, Celia recalls how she overcame tough times before finding success after years of hard work. The interview, which is live on the online TV channel since early March, features never before seen personal photos of Ireland’s queen of fashion from her childhood, her modelling days and her family life.

Celia describes how she “always had this urge to entertain” and did her first fashion show ages 15 which got on the front of all the national papers at the time. Shortly after, a photogra-pher took a shot that featured on the front of the Daily Mirror in England captioned ‘A pioneer in hotpants in the West of Ireland’. It may have been 40 years ago but Celia got a deposit for a house out of her modelling career, and she has been no stranger to hard work ever since. Speaking about the support she gets from people and the agency: “I think once you have pride in where you come from, and who you are, and what you are, people respect that and they come alongside with you. I think that has happened in the sense that I have taken a provincial model-ling agency and I made it national and I think that has gone a long way.”

Energy Upgrade Scheme Will Create Thousands Of Jobs

Cecilia Holman Lee interviewed by ilovelimerick.com presenter Olivia O’Sullivan.

A Pay As You Save (PAYS) scheme de-signed to energy upgrade virtually every building in Ireland over the next decade was officially recognised at Ireland’s prestigious 2010 Green Awards in Dublin recently. Green building magazine Construct Ireland editor Jeff Colley, received the Green Lead-er and Green Communications awards for his successful campaigning work on PAYS. The scheme, which is scheduled to be rolled out by Energy Minister Eamon Ryan before the end of 2010, will enable cash-strapped homeowners and businesses to pay for energy saving measures through fixed repayments on their energy bills over several years.

“Save as You Pay can become a major driv-er in Ireland’s economic recovery,” com-mented Mr. Colley. He said the upgrading of 100,000 homes per year will create thousands of jobs, reduce Ireland’s 6bn euro energy import bill, dramatically cut carbon emissions, and enable all Irish peo-ple to have comfortable, healthy homes.” However Colley, who has no commercial interest in PAYS, cautioned that an ill-in-formed approach could see the scheme falling well short of its potential. He contin-ued: “It is critical that the utilities give con-sidered, independent advice, and that they do not contradict each other. If one utility says ‘you should put in wall insulation’ and another says ‘don’t do that - you should put

Minister Eamon Ryan

in solar panels and heating controls,’ it will create confusion and lack credibility.”

Energy minister Eamon Ryan announced in December that his Department plans to test pay-as-you-save by the summer, before mandatory roll-out by the end of 2010. Colley and Construct Ireland devel-oped a campaign for PAYS last August and September through www.payscampaign.ie, with consequent national helping Col-ley to successfully lobby for the inclusion of PAYS in the renewed programme for government. In August an Amárach/Con-struct Ireland survey found that 80% of Irish homeowners would be interested in paying for energy upgrades through their utility bills.

Limerick native and 2FM DJ Will Leahy will join top TV3 presenter Elaine Crowley as hosts of the much anticipated Limerick Special Olympics Ball, on Saturday May 15th in the Strand Hotel.

Guests will enjoy wonderful food, wine, a Most Glamorous Lady prize and a raffle with fantastic prizes, an auction and ce-lebrity MCs. The auction will include five star weekends away and much more! The evening will begin with a champagne reception to be followed by a gourmet banquet and dancing to Ace Minsky and his Swing Band who will entertain with jazz, swing, R&B and rat pack music until late.

Tickets which are expected to sell out quickly are priced at €125 each or €1000 for a table of ten and can be ob-tained from Gaye Moore, telephone 061-308008. The Ball is being held to raise vital funds for the 2010 Special Olympics Ireland Games which are taking place in Limerick between June 9th-13th 2010.

The 2010 Special Olympics Ireland Games which will take place in Limerick from 9-13th of June. In what will be one of the biggest and most exciting sporting events to take place in Ireland this year 1,900 athletes from all over Ireland will compete in 13 different sports in venues through out Limerick.

Limerick Special Olympics Ball

28BL201004.indd 1 08/04/2010 12:02:57

BL | NEWS


MULTI AWARD WINNING INDIAN CUISINE RESTAURANT & TAKEAWAYMULTI AWARD WINNING INDIAN CUISINE RESTAURANT & TAKEAWAY

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OPEN 7 DAYS: Sun - Thurs 5pm - 11.30pm • Fri & Sat 5pm - 12amUnit 2c Robert Street, Corn Market Square, Limerick 061 44 66 44

oTher PoPPadom brancheS:Unit 5b, newlands cross, dublin 22 · 01 - 411 11 44 • 91a rathgar road, dublin 6 · 01 490 23 83 • 34 o’connell Street, Sligo · 071 914 71 71

Early Bird Special 3 courses 19.95 (3 courses vegie 17.95) Sun - Thurs 5 till late, Fri - Sat 5 to 7.20 pm

Cllr Jim Long, Deputy Mayor of Limerick with Libby, Dave, Richard and Suzanne Hickey of Souths Bar as they opened their doors for the first time on Good Friday at 6PM.

Cllr Jim Long, Deputy Mayor of Limerick serving pints with Dave Hickey of Souths Bar as they opened their doors for the first time on Good Friday at 6PM.

29BL201004.indd 1 08/04/2010 15:50:18

BL | civic trust


News from the Limerick Civic Trust

The Limerick Civic Trust Annual Golf Clas-sic is now in its 22nd year and takes place, this year, on Thursday, May 27th in Limerick Golf Club. The Golf Classic was initiated in 1989 by Limerick Civic Trust’s visionary founder, the late Denis Leonard whose work, on behalf of the people of Limerick, is evident throughout the city. As in previous years, the 2010 event will include a vast array of team prizes with one very special prize being introduced for the first time this year - The Denis Le-onard Perpetual Trophy, which will form part of the winning team prize.

The Civic Trust Golf Classic is always a very well supported popular event at Lim-erick Golf Club. This year, commemorat-ing Denis Leonard’s lifetime of work for

his city as well as some twenty two years commitment to the golf classic, the event is set to be a huge success.

As with all of the Trust’s fundraising events, the proceeds of the golf event will go towards the funding of restoration, environmental and other civic projects throughout the city. Limerick Civic Trust has no commercial income and is very dependant on successful fundraising events such as the Golf Classic. Partici-pating in this event affords an opportu-nity, to the individual, to share in Limer-ick Civic Trust’s project work throughout Limerick.

To register for Limerick Civic Trust’s 22nd Golf Classic, contact Carolyn@

Limerick Civic Trust – 22nd Golf Classic, Thursday, May 27thlimerickcivictrust.ie, or Limerick Civic Trust’s long standing Executive Member and golf organizer, Pat Moriarty on 061 313399.

The Georgian House and Garden was buzzing on the evening of March 25th last when over thirty works of art, from some of Limerick’s best-loved artists, came under the hammer during an auction in aid of Limerick Civic Trust. Walter Verling, Martin Finnin, Jack Do-novan, Geraldine Sadlier, David Lilburn, Gavin Hogg, Charles Harper, Nora Hur-ley and John Collins were just some of the featured artists. Gabrielle Wallace-O’Donnell, Chairman of Limerick Civic Trust and an accomplished artist, also featured and had her work snapped up very quickly. Bidding was brisk and, by the end of the evening the walls of the upstairs drawing rooms in the house were left almost bare following a very successful series of sales. Auctioneer Billy Gabbett kept the bids rolling as a packed house enjoyed the proceedings. A ‘sidebar’ sale of smaller artworks, some of which were bid for through ‘si-lent’ auction, also featured in the event and many quality artworks were sold here.

Successful Art Auction at the Georgian House

Mayor Kevin Kiely officially opened the event, congratulating all of the artists in-volved and Gabrielle Wallace-O’Donnell, Chairman of Limerick Civic Trust thanked the artists for their generosity of spirit

in submitting work for the event. All proceeds from the event will go towards the Trust’s restoration and environmen-tal works throughout the city.

Jennifer Gabbett, Limerick Civic Trust, Mayor Kevin Kiely and Gabrielle Wallace O’Donnell, Chairman Limerick Civic Trust.

30BL201004.indd 1 02/04/2010 16:57:05

BL | NEWS


500 people from throughout Ireland and the UK have so far registered for The Sky Ride Etape Hibernia, an international cy-cling event taking place in County Clare on August 22nd. IMG, in partnership with Sky, Fáilte Ireland, Shannon Development, the Shannon Region Conference and Sports Bureau, Clare County Council, last month announced details of the country’s first closed road cycle event.

The event organisers expect to attract 2000 entrants from throughout Ireland and abroad this year, bringing significant economic benefit into the local economy, with numbers increasing considerably over the next five years. The mass par-ticipation event, which is being marketed internationally and nationally, is open to all standards of cyclists, aged 18-80. The cy-cle will start and finish in Ennis and travel through County Clare, taking in part of West Clare’s spectacular coastline.

Meanwhile, IMG has announced that it has engaged the services of Sports Acad-emy International to market the cycling event as well as secure some well known celebrities as event ambassadors. IMG, along with its partner agencies, is also

Cyclists Gear Up For The Sky Ride Etape Hibernia

planning to run a competition for County Clare’s 124 primary schools. Competi-tion details will be announced in the com-ing weeks.

Sky, the UK and Ireland’s leading enter-tainment company behind the Sky Ride series of events, is the title sponsor of The Sky Ride Etape Hibernia. The sponsorship supports Sky’s aim to encourage one mil-

lion more people of all ages and abilities to get cycling by 2013. Sky Ride consists of a range of initiatives to get people back on their bikes, with activities like mass city cycling events on traffic-free streets through to local group rides.

Details of The Sky Ride Etape Hibernia are available from www.etapehibernia.com or [email protected].

Good health is perhaps the most impor-tant thing you can have in your life. At Vi-sion 2 Opticians the well-being of a per-son’s eyes is paramount. Vision 2 boasts a team of highly qualified opticians and an array of cutting-edge technology that ensures its patients receive the highest quality eyecare. The Colour Me Beauti-ful took place recently providing visitors with plenty of advice regarding lens pre-scriptions and overall eye health, while of course there was plenty of professional advice regarding how to achieve your per-fect look.

Orlaith Ryan, senior optician at Vision 2 Opticians, stressed the importance of taking good care of your eyes: ‘The quote “Your eyes are the windows to your soul” is quite true. Your eyes are one of the first things people see when they meet you, and their appearance, their well-being, can say an awful lot about you. You should

be proactive when looking after your eyes. You should make sure they’re as healthy as can be. With our Digital Retina Cam-era we can now photograph the retina of your eye and have a current picture of your eye health. This enables our optom-etrists to closely monitor eye diseases such as Glaucoma, Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and Diabetes, all so we can act quickly if we spot a potential problem.’

Expert Colour Me Beautiful consultant Claire Fitzsimons attended the Colour Me Beautiful session. Claire, along with the team at Vision 2, offered visitors to the store expert advice on the style and shape of spectacles that best suit their features. An added convenience at Vision 2 Opticians is its state-of-art viewing sys-tem, which provides patients with photo-graphic and digital support to assist them in choosing their spectacles.

Look After Your Eyesight…Take care of your Image

Orlaith Ryan FAOI, Vision 2 Opticians with little Aoife Lyons and Caroline Ryan of Style by Caroline.

31BL201004.indd 1 08/04/2010 16:59:37

Limerick Chamber Referral Network Launch in The Maldron Hotel

Elaine O’Hehir- Fine Wines, Rachel Ryan -AIB, Gaye Moore- Special Olympics Padraic O’Connor- O’Connor Financial Planning, Brain Cheasty- Munster Rugby, Kevin Dore- FJ Hanly and Associates, Philip Culbert- uMobilize Promotions Ltd.

BL | CHAMBER


Neil O’Keefe- IEG Marketing Ltd., Brendan O’Brien- Crestcom. Tony Scott- Horse-shoe Creek. Maura Mc Mahon- Limerick Chamber, Karl Daly- Karl Daly Pensions and Invest-

ments, Maria Gilsenan- Melior Management

Maura Mc Mahon- Limerick Chamber, Sean Fitzgerald –Herbst Software, Enda Conboy- 3 Ireland

Neil O’Keefe- IEG Marketing, Brendan O’Brien- Crestcom, Sean Dwan- Speak for Success International, Joe Littleton- Joe Littleton and Co. Accountants

Neil O’Keefe- IEG Marketing Ltd., Shane Blake- Richmond, Ita Murphy- Otto Clinic, Jim Vaughan- Ulster Bank.

Andy Flynn- General Refrigeration, Maura McMahon- Limerick Chamber

32BL201004.indd 1 08/04/2010 12:25:38

Supporting Small Business in Limerick this AprilTraining & Workshops

For further details & to book your place please see www.limceb.ie or call Chris or Sammy at 061 312611 or email: [email protected]

Start Your Own Business Start Your Own Business Course To commence in late April.

One day Business Planning Workshop 1st Wednesday each month, LES Office, Tait Business Centre Limerick.COST: No Charge

Running Your Business April 8th 6.30pm – 8.30pm Assist Training, 24 Barrington Street. COST: €20

Effective Sales Techniques April 15th 10am – 5pm, Maldron Hotel.Cost: €20EBusiness

Marketing on the Internet. April 21st, 2pm - 5pm, Assist, 24 Barrington Street.COST: €35

Problem Solving. April 15th 5pm – 9pm, Clarion Hotel. COST: €20

Project Management. April 26th 5 – 9pm, Clarion Hotel. COST: €20

Using EBAY in your BusinessAdvanced, April 27th, Savoy Hotel. COST: €20

Business Healthcheck Clinic. April 30th By Appointment. COST: No Charge

Established Business Programmes

33BL201004.indd 1 09/04/2010 17:43:23

BL | News


FORTUNE 50 – NETWORKING & PROFILING EVENT FOR LIMERICK SME’SFortune 50 is a novel networking and profiling initiative launched by the Limer-ick County Enterprise Board, where one Limerick business will walk away with €5,000.

Entrants to the competition put their pro-file up on www.fortune50.ning.com stat-ing who they are and what they would do with €5,000. They only have 250 words to play with and the post must try both to increase their profile and convince the other businesses to vote for them. An initial online poll will identify 6 businesses with the greatest “vision” and these 6 will make a 10 minute pitch at a live event in the Woodlands Hotel, Adare, on May19th where a second round vote will decide who will walk away with the €5,000.

Garry Lowe, is organising the initiative on behalf of the Limerick County Enterprise

Board. He says “Of course all businesses could do with an additional €5,000, but good publicity could be even more benefi-cial in the long run. Raising your profile is always a challenge for SME’s. So, even if you don’t scoop the €5,000, Fortune 50 will be beneficial to your business. The Limerick County Enterprise Board wanted me to come up with a night that would at-tract local businesses and would facilitate networking. I had liked a clever “out vest-ing” initiative conducted online by Limer-ick businessman James Corbett, founder of Daynuv & Vizitant. James was able to raise €5,000 through 100 donors who wanted nothing more than to support a start-up. However Fortune 50 is far less altruistic. Only those that enter can vote so it is a competitive event”.

There are a maximum of 100 slots avail-able and there has been considerable

interest already. Closing date for entries is May 10th. Details are also available at www.lcoeb.ie or call 061 339178.

Under-Communication Causes Fear in Downsizing“Addressing and managing the separa-tion of employees from a company in a downsizing is a difficult task for any organi-sation,” said Miriam Magner Flynn, man-aging director of Limerick-based Career Decisions, speaking at a recent Shannon Chamber seminar.

“If a redundancy is handled badly, with poor communication and poor career support for departing or surviving employees, then companies can expect departing employ-ees to be extremely angry and hostile towards the company. The morale of re-maining employees will significantly drop, with a corresponding drop in productivity, and the organisation’s brand and reputa-tion may be seriously damaged,” added Ms Magner Flynn, who had led the downsizing and restructuring of many large compa-nies throughout Ireland.

“Redundancy causes stress and upheaval at many levels, not just internally with em-ployees but externally, with suppliers and the wider business community - local, national and international. All the signals emanating from such situations must be planned for and communicated in an open

and honest way. This report has a serious message for people facing redundancy or for those concerned about enhancing their future career prospects. It highlights the necessity for career transition support to clarify their future career direction, their training and development needs, as well as producing quality CVs and interview coach-ing.” said Ms Magner Flynn.

Similar sentiments were expressed be fellow presenter Derek McKay of Adare Human Resource Management, a vastly experienced practitioner specialising in employment law and human resource management.

“While we are now seeing a lot more re-dundancies, lay offs and short-time work-ing, changes in working conditions are also prevalent. The change trigger is often be-yond the control of the people who experi-ence it so the first step in any change man-agement programme must be to manage the people experiencing the change,” said Mr McKay.

“Employment law practitioners expect to see a significant increase in the number

Garry Lowe, Whizzkids IT Training

Miriam Magner Flynn, Career Decisions

of unfair dismissal claims in the next few years due to unfair selection for redun-dancy, breach of contract, and payment of wages, so it’s in everyone’s best inter-est that such litigation is avoided through carefully constructing a change manage-ment plan. Managers must ensure that their change programmes comply with employment law,” advised Mr McKay.

Further information on upcoming series of seminars from Cathy O’Brien at Shannon Chamber: Tel. 061 708341.

34BL201004.indd 1 01/04/2010 17:07:56

Branding is a crucial component of busi-ness life in the 21st Century. A brand is a graphic or verbal ‘signature’ that has been developed over time, to convey the nature, ethos and values embodied by your company’s products or services. In short, a brand or logo actually IS your company, and in a consumer-driven are-na populated by a multitude of competing firms, it’s vital to get it right.

If you think of some of the world’s most successful companies, such as Coca Cola; Ryanair; Mercedes; Apple; Dyson; to name but a few, chances are that rather than the actual services they offer, you will automatically think of the company’s brand or logo.

And it’s also likely that you will have a good idea of the various markets that have made those companies the successes they have been in their respective fields.

Much of this is down to brand manage-ment—the practice of giving a distinctive stamp of identification to your firm by means of a name (Ryanair; Dyson) or a symbol (Apple).

A brand acts as a unique signature, which has been developed over time, to convey the bundle of tangible and subjective val-ues that make up a product.

Brand managers manipulate different product dimensions to position the prod-uct’s “personality” in a unique spot in the mind of the customer.

Brand managementCareful brand management seeks to make the product or services relevant to the target audience. Therefore cleverly crafted advertising campaigns can be highly successful in convincing consum-ers to pay remarkably high prices for products which are inherently extremely cheap to make. This concept, known as creating value, essentially consists of manipulating the projected image of the product so that the consumer sees the product as being worth the amount that the advertiser wants him/her to see, rather than a more logical valuation that comprises an aggregate of the cost of raw materials, plus the cost of manufac-

ture, plus the cost of distribution. Modern value-creation branding-and-advertising campaigns are highly successful at in-ducing consumers to pay, for example, 50 dollars for a T-shirt that cost a mere 50 cents to make, or 5 dollars for a box of breakfast cereal that contains a few cents’ worth of wheat.

BL | FEATURE


Branding: Your Firm’s Ethos in a Nutshell

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BL | FEATURE


A good example of the importance of branding is provided by Bulmer’s, who successfully repositioned their cider product, which had been dogged with negative social connotations, into a mar-ket leader through increasing the price of their product, reducing the bottle size, changing their logo and advertising “time honored skills”.

Bulmer’s epitomizes the pivotal role of a qualified marketing professional in the co-ordination of the advertising; price man-agement, distribution, public relations and graphic design elements and brings them together under a coherent brand management strategy.

The benefits of branding Branding helps buyers identify, compare and choose between competing prod-ucts. Brands provide customers with a guarantee of consistency and quality.

Strong brands create and support cus-tomer loyalty. Ownership of a specific brand can confer social status and can

m lly d marketing

For marketing, editorial, and publicrelations that will get you noticed,call Dympna at:

molly d marketing,Castlecrine, Sixmilebridge, Co. Clare.T: 061 369898 M: 086 2371508E: [email protected]

Business Styling…Think ‘outside the box’

Just as individuals pay attention to how they lookand what they say when presenting themselves inpublic, so too must companies ensure that theyproject their corporate image, product or serviceto its best advantage…aesthetically, editoriallyand physically - on or off-line.Dympna O’Callaghan

Q: Are you struggling to be noticed in your marketplace?

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If your answer to one or both questions is YES, then youwould benefit from linking up with someone who can…

…Visualise bright, energetic design ideasfor use across all communications media– print, advertising, website, and signage& display materials.

… Write impactful editorial to attractthe attention of varied media anddiverse audiences.

That someone is Dympna O’Callaghan, an experiencedmarketer and communicator who set up molly dmarketing specifically to support businesses with theirmarketing communications undertakings.

Dympna has assisted companies in a number of sectors, with branddevelopment and brand refinement, working with them from thedesign brief stage through to roll-out and implementation of theirentire marketing collateral suite. She is currently the outsourcedmarketing communications arm of a number of small to mediumsized enterprises. Where external expertise is required, molly dmarketing works in partnership with graphic/web design and displayagencies throughout Ireland.

Dympna’s expertise extends to editorial services and public relations.She has crafted business articles, speeches, press releases,presentations and papers, pitched at diverse audiences and variedmedia. Her work has appeared in local, national and internationalpublications.

Don’t stay in the dark. Let your business be seen.

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12192 Molly D March 2010 26/3/10 12:09 Page 1

36BL204001.indd 1 09/04/2010 17:47:06


LIMERICK • GALWAY • DUBLIN

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Contact: Regional Director Eugene HoganFloor 6, The Windmill, LimerickTel: 087 2497290Email: [email protected]

FD, Ireland’s only nationwide PR Agency

FD headquarters: 10 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, Ireland

Tel: +353 (1) 6633 600 Fax: +353 (1) 6633 601

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be an expression of self-identity – as the parents of any teenager will testify!

Established brand names allow compa-nies to introduce new products more easily.

A well-established brand is an intangible asset whose equity captures the years of advertising investment by the company .

A brand mark is the visual manifestation of the brand and acts as shorthand that helps customers evaluate and distinguish between competing brands. Logos are most effective when they are unambigu-ous, easy to replicate, scalable but most of all, relevant.

The better design professionals will thoroughly brief themselves with the their client’s business prior to commencing the creative process. Trademarks pro-vide a regulatory protection to copyright infringements. Corporate identity should be coherently applied across every as-pect of the company’s operation.

Strategic MarketingStrategic marketing is about the shaping and reshaping of a company and its prod-ucts in line with changing customer ex-pectations. If a product fails to deliver the values that it promises in its brand then its brand equity will ultimately suffer.

No matter how impressive the artwork or the PR is, the discerning customer will not be convinced by cracked veneer.

Think of how banks in Ireland have been affected by the last two years of bad-news stories—it’s unlikely that anyone looking at the Anglo Irish Bank logo will be awash with feelings of security and confidence. Another good example is Aer Lingus who have seldom been in the headlines for the ‘right’ reasons in recent times, with the result that the company’s trademark shamrock logo has wilted.

Also, even when times are good for a business, it is vital that complacency does not set in—brands must be continually re-freshed in order to remain relevant to the

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marketplace and the world.

British jam manufacturer James Robert-son & Sons used a golliwog called Golly as its mascot from 1910, after John Robertson apparently saw children play-ing with golliwog dolls in America. Rob-ertson’s started producing promotional Golliwog badges in the 1920s, which could be obtained in exchange for tokens gained from their products. However, by 1983, the company’s products had been boycotted by the Greater London Council as offensive, and in 1988 the character ceased to be used in television advertis-ing.

Take also the example of Bisto; the ‘Bisto Kids’ were created in 1919, and car-toons of the kids were very popular in newspapers of the day. The Kids, a boy and girl in ragged clothes, would catch the odour of Bisto on the breeze and ex-hale longingly, “Aah, Bisto!” It was a clev-er move to capture the then all-impor-tant ‘Oliver Twist’ (or ‘urchin’) segment of the working-class market. However, this logo, although one remembered fondly has not been used for many years, and the latest campaign for Bisto encourag-es families to sit up at the table for one night a week to eat ‘proper’ food. This advertising campaign has seen support from unlikely sources such as politicians and members of the clergy. It is rare for an advertising campaign to have a social message, as well as encouraging more sales of a product.

Pursuing a branding strategy requires a considerable commitment of corporate time and money towards a long term vi-sion.

In order to retain that focus, marketing expenditure must be seen as a long-term investment.

Branding policies are most effective in the consumer market when demVand within its product class is high and the quality of the product is above par.

Companies should select relatively stable market segment to operate within and should pursue evolutionary, rather than revolutionary change.

38BL204001.indd 1 09/04/2010 17:48:19


BL|NEWS

A sound business model and a profes-sional image in all aspects of its opera-tions is what epitomises a winner in busi-ness today,” said Orla Kelly, Office Ireland, announcing the arrival of Wind Energy Di-rect to its office suites at Castletroy Park Commercial Campus in Limerick, which enable fledgling or established companies to project an image befitting a progres-sive and sustainable enterprise.

As Wind Energy Direct’s founder Dominic Costello stated at the welcome reception: “The high quality of the fully-finished of-fices and the support services aligned to a location that our employees really value is what attracted us to choose this part of Limerick as our preferred start-up lo-cation. We have a bank, gym, shops, and restaurants on our doorstep in a location that is impressive to customers.”

Wind Energy Direct (WED), which was founded in Limerick in 2006 by Dominic Costello, specializes in installing commer-cial wind turbines on the sites of large energy users, such as factories, hospi-tals, and large office buildings, enabling its clients to benefit from reduced-cost green energy and significant reductions in carbon emissions. WED commissioned its flagship project on the site of Munster Joinery, Ballydesmond, Co Cork in May 2009. Two, 2MW turbines are supplying Munster Joinery with up to 30% of its an-nual energy needs – providing the com-pany with significant financial and carbon savings.

Welcoming Wind Energy Direct, Ms Kelly said: “Start-up and establishing business-es don’t like to be burdened with long-term lease requirements; they need to keep overheads to a minimum. That’s why we have highly flexible letting agreements

and our monthly fee includes rent, rates, service charges, furniture, broadband, in-surance, maintenance, utilities and clean-ing. We give our clients 24/7 access to their office suites. Companies can hire a room for training and meetings or for hosting conferences; they get dedicated free parking and they are in a prime busi-ness location, adjacent to the University of Limerick, the National Technology Park and Limerick city. Feedback from our cli-ents , including WED, is that they have all the ingredients to be up and running and growing their businesses without the stress and strain associated with large overheads. We’re delighted to offer a friendly and professional service to all our clients; we even provide free teas and cof-fees from our express coffee dock. “Some clients use the office as a fully-fledged operational base; others use it in a virtual manner. They want a Limer-ick base, an address, phone number and a receptionist without physically having an office. That’s the perfect solution for a start-up on a tight budget,” added Ms Kelly.

Companies operating from Office Ireland’s Castletroy Park Commercial Campus can now avail of sister facilities in Dublin, Cork, Galway and London – an added bonus for companies with customer or territory ex-pansion plans. Wind Energy Direct’s Do-minic Costello looks forward to expanding his business from his new Limerick loca-tion.

Further information on the facilities available to start-ups and established business at Office Ireland’s Castletroy Campus are available from Orla Kelly, Tel: 061 502000 or log onto www.officeireland.ie

Green Light for Limerick City Transport Project Mid West TD and newly appointed Min-ister for Defence, Tony Killeen has con-firmed the Government is investing 4 million euro in the development of green routes in and around Limerick City.

Limerick is one of four regional cities in Ireland to benefit under a 14 million euro investment programme, which is target-ed at providing bus priority on some of Limerick City’s busiest commuter routes.Of the 4 million euro being invested in Limerick City, 2.4million euro is being provided for the Southern Green Route ranked as the highest priority for a green route from the south in the Limerick Bus Corridor Selection Report. This will com-plete the Southern Green route already in place in the county through the city council area to the edge of the city cen-tre. 1.7 million euro is being provided for the William Street and Mulgrave Street Green Routes which are heavily used by bus operators in Limerick city as well as to advance design of Phase II of the Dub-lin Road Green Route in the county area of Limerick city.

Welcoming Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey’s announcement today, Minis-ter Killeen said that the investment in bus priority will significantly improve journey times for commuters and shoppers on the routes concerned.

He added that reliability and the quality of bus services that will be delivered by these bus priority measures, are a key element in reducing traffic congestion in Limerick City.

He continued: “The 2010 allocations are focused on bus priority measures on routes with the heaviest usage during peak hours. This will deliver the greatest time savings for the largest number of public transport users as possible.”

Meanwhile, Minister Killeen said that the Department of Transport is currently awaiting the findings of the Limerick Public Transport Feasibility Study on Park and Ride and other issues relating to pub-lic transport. He added that the Depart-ment will consider proposals for Park and Ride emerging from the study.

Office Ireland Celebrates First Anniversary

Office Ireland at Castletroy Park Commercial Campus, Limerick has signed new tenants, Wind Energy Direct. Photo shows Orla Kelly, Office Ireland with Dominic Costello and John Cusack of Wind Energy Direct. - Photo: Kieran Clancy / PicSure

39BL204001.indd 1 09/04/2010 17:48:41

BL | news


In the week when a University spinout company, HKPB Scientific, announces the creation of 200 jobs in Nenagh, it is worth considering how Limerick might benefit from another type of venture – the corporate spinout. Limerick has suffered greatly from the transient nature of for-eign direct investment in that with the de-parture of each large overseas employer a great vacuum was left.

One solution to this which aims to reduce the dependence on single large employ-ers is to encourage large employers to spin out non-core elements of their operations into new firms – corporate spinouts. These spinouts will initially be very dependent on the parent company but, provided the separation process is well planned and provided that particu-lar part of the operation was world-class these spinouts can form the basis of very healthy new companies gradually build-ing their customer base such that they will survive the eventual departure of the original parent company.

Sometimes the gradual demise of a large operation such as that of Digital in Galway can lead to a good cluster of firms com-ing into being but it is difficult, if not im-possible, to do it when there is a sudden pull-out of a big firm, such as Dell. This is because essential to the success of a corporate spinout is the notion that for a time it will have a revenue stream from the parent company.

To understand the nature of a corporate spin-out it is worth looking at a couple of examples.

One type involves a company spinning out an existing line of business into a new ven-ture that is solely focussed on that line of business. In 2001, Kainos, Ireland’s larg-est indigenous IT Consultancy, completed the spin-out of an Electronic Document and Record Management software prod-uct called Meridio. Six years later, Meridio had grown to a significant company and was acquired by Europe’s second largest software company, Autonomy, for $40m. Kainos CEO Brendan Mooney explained “In 2001, Meridio had revenues of about £1m, and represented less than 10% of

our total revenue. It was a great product but we were struggling to give it the re-sources it needed to reach its potential. So we spun it out in 2001, and just six years later its revenue exceeded £10m and it was competing on a global stage”.

Another type of spinout involves taking a product or service which was success-fully developed for a company’s use and, recognising that there are many other organisations with similar requirements, and spinning out a new venture which will offer this product or service on a commer-cial basis back to the original company and others. In 1996 AIB commissioned software to automate its disputed credit card transactions. The team developing the software recognised the wider com-mercial potential for this, agreed a royalty with AIB and went on to sell the software to twelve banks in eight countries before their company, Exceptis, which was sold for $26m in 2000.

To understand why corporate spinouts are generally more successful it is worth contrasting their gestation with that of normal start-up firms or university spinout firms.Despite the generous state aid many major challenges bedevil typical start-ups. Amongst the largest of these is the challenge of devising and developing something that customers will buy from a start-up company – a challenge which is immediately overcome by the corporate spin-out.

University start-ups/spinouts have a fur-ther challenge in that the founders often have little sight of the business problems which their potential products will be in-tended to solve – though they do have the advantage of enormous budgets for back-ground research for such products.

The corporate spinout has solved these major challenges before it is even formed. Crucially, someone is already paying for the product or service and the product or service already exists and is in daily use. This empirical test for viability is vastly more accurate than any market research which the best planned typical start-up might aim to do. Additionally, the

bones of a management team already ex-ist and this team has successfully worked together for a significant period.

The likelihood of success is further aided by the fact that that a potential corporate spinout can operate as a separate P&L within a larger corporate entity for a time before being formally spun out, thus fully testing the viability of the venture before everyone commits to the new corporate structure.

The type of person who would be most suited to initiate a corporate spinout is normally one of the following: • Individu-als, usually at a middle-management level, who have been responsible for the devel-opment of a product or service within a large company. • Principals of companies (mostly software companies) who have successfully completed what was expect-ed to have been a once-off development for a client. However, they now see wider potential for the solution delivered but their companies are not product-oriented, they don’t want them to be. • Principals of companies who can see that a line of business or an inhouse-developed prod-uct or service would be better developed if it were spun out into a new venture.

Anyone who can relate to one of the above scenarios should aim to progress their spin out opportunity. The viability tests are relatively straightforward and can initially be done confidentially before you declare your intentions more widely. It is well worth doing and it sure beats looking for a job after your employer has decided to move on and disband your team.

Limerick: You’re a spin-out

Pearse Coyle, CorporateSpinouts.com

40BL201004.indd 1 09/04/2010 17:49:02

BL | NEWS


A member of the National Asset Manage-ment Agency (NAMA) board will address local SME’s at a business and networking event in Kilmallock on Monday, 19 April next.

Rathkeale native and NAMA member Brian McEnery, who set up the corporate recovery section of Horwarth Bastown Charleton, will be joined by John Ahern of Indaver Ireland at the event, entitled “Your County Your Call - Building Future Business Opportunities in Kilmallock and District”.

The seminar, which is organised by the County Limerick Enterprise Board in as-sociation with Kilmallock Partnership, is

the second in a series of business and networking events being held throughout County Limerick.

The events provide expert advice on is-sues including Starting a Business, Sales and Marketing for Beginners, Taxation for Self-Employed, Developing an Internet Business, Time Management in a Small Business, Credit Control and Financial Management for the Owner Manager.

Commenting on the upcoming event, Lim-erick County Enterprise Board CEO Ned Toomey said: “The event is for anyone interested in starting or growing a busi-ness, particularly in the Kilmallock region. The speakers on the night include Brian

McEnery who will be talking about Nama and business recovery. The second speaker is John Ahern, Managing Direc-tor of Indaver Ireland, who have been very innovative in the waste to energy business market in recent years. He will be speak-ing about future trends in the alternative energy market.”

“Your County Your Call - Building Future Business Opportunities in Kilmallock and District” takes place in The Deebert House Hotel, Kilmallock, from 7.00-9.30pm on Monday April 19th. For further infor-mation contact the Limerick County En-terprise Board on 061-496520 or visit: www.lcoeb.ie.

NAMA Member to Address Limerick Business Event

The National Centre for Taxation Studies (NCTS), based in the Kemmy Business School at the University of Limerick, in partnership with the Revenue Commis-sioners, is set to host the 10th European Conference on eGovernment on June 17th and 18th this year. Ireland is rec-ognised by academics and Governments across Europe as a leader in the area of eGovernment with Revenue’s online ROS system, in particular, receiving a number of awards and accolades in recent years.

eGovernment encompasses more than the use of information and communica-tions technology – it challenges the way in which public sector service providers, citizens, and businesses interact. Trans-formation of service delivery, democratic renewal and citizen participation are all key elements of this rapidly evolving area. Government representatives, academics and policy makers from all five continents will attend the conference. “Attracting such an international conference to Lim-erick is a great achievement for UL and for Revenue” according to Tom Collins, NCTS Director and Conference Co-chair. “We work closely with Revenue in terms of further education and research as we accredit their Diploma courses, and de-liver the B.A. (Hons.) degree in Applied Taxation for Revenue personnel.”

There is a strong taxation theme running

through the conference according to Rev-enue’s Pat Molan, Conference Co-chair. “Ireland has been ranked in 1st place in Europe, according to the World Bank/PWC/IFC report – ‘Paying Taxes 2010’, for the third year running as operating the easiest system by which to pay business taxes. The strength of this conference is that it attracts both academics and prac-titioners. This conference provides an op-portunity to showcase the best examples of innovative eGovernment in practice in Ireland and we have attracted contribu-tions from Government Departments

such as Finance, Revenue, Social and Family Affairs, and Agriculture.”

Keynote addresses at the conference will be delivered by Limerick native, Josephine Feehily, Chairman of the Revenue Commis-sioners and John Morison, Professor of Jurisprudence, Queen’s University, Belfast and an internationally renowned expert in the eGovernment field. Further details and registration: [email protected] http://academic-conferenc-es.org/eceg/eceg2010/eceg10-home.htm

Tineke Leonard, Conference Executive (NCTS, UL); Pat Molan, Principal Officer and Limerick District Manager with the Revenue Commissioners; Professor Donal Dineen, Dean of Kemmy Business School (UL) and Tom Collins, Director of the National Centre for Taxation Studies (NCTS), UL.

Ireland Leading the Way in eGovernment

41BL201004.indd 1 08/04/2010 15:06:53

BL | news


SMA Nutrition is delighted to announce its title sponsorship of Ireland’s Pregnancy & Baby Fair, an event that has received in-vestment from Dragon’s from RTE’s Drag-on’s Den. The pitch in the Den by two girls, Claire Finnan and Jennifer Shaw, amused and impressed the Dragon’s and broke the record for the number of Dragon’s to invest in an idea with Niall O’Farrell, Sean Gallagher, Bobby Kerr and Sarah Newman all taking an interest.

The Dragon’s are delighted that SMA Nu-trition will be sponsoring the Pregnancy & Baby Fair as all four Dragon’s who invested in the fair were fed SMA as babies, as were their own children! Parent, Entrepreneur, Dragon and former SMA baby, Bobby Kerr said, “We are delighted that SMA is sup-porting Ireland’s Pregnancy & Baby Fair as it takes its first steps, in the same way that SMA has supported so many Irish babies over the years! Easy access to useful in-formation is really important to parents in this baby boom nation.”

Following the investment of the entrepre-neurs, SMA Nutrition also received a pitch from the girls and they too were impressed by what they heard. Not only is the show a unique chance for parents to access in-formation, expertise and products in one location, but to support four former SMA babies, Niall O’Farrell, Sean Gallagher, Bobby Kerr and Sarah Newman with their new investment is a wonderful opportunity for SMA.

On the announcement of the sponsorship,

Rachel Bowden, Marketing Manager SMA Nutrition commented, “SMA is a forward thinking brand that endeavours to support new parents in their journey through par-enthood, this sponsorship will allow us to further promote our expert panel who will be present at the event to offer parents advice on everything from child nutrition to behaviour. Our panel of experts, including Sleep Doctor, Marian Murphy and family and child psychotherapist, John Sharry, will be available to provide parents with helpful tips in a friendly and fun atmosphere.”

To find out more information and helpful

tips on parenting, visit: www.smanutrition.ie. For booklets or fact sheets on topical aspects of infant nutrition and parenting issues, call the SMA Careline on 1800 931 832, (Mon – Fri, 8am – 6pm, calls charged at freefone rate). For expectant parents or families, Ireland’s Pregnancy and Baby Fair is the place to be. This event is being held in the RDS, Ballsbridge Dub-lin, 9th & 10th October 2010. For further information about the event please visit www.pregnancyandbabyfair.ie or e-mail [email protected]

Following on the success of our Racing in red day last year for Munster Rugby sup-porters we are doing it all again this year on the same weekend that Munster shall be playing against Northampton Saints in the quarter final of the Heineken Club in Thomond Park. The Munster V Northamp-ton game will kick off on Saturday 10th April, with the Racing taking centre stage on Sunday 11th April. So why not come along to Limerick races wearing your Mun-ster or Northampton Jersey and only pay €5 for admission into the races.

There are two feature races on this the highlight of our Spring Racing, the Grade 2 Hugh McMahon Chase which has provid-ed some excellent close finishes in recent times. Victors of the race have included horses such as Offshore Account a Grade 1 winner at the Punchestown Festival and recently beaten a nose for third at the Chel-tenham Festival in the Grade 3 William Hill Trophy Chase. The Kevin McManus Champion Bumper in 2009 witnessed the Dermot Weld and local jockey Robbie McNamara combination work in excellent unison, when they collected the spoils with

a very fine performance by Universal Truth, the winner of four races from eight starts.

As always Limerick Racecourse caters for everyone not just the racing enthusiast, as we have the facilities to cater for your every need. Children’s entertainment will be provided by our kids club in the Munster suite, thus allowing parents a little time to take in the racing.

Please go to www.limerickraces.ie or con-tact the office on 061320000 for further information.

Racing in Red on April 11th

Dragon’s Den Pregnancy & Baby Fair Girls Get SMA Support

RTE Dragon’s Niall O’Farrell, centre, Sean Gallagher, right, and Bobby Kerr, pictured with bouncing SMA babies, from left, Nora Callaghan, Amber Dunne and Aoibhe Branegan at the announcement of SMA Nutrition’s title spon-sorship of Ireland’s Pregnancy and Baby Fair, an event that received investment from the Dragon’s on Thursday night’s episode of Dragon’s Den. As a brand that endeavours to support new parents in their journey through parenthood, SMA is delighted to be involved in a fair that will provide parents with helpful tips in a friendly and fun atmosphere.

42BL201004.indd 1 12/04/2010 12:47:44

BL | finance


In this article, Paul Nestor summarises the main points in relation to the operation of the Non Principle Private Residence Charge (NPPR) which falls due for payment on 31 March 2010.

The Local Government (Charges) Act 2009 applies a charge to the owners of certain residential property. This payment is due to the lo-cal authority in whose area the property is located. A person who on the “liability date” in 2010 is the owner of residential property shall be liable to pay of sum of €200 to the relevant local authority.

The liability date and payment date for 2009 and 2010 are set out hereunder:

Year Liability Date Due date for payment of Charge

2009 31st July 2009 30th September 2009 2010 31st March 2010 31st May 2010

The liability date for subsequent years will be 31st March. The charge must be paid within three months of the liability date (i.e.30 June for 2010 where charge is due for 2010) in order to avoid late payment charges. The 2010 charge is based on the ownership and status of the property on 31 March 2010.

Residential property means a building situated in the State used, or suitable for use, as a dwelling, including any house, maisonette, flat, apartment or bedsit, but does not include the following residential dwellings: -

• Property of particular heritage value.• A new residential property that forms part of builders stock pro-

vided no income has been derived from that property nor has the property been occupied.

• Property let by certain public authorities.• Property the subject of a shared ownership arrangement with a

housing authority.• Property owned by voluntary housing bodies.• Property the subject of a contractual arrangement with a hous-

ing authority (under the rental accommodation scheme) or the Health Service Executive, or leased to a housing authority.

• Residential property liable for commercial rates.• Where a decree of divorce or a decree of judicial separation

has been granted, a residential property owned by a spouse, but which is occupied as his/her only or main residence by the other spouse is excluded from the charge.

A granny flat or similar dwelling is exempt from the charge if a rela-tive of the owner (or a relative of a spouse or partner of the owner)

lives in it free of rent and if it is located no more than two kilometres from the residence of the owner.

The main types of residential properties liable for the charge are: -1. A private residential property not being a principal private resi-

dence.2. A vacant property except (new but unsold residences). 3. Holiday homes.

Owners of principal private residences are exempt from the charge. Owners who occupy their property as their principal private resi-dence but let rooms within it are also exempt provided that such per-sons qualify for relief under the Rent a Room Scheme in accordance with Section 216A of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997.

How much is the charge?The charge is set at €200 per residence for 2010. The law pro-vides that the Minister for Finance may increase the charge in future years in line with inflation. The charge is payable to LGCSB NPPR on behalf of the City or County Council in which the residential property liable for the charge is located. You can pay the charge electronically at www.nppr.ie.

You must declare your liability for the charge when you are making the €200 payment. This declaration can be made through the web-site or in writing on the approved form.

Late payment fee The Act provides that if a charge is not paid within one month after the last date for payment (i.e. 30 June for 2010) a late payment fee will apply for every month or part of a month that the €200 charge remains unpaid. The late payment fee amounts to €20 per month or part of a month and will continue to accumulate while the charge remains unpaid.

What happens if the charge is not paid?The bill provides that an unpaid charge together with late payment fees will become a charge against the property subject to the charge. The unpaid charge and unpaid fees will remain a charge on the prop-erty for 12 years.

A person who does not pay the charge within the relevant two-month period could be liable to prosecution by the local authority to whom the payment is due.

Deductibility of NPPR charge against RentalRevenue has confirmed that the NPPR charge is not an allowable de-duction in calculating the rental income assessable to income tax.

BDO Simpson Xavier are Ireland’s leading advisers to entrepreneurs and owner managed businesses. Paul Nestor is Partner in the Taxation Department of BDO Simpson Xavier, Limerick. He can be contacted on 061 414455 or [email protected]

BDO Simpson Xavier will not accept any responsibility for loss or damage arising to any person as a result of refraining from acting as a result of the information contained in this article. Professional advice should always be sought before acting upon any matter covered in this article.

Paul Nestor

Non Principle Private Residence Charge

43BL201004.indd 1 08/04/2010 15:30:52

BL | news


Tourism Ireland scored a hat trick when it scooped three awards at the prestigious CIMTIG Awards (Chartered Institute of Marketing Travel Industry Group Awards) in London recently. Tourism Ireland won awards in the following categories:- Best online advertising campaign- Best Radio campaign- Best use of Direct Marketing.

Tourism Ireland was runner-up in the Best Press Campaign category for its Go Where Ireland Takes You brand cam-paign. Tourism Ireland’s global advertis-ing campaign, Go Where Ireland Takes You, will reach up to 200 million consum-ers this year. The innovative campaign centres around engagement, spontaneity and fun and at the same time showcases the huge variety of things to see and do while holidaying on the island of Ireland.

Accepting the award, Vera Stedman, Tourism Ireland’s Head of Marketing in GB, said: “We are delighted that our marketing campaigns have been singled out for this recognition by CIMTIG. To

be short-listed and indeed to win against such tough competition is fantastic and a reflection of the great quality of work produced.”

The CIMTIG awards are awarded annu-ally. They recognise marketing excellence and showcase the most innovative work

in tourism and travel and are judged by a panel of 24 of the ‘leading lights’ in the travel, creative and marketing industries – including John McEwan, Chairman of ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents); Tracey Cheffey, Creative Direc-tor of Yahoo!; and Alex Gisbert, Director of Expedia.

Tourism Ireland Scores A Hat Trick at Travel Marketing Awards

Celebrating their triple win, at the prestigious CIMTIG Awards, is the Tourism Ireland team in London with Min-ister of State John Curran TD.

Limerick Thomond Rotary Club are co-ordinating a campaign to raise funds for Haiti. To date, over 100 ShelterBoxes have been donated by Limerick Thomond Rotary Club and forwarded to Haiti where up to 100 Rotarians are working on the ground. Just some of the items included in the ShelterBox are a 10 persons tent, a children’s pack including drawing books, crayons etc; survival equipment including thermal blankets, insulated ground sheet, mosquito nets, means of water purifica-tion, basic tool kit, a wood burning or mul-ti-fuel stove, etc.

Three enterprising young ladies – Rebec-ca Lloyd/Karen Meagher/Tracey Larkin organised a magnificent fashion show in Killaloe to raise funds to provide more ShelterBoxes to Haiti.

A special Shelterbox account has been opened at the Bank of Ireland, 94 O’Connell Street, Limerick to receive do-

Thomond Rotary Club Aid Haiti

nations from the public in support of this campaign. Payments may be made to ac-

count number 42070429 – sort code 90 43 17.

Pictured presenting a cheque for €8,000 to Limerick Rotary Club Haiti Fund are (L-R) – Tony Brazil, President of Limerick Thomond Rotary Club; Tracey Larkin, Killaloe; Rebecca Lloyd, Killaloe; Brian McCarthy (Killaloe) and Limerick Thomond Rotary Club; Karen Meagher, Killaloe; Edel Cassidy, Incoming President of Limerick Thomond Rotary Club.

44BL201004.indd 1 01/04/2010 15:53:25

BL | news


The Irish Restaurant Awards for 2010 took place in the Clarion Hotel, Cork recently. The Limerick winners included the Mustard Seed winning three awards, and AuBars , the River Bistro, and La Cucina getting the gong in their categories.

Nominations were sent by readers of the Sunday Independent Life Maga-zine, members of the Restaurants Association of Ireland and by regional judging panels. All County winners will go forward for the Regional and All Ire-land Title to be announced at the Irish Restaurant Awards in the Burlington Hotel Dublin on Wednesday June 9 2010.

Dan Mullane’s Mustard Seed won ‘the best hotel restaurant’, ‘best customer service’ and ‘the best chef’ catego-ries.

Diarmuid & Carmel O’Callaghan of The River Bistro took the title for the ‘best restaurant in Limerick’, no mean achievement considering the relative short space of time since they opened their doors in Georges Quay.

Padraig Frawley’s Aubars are the ‘best gastro pub’ in Limerick, while Matt the Trasher’s in Birdhill took this award for Tipperary.

Castletroy based La Cucina, took the title in the best casual dining catego-ry.

Other nearby restaurants to shine were Dromoland Castle winner of ‘best chef’ in Clare category and Galaghers in Bunratty took the ‘best service’ award.

Wishing all these restaurants every success as they now go forward to the national judging process in June.

The Irish Restaurant Awards 2010

Kieran Mac Sweeney, Consulting Partner of the Discovery Partnership and former MD and Senior Vice President of Avocent International, has been elected the new President of Limerick Chamber. Limer-ickman Kieran, formally took over the reins from outgoing President Harry Feh-ily in March.

Speaking about his priorities for his year ahead, the new President said “These are certainly very worrying times for anyone in business and the focus must now be on finding the solutions not on the problems. The priorities and strategic direction of the Chamber will represent what is in the best interests for the business commu-nity, our members and the economic well being of our region.”

“There is a clear need for better govern-ment focus on supporting SME’s. Grow-ing small companies will be essential to generating wealth and jobs in this country in the next few years and the Chamber intends to drive and support initiatives aimed at that sector including increased funding from our banks. Government policy must at all costs support the pro-ductive, tax generating sectors of this economy as they seek to cut costs, sus-tain employment, survive and position themselves for the upturn when it eventu-ally comes.” Mr. Mac Sweeney said.

“The establishment in February of the Limerick Local Government Committee chaired by Denis Brosnan is a very signifi-cant development for the region and the Chamber will be making a strong submis-sion to this group on behalf of our mem-bers. We are a City and County Chamber with a catchment area and membership that covers the entire Mid-West so our focus will be on what structure will best serve our City, County and our Region.”

“One of the biggest issues facing the Re-gion is the competitiveness of our City Centre. Vibrant and attractive cities act as drivers for investment and are cata-lysts for economic growth throughout the region. We have been busy engag-ing with city traders, the Council and key stakeholders in the city to come up with short and medium term measures that focus specifically on reviving the City Cen-

New Chamber President

tre.” Mr. Mac Sweeney continued.

“Shannon Airport, as a key driver of invest-ment to the Region will always be high on our list and while Customs Pre-Clearance has opened up some very significant op-portunities and advantages we are very concerned about the reduction in servic-es and passenger numbers at the airport. If we are to attract investment into the region and retain existing jobs we must have an international airport with strong transatlantic and European connections. Other issues such as job creation, train-ing and upskilling our people, helping to develop strategic partnerships for our city and region, improving our infrastruc-ture and developing the full potential of deep sea facilities in the Shannon Estuary will always be on the Chamber agenda.”

“Finally, the Office of President of the Chamber will issue a weekly Blog outlining and updating progress on the various initi-atives that I have outlined. We encourage people to log on to www.limerickchamber.ie and click on President’s Blog to track our progress.” Mr. Mac Sweeney con-cluded.

Kieran Mac Sweeney

45BL201004.indd 1 01/04/2010 16:03:50

BL | Festivities & CeLeBrations


Limerick’s Band Parade 2010

46BL201004.indd 1 08/04/2010 11:45:48


BL|Festivities&CeLeBrations

Limerick’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2010

47BL204001.indd 1 05/04/2010 10:20:33

New Concept in Dining in the Salt House

BL | restaurant of the month


Masterchefs Hospitality Munster, contracted to run the food operation in Bunratty Castle banquets, Knappogue Castle, Mac’s Bar, and now Thomond Park, introduced Moll Darby’s restaurant on George’s Quay as a flagship to showcase their culinary expertise, back in 2003. In November 2009, Moll Darby’s after extensive renovation was transformed into the Salt House and to date, the ‘word on the street’ is very favourable as a quality, dining landmark.

An invitation from Pat O’Sullivan, the man at the helm of this much talked about venue, was welcomed by the Business Limerick Magazine foodie team.

The Salt House is ideally located on the banks of the Abbey River as it meets the Shannon. We visited the restaurant on a Thursday evening and it was buzzing with the hum of jovial conversation. The lay-out of the restaurant has been completely transformed since my last visit as Moll Darby’s, and is somehow a lot more spacious and the décor a lot brighter and more welcoming. The table arrangements are generous with soft discreet lighting, beamed ceilings, stone flooring and nautical decorations all generating to its unique ambience.

Our most efficient and friendly hosts for the evening were Monica Oliveira and Leah Hyland.

To start, Boston Clam Chowder, clams and fish with a sweet chilli butter; Salt House Caesar Salad; Mussels Papillote with coconut juice and lemon balm; and Tomato Basil soup topped with goats cheese, guacamole and crusty bread.

On to the main event, Sirloin Steak, 10oz served with peppercorn sauce or garlic butter; Cod with smoked chilli butter served with spinach; pan fried Supreme of Chicken served on a bed of chived whipped potatoes, roast pepper chutney and wine jus; and Irish Rib-eye Steak with choice of sauce. Our fabulous selection of side-orders included sautéed onions & mushrooms, onion rings, gratin potatoes, garden vegetables and tossed salad.

To finish, Warm Apple & Cinnamon Crumble served with cardamom anglaise; Brown Bread & Bailey’s Cheesecake served with caramel sauce; and a selection of home made ice creams served with mint chocolate sauce. Freshly brewed coffee and superbly presented Irish coffee completed this special dining experience.

This was a fabulous meal and a delightful treat. The service is excellent and the food presentation is most creative, compliments to the chef, award winning Denis Cregan.

Well done to Pat O’Sullivan on his new innovative concept of the Salt House which is

a welcome addition to Limerick’s dining social scene.

Business Limerick recommends that our readers visit and experience the culinary delights at the Salt House for themselves, in their new and most intimate of surroundings. Telephone 061 411511 to book your table in the Salt House, open 7 days 5pm-12am on George’s Quay, Limerick.

The Wines…A wonderful Pinotage, Graham Beck 2007 with rich full bodied flavour and a refreshing Chardonnay, Morande Pionero were our choices from their attractive wine-list.

Pat O’Sullivan, Masterchefs Hospitality Munster

48BL201004.indd 1 08/04/2010 16:29:19

BL | NEWS


In conjunction with the BDO Get BACk Challenge, students of the UL MSc Marketing Consumption & Society are pleased to launch ‘Playdate’, an evening of retro fun and games to raise vital funds for Milford Care Centre.

The BDO Get BACk Challenge was initially developed to bring businesses together to raise funds in tackling cancer. The idea is that encouraging activity among kids and a healthy lifestyle will reduce their risk of contracting life threatening illnesses later in life and that they will carry through a health focus with them in life. While the acronym (Get BACk) represents a unify-ing theme of Business Against Cancer it also embraces the key message of get-ting back to exercise, looking at diet and well being, back to basics!

Playdate, which takes place on April 9th in Trinity Rooms is a culmination of fundrais-ing and awareness initiatives being held in the weeks leading up to event. On the night there will be tunes from your child-hood, life size games including Jenga and Twister, goodie bags and special edition

t-shirts up for grabs designed by Bono.

“We are hoping to make this a night where people can let their hair down and remember the fun and games of their childhood, while at the same time bearing in mind the fantastic cause that we are fundraising for “, states Miriam O’Brien from the MSc in UL , one of the chief or-

ganiser’s of Playdate.

Playdate kicks off at 9pm, with tickets available on the door for €10. There is 50% discount on entrance fee until 10pm and all tickets include free admission to the Trinity Rooms night club. So come on, get back your childhood; get back the good times...come on a playdate!

Fancy a playdate?

Ray Foley, Clare FM with one of the special edition t-shirts up for grabs designed by Bono.

According to the latest Property Barome-ter issued by leading Irish property website, MyHome.ie, asking prices for properties across the country have continued to fall. However, the rate of decrease in asking prices has eased for the second succes-sive quarter. The most notable exception being Dublin City South where the average asking price rose by 1.1%

In County Limerick the price of a 3 bed semi fell by 1.88% to €208,740 down over 20% from peak prices.

Asking prices nationally fell by 3.3% in the first quarter of 2010, compared to a fall of 3.5% in the last quarter of ‘09. The average asking price for a home is now €301,449 compared to €342,666 twelve months ago and overall asking prices nationally have fallen 27.3% from their peak.

In Dublin asking prices fell by 3.9% bring-ing the total fall over the last 12 months to 15.2%. Prices in the capital have now

fallen by 33.4% since their peak in 2006. The average asking price for a house in Dublin now stands at €355,657.

New homes recorded the largest drop in asking prices in quarter one, declining by 4.4% during Q1, This was the largest de-crease on any of the MyHome.ie property barometer indices and means the aver-age price of a new home now stands at €271,437. The asking prices for second hand homes fell by 3.2%, the smallest amount of any sector covered. The aver-age asking price for a second hand home is now €305,767 down from €422,990 or 27.7% since the peak of the market.

Asking prices in Limerick city remain the lowest of any urban area with the median price of a house in the city now standing at €240,000. In Cork the corresponding price is €289,500 while in Galway it is €275,000. In the 3 bed semi market, the biggest falls were in Wexford and West-meath, which both recorded falls of over

6% in Q1.

Commenting on the results, independent economist Paul Murgatroyd said the 3.3% the rate of decrease in Q1 was significant-ly lower than the 6.13% recorded over the same period in 2009. ‘Asking prices have continued to fall as do actual sales with plentiful anecdotal evidence showing peak to trough declines in sales prices in the or-der of 40 to 50% depending on property type and location.’

Angela Keegan, Managing Director of MyHome.ie said the three fold increase in sale agreed properties in Dublin com-pared to the same period last year was encouraging. ‘It is also interesting to note that three quarters of first time buyers are looking to purchase a second hand prop-erty while one in five is seeking a newly built home. Nearly half of first time buyers have a preference for a semi-detached home while a further 10% prefer an apartment’ she said.

Price of a 3 bed semi in Limerick drops by 1.88%

49BL201004.indd 1 08/04/2010 16:48:35

BL | rugBy


Ireland Left a Triple Crown Behind Them

By Mick galwey

We never see Scotland coming, do we? There we were, having done the hard work to win another Triple Crown by beat-ing England in Twickenham; just to be bushwhacked by the Scots again.

It was a sickener really. If ever Ireland left a Triple Crown behind them then this was the one. You’d have to say that the tactics on the day were wrong and the attitude going out on the field also appeared to be off the mark. I might be wrong on this but I reckon Ireland approached the Scot-tish tie in a similar manner to the game in Rome two years ago when they hand-ed out a real hiding to Italy and almost robbed France of the championship.

This time around, however, the wheels came off the wagon when the Scots re-fused to roll over. When the lads lost their way in the lineout, we were always going to struggle to beat a limited but commit-ted and canny Scots outfit.

That being said, beating Ireland in Croke Park to take joint second-last in the cham-pionship does not really entitle a team to a lap of honour. That was a bit over the top in my book.

But maybe that’s just sour grapes on my part. I really would have loved to see the lads finish up in Croker with a win.

Unfortunately, we’re unlikely to see an Irish side play there again for a while. Avi-va didn’t put all that loot into Lansdowne Road for internationals to be played in Jones’s Road.

On a positive note, I felt Keith Earls had a cracking tournament and was probably Ireland’s man of the Six Nations. Brian O’Driscoll and Tommy Bowe were also in the shake-up, obviously, but I thought Keith was simply outstanding.

The Under-20s also gave the Irish game a real lift when they took the championship on points difference over France. Hope-fully, they’ll keep their heads (and their clothes on) and we’ll see a few of them progress to the senior ranks.

The focus for Ireland now shifts to the summer tour to New Zealand and Aus-tralia. Declan Kidney has to make a big call on the squad make-up for this trip. There is an argument for taking the strongest side possible down under, but given that the All Blacks are here in November, I think the likes of Paul O’Connell, John Hay-es and Brian O’Driscoll should be rested. They’ve a lot of mileage under the belt and they need and deserve a break this sum-

mer. Next season is a hectic one and will run right into the World Cup.

Leaving the lads at home would also give the Irish management the opportunity to try out some of the fringe players against the Kiwis, Maoris and Wallabies. Players such as Tony Buckley need to be given an opportunity to prove themselves at the top level through 80 minutes, rath-er than making cameo appearances for the last 15 minutes of test matches.

Denis Hurley , Munster Rugby scores the opening try against the Glasgow Warriors during their Magners League match in Thomond Park last Friday.

Jean de Villiers, Munster Rugby crashes through the Glasgow Warriors defence during their Magners League match in Thomond Park last Friday.

50BL201004.indd 1 02/04/2010 11:22:42

BL | Sport


The provincial game now takes centre stage for the remainder of the season and Munster remains in the reckoning for both the Magners League and Heineken Cup.

The return of Northampton for the quar-ter final of Europe’s premier tournament brings top class club rugby back to Limer-ick for another weekend. These occasions are certainly special ones but I hope that those fortunate enough to have landed a ticket for the game will play their part and get behind the Munster team.

This will not be an easy assignment for Munster. Northampton showed just how good a team they were on their last visit to Thomond Park. Had the English side shown a little more belief and had they converted their penalty chances, then it could have been a very different story that night.

The Saints are playing winning rugby at present and will come to Limerick with confidence. They are sitting pretty at the top of the English Premiership at the mo-ment and are still in the play-off stages of the main cup competitions.However, this is cup rugby now, it’s win-ner takes all stuff and that’s grist to the mill for Munster. The lads will know that, apart from Ronan O’Gara, they didn’t per-form the last day and they’ll be keen to set the record straight. Staying with the European Cup, it’s mag-nificent to see that the ERC have decided to mark the 15th year of the competi-tion.

They are to make awards in four catego-ries: the top 15 players from those years; the best overall players; the best coach; and a fair play award.

Given Munster’s success in the competi-tion you’d hope that players such as John Hayes, Ronan O’Gara, Anthony Foley, Paul O’Connell and David Wallace will be in the frame for honours. Similarly, Declan Kid-ney should have a ding off the award for top coach.

Looking back, it’s amazing how Munster rugby has developed since the province played its first game in the Europe; that was against Swansea on a Wednesday afternoon back in November, 1995.

On a more immediate and local front, the club scene is hitting into the business end of the season and Limerick’s clubs could well land some silverware. Shannon and Garryowen are not out of the hunt for a top-four place in Division 1A of the AIL. Which of the two goes through could very well be decided when they meet in Coonagh in the last league game of the campaign. Unfortunately, UL/Bohemians are at the bottom of the table and will need bonus-point wins in their last games to get them out of relegation trouble.Young Munster are still in with a chance of winning Division 1B and making the play-offs. However, they are guaranteed promotion.

In Division 2, Bruff are lying second, while Thomond are in mind-table. Old Crescent have a battle on their hands to stay up

and will need results to go their way in the final games of the season.

Alan Quinlan, Munster Rugby wins the line out against the Glasgow Warriors during their Magners League match in Thomond Park last Friday.

Paul Warwick, Munster Rugby running through the Glasgow Warriors defence during their Magners League match in Thomond Park last Friday.

51BL201004.indd 1 02/04/2010 11:23:52


FP:NEW 28/05/09 23/03/2010 15:19 Page 1

A Appeal forNew Members

Limerick Civic Trust is inviting you to help us in our mission to undertake an ongoing programme of project work for the better of Limerick.

Membership of Limerick Civic Trust is welcomed from all sections of our community. We have a range of membership categories to accommodate all interested parties. i.e. voluntary and civic organisations, industry, businesses and commercial enterprises semi-state. Professional and private individuals.

Corporate1,500 or more per annum. Corporate donations are allow-

able for taxation purposes

GeneralAll interested parties/individuals can become full membershipfor 275 or more.

AssociateAnybody wishing to be associated with Limerick Civic Trust can do with a contribution of any amount. The suggested associate subscription is 20, more or less.

TaxationLimerick Civic Trust is a Registered Charity CHY 6717with Revenue Commissioners. The Trust has been approved as an eligible charity for the purposes of Section 45 of the Finance Act 2001 DONATIONS IN EXCESS OF 250 WILL QUALIFY FOR THE TAX RELIEF PAYE earners can complete a CHY2 certificate which will enable Limerick Civic Trust to claim a tax relief refund from the Revenue Commissioners. Certificate forms are available on request.

MEMBERSHIP / DONATIONS

MEMBERSHIP / DONATIONS

I/We wish to support the work of Limerick Civic Trustand agree to become a Member/Donor

Name:.....................................................................................................................

Address:................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................................

Contact Person................................................................................................

Phone:....................................................................................................................

Email:.....................................................................................................................

Donation enclosed ....................................................................................

Limerick Civic TrustBishops’ PalaceKing’s IslandLimerick

Simply fill in this form & return it with your donation to the address below

✂

52BL201004.indd 1 02/04/2010 13:54:09

protect our environment

53BL201004.indd 1 02/04/2010 13:56:02

On this website you can find out more about an exciting and innovative waste prevention programme that has been running in the Limerick Clare Kerry Re-gion. This New Integrated Prevention Pro-gramme (NIPP) which commenced in July 2006 was granted 75% funding from the Environmental Protection Agency (NIPP)These were the initiatives we undertook:

Academia & the public sector: reducing paper consumption.

C&D waste reuse and reduction in a city centre mixed use development.

Household waste reduction for resi-dents of urban apartments.

Waste arisings from retailers in a man-aged shopping centre.

Better management of waste, energy & water at a Regional Airport.

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BL | FEATURE


New Food Waste Regulations

Limerick•Clare•Kerry

M A N A G I N G

W A S T E

B E T T E R

Launch of eGuide on Waste Managementwww.managewaste.ie/e_guides/

The Regional Waste Management Office Promotes Waste Minimisation in Limerick, Clare and Kerry

In December 2009, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Govern-ment signed these new Food Waste Reg-ulations. The Regulations came into force on 1 January 2010. The Regulations will in particular facilitate the achievement of targets set out in the Landfill Directive 99/31/EC for the diversion of biode-gradable waste from landfill.

The regulations place an obligation on specified producers of food waste to seg-regated food waste at source and provide it segregated for collection so that the waste can be taken to an authorized facil-ity for recovery. The food waste may also be treated on the premises under speci-fied conditions.

From 1 January 2010, producers must avail of source segregated food waste collection where it is available to them. The requirements will apply in general from 1st July 2010.

Producers are not permitted to put food

waste in the residual bin or use sink mac-erators – the latter unless in accordance with conditions of a discharge licence.

Producers producing less than 50kg waste per week are exempt until 1 July 2011 but must seek this exemption from their local authority prior to July 2010. In any event, they must comply from 1 Janu-ary 2010 if a segregated food waste col-lection service is available.

Producers / Premises covered by the regulations include:

Class 1: Premises used for the supply of hot food for consumption both on and off the premises, including premises where the supply of such food is subsidiary to any commercial or retail activity.

Class 3: Premises where food is supplied to employees or prepared on the premis-es for the purposes of supply to employ-ees, including premises which are used for carrying on any industrial, commercial

or trade activities as well as office build-ings and mixed-use premises.

In addition to these Food Waste Regula-tions, local authorities can exert more onerous conditions in accordance with their Waste Management Plans and con-ditions under Waste Collection Permits.

An Authorised Treatment Process means processing, transformation or use as a raw material in an authorized facility, other than incineration. The authorized facility must have planning permission or an exemption from planning. The uses of food waste as a raw material for pet food production, or as a replacement fuel are acceptable.

A producer who fails to comply with the relevant provisions of the Regulations shall be guilty of an offence.

Note: The above summary is a limited and not defini-tive guide on the relevant legislation. Please consult the regulations for a full and legal interpretation of requirements.

At the launch of the Limerick, Clare and Kerry Region’s eGuide to waste prevention at The Hunt Museum ( www.managewaste.ie/e_guides/ )

BL | FEATURE


Green Hospitality Award celebrate Suc-cesses from 2009 as 10 businesses in Clare and Limerick pick up Green Hospi-tality Awards.

Hospitality businesses in Limerick and Clare picked up awards for excellence in Environmental Management from the Green Hospitality Awards programme, The presentations took place in Dro-moland Castle on Tuesday 23rd Febru-ary 2010. Four Hotels in Clare: Hotel

Doolin, Armada Hotel Spanish Point, Oak Wood Arms Hotel and Dromoland Cas-tle received awards, and three Hotels in Limerick: Radisson BLU Hotel, Carlton Castletroy Park and Fitzgeralds Wood-lands House Hotel received awards. Contract caterers; Sodexo based at Dell Limerick, Corporate Catering based at Vistakon, Limerick and a Department of Justice Accommodation Centre based at Knockalisheen also received awards on the night .

Knockalisheen Accommodation Centre Clare Bronze

Hotel Doolin Clare Silver

Armada Hotel Spanish Point Clare Bronze

Oak Wood Arms Hotel Clare Bronze

Dromoland Castle Clare Gold

Radisson BLU Hotel Limerick Limerick Silver

Carlton Castletroy Park Hotel Limerick Silver

Fitzgeralds Woodlands House Hotel Limerick Silver

Corporate Catering Vistakon Limerick GH Award

Sodexo Limerick Limerick GH Award

The 3rd Annual Report on the Limerick /Clare / Kerry Regional Waste Manage-ment Plan 2006-2011, shows positive trends in many aspects. Key performance indicators for commercial waste genera-tion demonstrate that, quite apart from the economic downturn, there are signs of improved waste reduction at source. Some of the region’s achievements are listed as follows:

Decrease in waste generation per em-ployee in the region going from 1165 kg per employee in 2007 to the 2008 figure of 1010 kg per employee.

Commercial segregated organic / food waste collections commenced in January 2009

Domestic segregated organic/food waste collections commenced roll-out in autumn of 2009.

Household recycling has once again risen in the region and now stands at 30% for 2008 – an increase on our 2007 figure of 28%. This is above the EPA national indicator of 26% for 2007.

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equip-ment (WEEE) collected for recovery is 9.6kg per head of population - higher than the national average of 9kg per head

There are now 21 Facilities processing End of Life Vehicles (ELVs) in the region

Battery Collections have commenced under Waste Management (Batteries) Regulations.

Implementation of Local Authority Preven-tion Demonstration Programme (LAPD)

Significant Education and Awareness Pro-gramme

Continuing Enforcement Action Programme

You can read the full report on the re-gional website www.managewaste.ie.

Regional Waste Management OfficeLissanalta HouseDooradoyle RoadLimerick Tel 061 496596 – Fax 061 583955Web www.managewaste.ie

Green Hospitality Award celebrate successes from 2009 as 10 businesses in Clare and Limerick pick up Green Hospitality Awards

List of Winners and Categories

Limerick / Clare / Kerry Region – The latest waste management statistics

Debbie Hannon, Paul Dyar and Blan Sexton of Dromoland Castle with the Gold Award pictured with James Hogan-Director Green Hospitality Award and Philippa King-Regional Waste Management Office at the Green Hospitality Awards in Dromoland Castle on Tuesday 23rd February.

BL | feature


Protecting our environment and effective-ly dealing with waste remains one of the world’s major challenges, for business as well as in the home. Our feature opens a window upon the companies in the Mid-West that specialize in helping this region to play its part in the world-wide effort to conserve our environment for future gen-erations.

At a business level, protecting the en-vironment requires a commitment to management planning, staff training and environmental awareness if it is to be suc-cessful.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are the key-words in planning the best strategy for our waste management policies. The com-bined aim is to minimize the current and potential adverse environmental impacts by investing in managing waste more ef-ficiently, for the greater good of all.

Taking action on waste is essential and urgent, since we are consuming natural resources at an unsustainable rate and contributing unnecessarily to climate change.

Each year we generate around 100m tonnes of waste from households, com-mercial and industry combined.

A huge chuck of this waste currently ends up in landfill, where biodegradable waste generates methane, a powerful green-house gas.

Much valuable energy is used in making new products which are later disposed of, so also contributing to climate change.

Investment in our environment requires a commitment from us all on this planet. But it can be achieved through increased recycling of resources and recovery of en-ergy from residual waste using a mix of technologies.

There is some debate over the economic efficiency of recycling. Some authorities have pinpointed fiscal benefits from the implementation of recycling programs, largely due to reduction in landfill costs.

For instance in Denmark, it was found

Think ‘green’: think waste-management

that in 83pc of cases, recycling was the most efficient method of disposing house-hold waste.

But a separate Danish study also con-cluded that incineration was the most effective method of disposal for drink con-tainers, even aluminium cans.

Much of the fiscal efficiency attached to a recycling program derives from unpriced costs and benefits—externalities—includ-ing decreased air pollution and green-house gases from incineration, reduced hazardous waste leaching from landfills, reduced energy consumption, and re-duced waste and resource consumption, which leads to a reduction in environmen-tally damaging mining and timber activity.

To make such non-fiscal benefits econom-ically relevant, advocates have pushed for legislative action to increase demand for recycled materials. The United States En-vironmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in

favour of recycling, saying that it reduced the country’s carbon emissions by a net 49m tonnes in 2005.

In the United Kingdom, the Waste and Resources Action Programme stated that Great Britain’s recycling efforts re-duced CO2 emissions by 10-15 million tonnes a year.

Certain requirements must be met for re-cycling to be economically feasible and en-vironmentally effective. These include an adequate source of recyclables, a system to extract them from the waste stream, facilities capable of reprocessing the re-cyclables, and a potential demand for the recycled products.

These last two requirements are often overlooked—without an industrial market for production using the collected materi-als and, a consumer market for the man-ufactured goods, recycling is incomplete and, in fact, collection-only.

56BL201004.indd 1 02/04/2010 16:37:58

BL | feature


There is even a school of thought which contends that the industrial realities of a recycling programme economically and environmentally negates the effort of re-directing the products from landfill. But getting into the nitty-gritty of the economic realities of recycling would require many pages of debate, and has fuelled countless pages and blogs on the world-wide web.

At a micro level, the three Rs—Reduce, Re-use, Recycle—have much to recommend them. The pros of recycling are numer-ous.

What it boils down to is the instilling in younger generations of the notion that everything has a value and a cost. Diverting material from needlessly taking up space in a landfill dump is hardly something that can be criticised. It will teach our own chil-dren the idea that personal actions can have an impact, for the good, on the wider community.

Due alone to the environmental benefits—decreased air pollution and greenhouse gases—recycling cannot be ignored.

It has already become second nature for


• Security Shredding of Confidential Waste.• I.T. Disposal & Destruction of internal components (i.e. Hard Drives, CD’s, etc…)

• Total Waste Management & Recycling Solutions.

“We make it our Business to make sure no-one knows yours”

Bay M1, Raheen Business Park, Limerick.Tel: 061 491333

E-Mail: [email protected]

many people, and as the mainstream pro-file of the ‘Green’ movement continues to gather momentum, Recycling will continue to be a major priority for municipal and State policy.

Rachael Carson is the American marine biologist and nature writer whose writings are credited with advancing the global en-vironmental movement.

In the middle of the last century, Ms Car-son wrote: “The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”

Four to five decades on, Rachel Carson’s writings still reverberate with the ring of truth.

57BL201004.indd 1 02/04/2010 16:37:25

BL | news


Dell’s Limerick Women’s Network SeminarDell Ireland recently hosted a breakfast seminar at its Limerick campus to focus on the important role that networking can play in helping people to be successful in their careers. The event, organised by Dell’s Limerick Women’s Network, concentrated primarily on how women can use networking to help them to achieve their career and business objectives. Attendees, mainly

women in management positions from Dell and from compa-nies across a diverse range of industries in the mid west region, were provided with tips, guidance and information on how net-working can help to support an individual’s career objectives.The role networking can play in both private and non-profit organisa-tions were also highlighted.

Tommy Geary, Director, Business Operation, Dell; Judith Browne, Dell Ireland Senior Manager Global Product Configuration; Lucy Fallon-Byrne, Director, National Centre for Partnership & Performance; Fergus Finlay, CEO Barnardos; Mary Davis, MD of Special Olympics Europe/Eurasia; and Ingrid Devin, Dell EMEA Diversity Manager.

Moveen Cantillon, Outsource ; Sussan Fitzpatrick, Flextronics and Finola Fox, Dell Perot.

Mairead Holland, Analog; Helen Downes, Shannon Chamber and Carolyn O’Callaghan, Analog

Irene Hamilton, M.D. Limerick Leader; Ingrid Devin, Dell EMEA Diversity Manager; and Dorothy Quinn, DMG Group (and Network Limerick)

Teresa Bulfin, HSE; Kate Sheahan, St. Gabriel’s School & Centre; Maire O’Leary, St. Gabriel’s School & Centre; and Valerie Dolan, (Dolan’s Warehouse) and President Network Limerick Maeve Duff, AIB Limerick; Niamh Creue, Dell and Berna Scanlan, AIB.

58BL201004.indd 1 08/04/2010 16:51:25

BL | NEWS


Ger Fahy, Deputy Mayor of Limerick, for-mally launched the new website on behalf of all campus organisations. Achieving this mile-stone has come at a significant stage in development of the campus which has been evolving over the past couple of decades.

The campus is home to: Southill Commu-nity Services Board Ltd. overall campus manager, Southill Development Co-op-erative Society Ltd (SDC) and its enter-prises, South Hill Credit Union Ltd, Gael Scoil Seoirse Clancy and Naoinra, Inte-grated Development Southill Ltd (Jobs Club based at LEDP) Southill & District Housing Association Ltd. and the South-ill House office of the Local Employment Service.

Launching Southill House Campus website recently, is an important means of com-municating existing and future planned developments to residents of all ages in Southill, nationally and internationally. The website along with a quarterly newsletter will ensure that people are aware of and can make their views known about facili-ties and services on the campus. This is a significant new development by campus organisations one that can attract social-ly directed investment that will enable the campus group to respond positively, to needs and opportunities as they become known.

Southill Community Services Board on be-half of the campus organisations wish to express appreciation and thanks to: Tim Madden of Sales Aid, Alex O’Connor web-

site developer, Sandra Tyrell Butler and Aishling Mulhall for their dedication in de-veloping Southill House Campus website, involving many changes and meetings to achieve the launch of the site.

Southill House Campus Website Launch

Left to right: Deputy Mayor of Limerick Cllr. Ger Fahy, Sandra Tyrrell Butler (Southill House I.T.), Alex O’ Con-nor (DigiAct), Tim Madden (Sales Aid.ie)

After a long cold winter, it is encouraging to note the announcement of a Spring Shopping Festival on Roches Street which should raise a few spirits in tune with the warmer days and long evenings ahead . Spring has truly arrived! The daffodils are in full bloom and the traders on Roches Street are in generous mood to encour-age shoppers into the city centre with lots of attractive offers and surprises in store.

What better way to start the festival than to avail the many free Park Magic starter packs on offer from each trader which in effect offers €5 worth of free parking credit - city wide for anyone who signs up to receive a council approved disc for their car .

Known for their fundraising efforts and initiatives (which includes the annual art festival each September,) Roches Street traders have donated almost €100,000 to locally based charities over the last 8 years, and have decided to dedicate this festival in aid of the Spina Bifida & Hydro-cephalus Association. A street collection has been earmarked for Fri 16th April.

Apart from the huge variety of goods and services supplied by the 50 or so traders on the street – mostly small family owned businesses offering a very personal and

Roches Street Spring Shopping Festival 15th–17th April ‘10

friendly service - there will be an oppor-tunity for all shoppers who spend a mini-mum of €5 at any outlet during the festi-val to receive an entry into a draw for two tickets to Toronto from Shannon plus a day trip to Niagra Falls , as well as many other valuable prizes.

A variety of promotions and activities will appear on the Limerick Co-Ordination website prior to the 15th April. Limer-ick’s Live 95FM will broadcast live from the street on Fri 16th April and will an-

nounce a ‘caller of the day ‘winner on each of the weekday shows (Mon – Fri) for a variety of prizes donated by various traders . Be sure to tune into Live 95FM as always for your instructions on how to be in with a chance of winning a free giveaway. It all adds up to a bit of fun and great value in Limerick for the three days of the festival. So be sure to browse through the shops on Roches Street, spend a few euro between 15th & 17th April and get ready to avail of the prizes and deals on offer during the festival.

At the launch of the Roches Street Traders Spring Shopping Festival with Limerick's ParkMagic, taking place from April 15-17, in aid of the Spina Bifida & Hydrocephalus Association, were, from left: Virgina Daugirdaide, Virgina's Bridal; Lynn Buffington, Spina Bifida; Maura McMahon, Limerick Chamber of Commerce; Paul Fitzgerald, Limerick ParkMagic; Laura Ryan, Limerick Coordination Office; and Michael Murphy, Eve's and President of the Roches Street Traders Association with Steven Casey, Limerick Spina Bifida. Picture: Keith Wiseman

59BL201004.indd 1 02/04/2010 15:50:44

BL | news


Aine Murphy of Encore Business Services recently delivered a seminar on ‘Using Ebay in Your Business’ targeting Small Businesses in Limerick. Limerick City Enterprise Board(LCEB) are well into their Spring programme and finding a greater demand than ever from small businesses for programmes to assist and support their chang-ing needs. Bernie Moloney from LCEB is finding that the issues local businesses are dealing with are very different now to those 12 months ago.

“People are finding they need to manage their business and view the marketplace in a different way. They are seeking innovative ways to do this and to build their businesses again to be more competitive & to reach a broader market,” said Bernie.

The LCEB Spring training programme is reflecting this require-ment & in particular the Ebay workshops, one of which is com-pleted and the second one to be held on April 27th. Aine Murphy from Encore Business Services & formally Head of Education in EBAY Ireland conducted the first workshop with great success in mid March. Attending the event was Ben Jordan of Jordan

Embroidery Services, who supply workwear, corporate wear, promotional wear, schoolwear and sportswear embroidered with clients company logos. “The Ebay seminar was good and showed me exactly what Ebay is all about and how it works. It guided me in the right direction. I highly recommend this course to anyone,” stated Ben.

Also attending was Con O Callaghan of Abington Garage Doors, and he found the Workshop to be the most interesting and en-lightening. The seminar highlighted the necessity for a change of emphasis in his business and a way to increase trade dramati-cally at very little cost. “It has opened my eyes as to the huge po-tential that exists at the touch of a button, provided one follows the guidelines so clearly and carefully given by Aine,” he stated.

someone with a basic working knowledge of Ebay and interested in learning more on conducting their business differently, should log on to www.limceb.ie for more details on the ‘advanced’ work-shop. LCEB will be running other workshops in April in problem solving, project management, effective sales techniques & mar-keting on the Internet.

Innovative Training for Small Businesses

Letter to the Editor:Government Ignores Plight of SME’sThe Irish Small & Medium Enterprises As-sociation has excoriated the Government for its total abdication of responsibility for commercial payments for small & medium businesses. The 2002 legislation is aiding accountancy led big business and govern-ment agencies to delay payments to cash strapped small firms and, despite continu-ous warnings and corroborating statistics, the outgoing Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment refused to do anything to remedy the situation.

The Prompt Payments legislation must be amended to take account of the abuse of a dominant position by big business and state agencies. The law, in this case, does the exact opposite to what was intended in, allowing powerful customers to dictate unreasonable terms to their smaller sup-pliers.

The main findings are:• Actual average payment period in Ire-

land for SMEs is 76 days.• Only 17% of firms being paid within 30

days.• 48% are experiencing delays of 3

months or more. • 17% waiting over 120 days, the highest

on record.• Leinster counties are the slowest at

79 days, while Connaught is best at 62 days.

• Construction firms are waiting a mas-sive 90 days, an increase from 88 days in winter ’09.

All small and medium trading concerns rely heavily on fluid cash flow to pay bills, buy stock or take advantage of market conditions. With the deterioration in late

payments across the board, cash flow in the entire sector is drying up and this, coupled with the lack of available, afford-able credit from the banks, is placing many small companies at risk, with the resulting closures and job losses.

I call on the new minister for Enterprise, Trade & Innovation to prioritise the review of the Prompt Payments legislation, which should be amended to assist rather than crucify the SME sector.

Mark Fielding, ISME Chief Executive

60BL201004.indd 1 01/04/2010 16:47:14

BL | NEWS


The National Standards Authority of Ire-land (NSAI) and the Institute of Directors in Ireland (IoD) are tackling some of the challenges that Irish organisations face regarding corporate governance with the launch today of a new Code of Practice for Corporate Governance Assessment for Irish companies and State bodies. The new code provides a best practice standard for an independent evaluation of an organisa-tion’s compliance with existing corporate governance codes such as the OECD prin-ciples, the Combined Code on Corporate Governance and the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies.

The code, SWiFT 3000: 2010 Code of Practice for Corporate Governance As-sessment in Ireland, is the first of its kind in the EU and the first to award certification to companies which meet the required standard. Evidence based evaluation of an organisation’s corporate governance practices will be carried out by independ-ent assessors who have met comprehen-sive qualification and experience criteria. Companies which meet the specifications of the Code will be awarded the SWiFT 3000 Certification by independent ac-credited certification bodies.

Mr. Billy Kelleher, T.D., Minister for Trade and Commerce, stated, “Good corporate governance is a key factor in sustaining economic growth and development. Cor-porate governance failures in some of Ire-land’s prominent private sector and state sector companies has resulted in a loss of reputation for Ireland and a loss of support from many international stakeholders. Or-

ganisations that undertake the independ-ent assessment will send clear signals to their shareholders, stakeholders and to the international community that they are operating to the best standards in corpo-rate governance. With the introduction of this new voluntary code, Ireland is not only advancing the corporate governance agenda, but is in fact leading it.”

The Corporate Governance assessment will focus on three core areas: i) Board composition; ii) Board processes and iii) Fulfilment of board responsibilities, as well as looking at other aspects of governance procedures including Chairman-CEO sepa-ration. The assessor will have access to all relevant internal documentation and will evaluate an organisation by using proc-esses that will include:• Completion by boards of a questionnaire

based on the principles enshrined in these codes.

• Interviews with company directors, Chairpersons, CEO and other directors

as deemed appropriate.• Reviewing a company’s compliance with

relevant corporate governance codes.

The development of the Code, which com-menced in October 2009, is the output from new NSAI’s priority development process (SWiFT). More than a dozen key professional bodies engaged in the promo-tion of best corporate governance practice participated in its development, including NSAI, IoD, the public and private sectors, the Financial Regulator, Office of the Direc-tor of Corporate Enforcement, Corporate Governance Association of Ireland (CGAI), Irish Small and Medium Enterprises As-sociation (ISME), Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA), Institute of Public Administration (IPA), Standards in Public Office Commission and corporate governance experts from academia. The code will be reviewed on a regular basis to reflect changes in regula-tion, legislation and corporate governance codes.

NSAI & IoD launch of New Code of Practice

Stephen McNamara, a third year B.Ed student in Mary Immaculate College, was recently awarded a much sought after scholarship to the value of $80,000 to study in the University of Notre Dame in the US. The scholarship was awarded by the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) at Notre Dame Indiana, which was set up in 1994 to develop at graduate level a core of highly motivated and committed educa-tors to work within Catholic Schools. The ACE sustains and strengthens under-re-

sourced Catholic schools through leader-ship formation, research and professional service to ensure that all children, espe-cially those from low-income families, have the opportunity to experience a Catholic education. In order to accomplish this ACE provides talented and enthusiastic young teachers to under-resourced Catholic el-ementary and secondary schools across the southern United States. ACE also of-fers intensive professional preparation to equip those teachers with the skills and

experience to become effective Catholic educators.

As part of the scholarship Stephen, who is originally from Co. Clare, will be undertaking an intensive two-year Masters in Education programme encompassing professional development, community life and spiritual growth. In addition to this he will be teach-ing in a Catholic elementary school during term year. Stephen will begin his course of study at Notre Dame in mid-June.

MIC Student Awarded $80,000 Scholarship

Billy Kelleher T.D. Minister for Trade and Commerce launched the new code of practice recently.

61BL201004.indd 1 09/04/2010 17:49:29

BL | ARTS


Young Ensembles Scheme (YES) 2010 Sets Closing DateThe next Young Ensembles Scheme (YES) closing date has been set for Friday 30 April 2010, 5.30pm. Applications are in-vited for activities beginning between July 1st and December 31st 2010 and com-pleted by June 30th 2011.

The primary purpose of this award is to support groups of young people between the ages of 12 and 23 to create ambi-tious and original work together in any art form (e.g.: circus, dance, digital me-dia, film, music, theatre, literature, visual arts, or any combination of the above). Groups/ensembles must be made up of 3 or more members. The maximum award available is €10,000. Full details on this award, including guidelines and criteria, are available on the Arts Council website: Young Ensembles Scheme.

Leon Fleischer has the most famous right hand in classical music, because for thirty years….it didn’t work. His remarkable sto-ry of a four decade struggle with a rare brain disease, is both heart-breaking and life-affirming. A man who dedicated a life-time to music, one of the most influential educators of his generation, still enthrals capacity audiences the world over, re-af-firming his position among the truly great pianists of our time…..

Fleisher’s musicianship is the stuff of leg-end. At sixteen, he was hailed as “the pi-anistic find of the century” by the great Pierre Monteux and at thirty-seven, he was struck down by a neurological afflic-tion now known as focal dystonia render-ing two fingers on his right hand immo-bile. Forced to withdraw from the world stage, Fleisher pursued parallel careers as conductor and teacher while learning the limited repertoire for piano left-hand. When he began conducting in 1967 he had never gave up on playing again with both hands. Throughout the decades, he continued to tour as soloist with the world’s leading symphony orchestras, performing piano repertoire for the left hand only.A combinavtion of experimental treat-

ments combined with a real determina-tion eventually restored mobility in Fleish-er’s hand. He returned to the world stage garnering enormous critical acclaim for his first two-hand recording in 40 years, Two Hands. His two-handed story be-came the subject of the 2006 Oscar and Emmy-nominated documentary film Two Hands by Nathaniel Kahn. In 2008, a string of celebratory performances com-memorating Fleisher’s 80th birthday co-incided with a resurgence of his early re-cordings on Sony Masterworks, regarded as all-time classics.

Leon Fleisher brings three nights of mag-ic with Mozart to the Irish Chamber Or-chestra. Experience Fleisher from the po-dium and the piano as he teams up with his wife, Katherine Jacobson-Fleisher for a unique performance of Concerto for Two Pianos. Fleisher brings his accumu-lated skills as soloist and director to his all-Mozart programme. An early work, Symphony No. 1, KV16, E-flat major was written by the eight-year old composer as opposed to his C-minor Fugue for two pi-anos (K. 426) which was written towards the end of his short life. This work was re-arranged for strings, with an introductory

Adagio, in 1788, a year which featured his last works including the magnificent Symphony No. 41 (Jupiter).

Join Leon Fleisher and the Irish Chamber Orchestra in Cork, Limerick and Dublin on 14th, 15th and 17th April in April. See www.irishchamberorchestra.com

This concert is supported by Continental Airlines, flying non-stop to New York.

Raglane Entertainment is proud to an-nounce a nationwide tour with the legen-dary Paul Brady. Brady will be performing classic favourites and songs from his forthcoming new album. The Northern Irish singer, songwriter and multi-instru-mentalist, who this year celebrates a phe-nomenal 45 years in the music business, is one of Ireland’s most enduringly popu-lar artists who has forged a worldwide reputation as a passionate and exciting performer.

His songs have been performed by some of the biggest names in music history in-cluding Tina Turner, Art Garfunkel, Joe Cocker, Phil Collins and Santana. Paul Brady continues to push out the bounda-ries not only of his own talent but also of Irish contemporary music on a world plat-form and has collaborated with names such as Van Morrison, Mark Knopfler, Bonnie Raitt and Curtis Stigers.

Don’t miss this Irish legend live at Univer-sity Concert Hall with full band on Thurs-day 29th April.

Leon Fleisher and the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

Paul Brady & Band

Paul Brady, singer and songwriter.

62BL201004.indd 1 12/04/2010 10:54:44

Revival Press in association with The Lim-erick Writers Centre has announced the launch of Where The Dagda Dances: New and Selected Poems by Teri Murray on Monday April 12th in The Locke Bar (upstairs) 8.00pm. It will be launched by Ciaran O’Driscoll.

This is the fourth collection from poet Teri Murray. While she frequently writes with the sharp social comment and satire of a Rita Ann Higgins, her voice is more often warm and sympathetic. She celebrates friends and their gifts, and the places she recalls are redolent of a less frenetic time when capital and country were not so polarised. Throughout the collection, themes of loss, grief and remembering recur. Where the Dagda Dances shows her to be an accomplished seamstress of poetry. Revival Press Managing Editor Dominic Taylor said: “We are delighted to publish Teri Murray’s fourth poetry collection. Teri is a fine example and inspiration to all new and upcoming poets for her commitment, originality and hard work. This collection brings together some of Teri Murray’s most potent poems from her previous

collections, Poems From The Exclusion Zone, (Stonebridge 2001), The Authority Of Winter, (Stonebridge 2007) and Cod-dle And Tripe (Stonebridge 1998), her collaboration with Liam Mulligan.The placing of these poems alongside her new work allows us to view the breath of skill with which she invokes her life jour-ney - both physical and spiritual.

‘Where the Dagda Dances’ by Teri Murray

BL | ARTS


International Dance Day at Daghdha This year Daghdha Dance Company will be hosting an event in the beautiful Dagh-dha Space for International Dance Day, curated by Maria Svensson. Internation-al Dance Day is celebrated all over the world every year on the 29th of April. The intention of the “International Dance Day Message” is to celebrate Dance, to revel in the art form, to cross all political, cul-tural and ethnic barriers and bring people together in Dance.

For further information please visit: www.daghdha.ie

Dance Day 2010 Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/profi le.php?id=100000872884060

Daghdha Dance Company, Daghda Space, St.John’s Square, Limerick

University Concert Hall is delighted to wel-come back Phantom & The Musicals - a fast paced, high-energy show, now firmly established as the premier show of its kind currently on the circuit! Lead vocalist and principal of the show, Barry Walker, together with an ensemble of five, work their way brilliantly through music from the great Rodgers & Hammerstein to the maestro, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber! Enjoy the best loved songs from Les Miserable, Phantom of the Opera and The King and I…throw in the music of Grease and Ab-ba’s Mama Mia to name but two…add in nostalgic classics such as Calamity Jane and The Sound Of Music.

The cast and musicians of Phantom & The Musicals, who have now been to-gether for over 10 years, includes sensa-tional female vocalists Dawn Glenville and

Margaret Barnes, alongside the talents of lead guitarist and keyboard player Rob MacKenzie, the talented Tom Barnes on bass guitar and keyboard player Keith Harrison. UL Concert Hall, 20th April.

God’s OfficialStarring Mick Lally

Two football fans have just seen their side relegated after a referee disallowed a perfectly good goal, allowing the opposi-tion to go down the other end and score.The referee’s decision is final...or is it?

The two cheated fans have to take mat-ters into their own hands after a dodgy call sends their team crashing into the relegation zone. They kidnap the Ref to force him to change his mind about that all important goal…..with hilarious and un-expected consequences!

God’s Official is a madcap comedy star-ring legendary Irish actor, Mick Lally, George McMahon (Mondo - Fair City) and rising star Edwin Mullane, at the Millen-nium Theatre on 29th April.

Phantom & the Musicals

63BL201004.indd 1 02/04/2010 13:57:36

BL | DIRECTORY


BUSI

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ACCOUNTANTSBDOBusiness and Financial AdvisorsFour Michael Street, LimerickTel: 061 414455 Fax: 061 414172Email: [email protected]: www.bdo.ie

Grant ThorntonChartered Accountants,Mill House, Henry St, Limerick.Tel: 061 314622 / 061 312744Fax: 061 317691 / 061 418038Email: [email protected]: www.grantthornton.ie

HDS PartnershipRegistered Auditors – Accountants – Tax Consultants – Business Advisors2nd Floor,RiverPoint,Lower Mallow Street, Limerick.Tel: 061 445000 Fax: 061 445060E-mail: [email protected]: www.hds.ie

Horwath Bastow CharletonAccountants and Business AdvisorsHorwath House,The Red Church, Henry St. Limerick.Tel: 061 310311 Fax: 061 318899E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.hbcl.ie

Moore Stephens Patrick McNamaraAccountants and Business AdvisorsPamdohlen House,Dooradoyle Road,Limerick.Tel: 061 229666 Fax: 061 302144Email: [email protected]: www.mspatrickmcnamara.ie

John Quirke & Co.Racefield House,Dooradoyle,Limerick.Tel: 061 301260Fax: 061 307863Email: [email protected]

O’Donovan Caulfield Lavin1 Mt. Kenneth Place, Henry St, Limerick.Tel: 061 411000 Fax: 061 411001E-mail: [email protected]

O’Hurley Blair Irwin3rd Floor, Mount Kenneth House, Henry St, Limerick.Tel: 061 401122 Fax: 061 401144E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.obi.ie

Joe Littleton & Co.Dangan Tulla Co.ClareTel: 065 6835407Fax:065 6835407Email: [email protected]

Web: www.jflconsultancy.comSage Accredited Trainer

ACCOUNTANCY COURSESBPP Professional Education89 O’Connell Street. LimerickTel: 061 310884 Fax: 061 310984Email: [email protected]: www.bpp.com/ireland

ADVERTISING AGENCYSouthern AdvertisingKilloran House, Catherine Place, Limerick.Tel: 061 310286 Fax: 061 313013Email: [email protected] Web: www.southernad.ie

ARCHITECTS & BUILDING ENERGY RATING ASSESSORSBrian O’ DonoghueTait Business Centre, Dominic St., Limerick.Tel: 061 410318 Fax: 061 414315 Mob: 086 8122271E-mail: [email protected]

ARTISTSUna HeatonTel: 086 3735015Email: [email protected]: www.unaheatonart.com

AUCTIONEERSDTZ SHERRY FITZGERALDHibernian House,105 Henry Street, Limerick.Tel: 061 418111 Fax: 061 418112Email: [email protected] Web: www.dtz.ie

BAR, BISTRO & NIGHTCLUBAubars49-50 Thomas Street,Limerick.Tel: 061 317799Fax: 061 317572Email: [email protected] Web: www.aubars.com

BICYCLESThe Bike ShopO’Connell Avenue,Limerick Tel: 061 315900

BUILDING CONTRACTORSAce ServicesGlenameadePallaskenry, Co. LimerickTel: 061 393 049 or 061 393 982Fax: 061 393 303Email: [email protected]

BUILDING SUPPLIERSBallysheedy Building SuppliesBallysheedy, Co. Limereick(next to ‘ Weigh In’ bar)Tel: 061 445660/ 061 445666Mob: 087 2490666/ 087 6983444

BURGLAR ALARMS & SECURITY SYSTEMSClifford Security Alarms16 Wickham Street, LimerickTel: 061 313033 / 440151Fax: 061 317412Email: [email protected]: www.cliffordsecurity.com

BUSINESS BANKINGBank Of Ireland125 O’Connell St;LimerickContact: Denis MinihaneRegional Business Banking ManagerT: 061 419791F: 061 418554E: [email protected]: www.boi.com

KBC Bank Ireland plc,Riverpoint,Bishops Quay,LimerickTel: 061 448600Fax: 061 468468Email: [email protected]: www.kbc.ie

Ulster Bank Midwest Business Centre14 Henry Street, Limerick.Tel: 061 316757 Fax: 061 312971E-mail: [email protected]: www.ulsterbank.com

BUSINESS COACHESAction Coach Business CoachingUnit 1 C,Annacotty Business Park,Annacotty, Limerick.Tel: 061 338682 Fax: 061 338682Email: [email protected]: www.actioncoach.com/joepower

BUSINESS ORGANISATIONSLimerick Chamber 96 O’ Connell St, LimerickTel: 061 415180 Fax: 061 415785Email: [email protected]: www.limerickchamber.ie

Shannon & District Chamber of CommerceShannon Business Centre, Shannon, Co. ClareTel: 061 360611 Fax: 061 360440E-mail: [email protected]: www.shannonchamber.ie

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BUSINESS SOFTWARE SOLUTIONSCompuCount Ltd.18 Cois Luachra,Limerick.Tel: 061 305033 Fax: 061 305291Email: [email protected]: www.compucount.ie

BUSINESS TELEPHONE SYSTEMSLantel Networks LtdRoselawn House,National Technological Park,Limerick.Tel: 061 350350 Fax: 061 350360Email: [email protected]: www.lantel.ie

CAR DEALERSClareview MotorsEnnis Road, LimerickTel: 061 221000 Fax: 061 221060E-mail: [email protected]: www.clareviewmotors.com

CARPETS & FLOORINGProvincial Floor CoveringsRaheen Business Park,Raheen, Limerick.Tel: 061-227100 Fax: 061-227000E-Mail: [email protected]: www.pfl.ie

CATERINGMasterchefs HospitalityEpicurean House,Robert Street, LimerickTel: 061 411522 Fax: 061 402021Email: [email protected]: www.mhm.ie

CCTV & SECURITYAdvanced MonitoringNo.2 Pillar House, Little Ellen St. LimerickTel: 061 319 375 Fax: 061 311 805Mobile: 087 2596955 / 087 2395039Email: [email protected]

CLEANINGClean HabitB2 Smithstown Industrial Estate,Shannon,Co. Clare.Tel: 061 361461Fax: 061 361868Email: [email protected]: www.cleanhabit.com

ISS FacilitiesUnit 11, Ashbourne Business ParkDock Road, Limerick

Tel: 061 500300 Fax: 061 500301Contact : Brian KellyMobile: 087 9159108Email: [email protected]: www.iss.ie

CLEANING & MAINTENANCE SERVICEElite Cleaning ServiceRose Cottage, Woodpark, Castleconnell, Co. LimerickTel: 061 372133 Fax: 061 372627E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.elite-contract-cleaning.com

COMPUTER NETWORKING SALES & SUPPORTAction PointUnit 8B,Plassey Enterprise Centre,National Technology Park,Limerick.Contact: David JeffreysTel: 061 337 632Call-Save: 1850-ACTION/ 1850 228 466Fax: 061 301 924Email: [email protected]

Fitzpatrick Computer GroupMill House, Henry Street, LimerickTel: 061 493300 Fax: 061 417219Email: [email protected]: www.fcg.ie

O’Connor Network Services (ONS)Ardnataggle,O’Briens Bridge,Co. ClareTel: 061 343412 Fax: 061 749842Mobile: 087 8118690E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.ons.ie

CONSTRUCTIONRoadbridgeBallyclough, Ballysheedy, Co. LimerickTel: 061 419855 Fax: 061 414767E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.roadbridge.ie

DISPLAYSignLynxContact: Jack O’LoughlinFranklin Motor Yard, Cahernorry,Ballysimon, Limerick.Tel: 061 333736 Mob: 086 8094420Fax: 061 333737Email: [email protected]: www.signlynx.ie

DRAINAGE & ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICESWalsh Environmental ServicesDrainage & Environmental Specialists

Unit 1, Clondrinagh Industrial Estate,Ennis Road,Limerick.Tel: 061 325757 Fax: 061 325700

EVENT MANAGEMENTFunireland Event ManagementChilders Rd Enterprise CentreLimerickTel: Limerick 061 437000/320292Tel: Dublin 01 4741888Email: [email protected]: www.funireland.com

FINANCIAL CONTROL / ACCOUNTING / BOOK-KEEPING SERVICESHogan Financial Management Ltd50 O’Connell Street, LimerickTel: 481444 Fax: 061 481445Email: [email protected]: www.hoganfinancial.ie

FINANCIAL CONTROL / ACCOUNTING / BOOK-KEEPING SERVICESComplete Financial Management38 Roches StreetLimerickTel: 0818 333 680Fax: 1890 886803Email: [email protected]

FIRE ALARM SYSTEMSPrestige Detection Systems LimitedRathpalatine, Feohanagh, County LimerickPhone: 063 84920 Fax: 0865 254 5347 Email. [email protected] Web: www.pdsl.ie

FLORISTFlowers ForeverDesigner FloristRachel & David HannonRaheen Roundabout, Limerick.Tel: 061 307123 Fax: 061 307123Email: [email protected]: flowersforever.ie

GLASS AND MIRRORSMirror and GlassworxUnit 1b, Annacotty Business Park,Limerick.Tel: 061 333630 Mob: 087 2808184Fax: 061 333631Email: [email protected]: www.mgwx.ie

GOLF COURSESLimerick Golf ClubBallyclough, Co. LimerickTel: 061 414083 Fax: 061 319219Email: [email protected]: www.limerickgc.com


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GRAPHIC DESIGN CONSULTANCYOptic Nerve Design GroupThe Mill, Glentworth Street, Limerick.Tel: 061 316955 Fax: 061 316965E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.opticnerve.ie

GRAPHIC, WEB & WEB MARKETINGIDF Marketing Ltd.Marine Village,Killaloe,Co.ClareTel: 061 375412Mob: 086 8176337Email: [email protected]: www.idf.ie

GRAPHIC & WEB DESIGNCustomer Care SolutionsAnne Sheehan, Harbour House, Locke Quay, Limerick.Mobile: 087 6684819E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.customersolutions.ie

HOME FURNISHINGSLimerick Paint SuppliesPennywell Road, Limerick. Tel: 061 411292Thomondgate, Limerick. Tel: 061 329828 Fax: 061 415874 Mob: 087 2503448

HOTELSAbbey Court Hotel, Lodges & Trinity Leisure Spa.Dublin Road, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.Tel: 067 41111Fax: 067 41022Contact: Matthias Muller M.I.H.I.Email: [email protected]: www.abbeycourt.ie

Fitzgerald’s Woodlands House Hotel & Revas SpaAdare, Co. LimerickTel: 061 605100 Fax: 061 396073Email: [email protected]: www.woodlands-hotel.ie

HOUSEHOLD INSURANCE ASSESSORSAuray Assessors Specialists in Property ClaimsTel: 061 317264 Fax: 094 9541723Email: [email protected]: www.aurayltd.com

HR CONSULTANTSThe HR ChannelContact: Fiona O’CarrollBallycarney,Clarina, Co. LimerickTel: 061 353154Mobile: 086 2051727Email: [email protected]

HUMAN RESOURCES CONSULTANT AND EXECUTIVE & BUSINESS COACHElaine Ryan & Associates17 Ballycasey Manor,Shannon, Co.Clare.Tel: 086 2381555Email: [email protected]: www.elaineryanandassociates.com

INK REFILL & TONERSInk Refill Depot7B Denmark Street, LimerickTel: 061 446446 Fax: 061 446456Email: [email protected]: www.inkrefilldepot.ie

INSULATIONAerobord Ltd.Askeaton, Co. LimerickTel: 061 604600 Fax: 061 604601Email: [email protected]: www.aerobord.ie

IT INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENTAvocent InternationalAvocent House,Shannon Free Zone,Shannon, Co. Clare.Tel: 061 471877 Fax: 061 471871Email: [email protected]: www.avocent.ie

INVESTMENTS, PENSIONS & MORTGAGESMoore Stephens Patrick McNamaraFinancial Planning & Mortgage SolutionsLife & Pensions – Mortgages – Investments – Wealth ManagementPamdohlen House, Dooradoyle Road, LimerickTel: 061 229666 Fax: 061 302144Email: [email protected]: www.mspatrickmcnamara.ie

LIFE & BUSINESS COACHINGPathfinder31b Cecil St. LimerickTel: 061 215750 Mob: 086 8123834E-mail: [email protected]

LIFT SERVICESMid Western LiftsCorcanree Business ParkDock Road, LimerickTel: 061 400123 Fax: 061 400121Email: [email protected]: www.mwls.ie

LUXURY DEPARTMENT STORESBrown Thomas16 O’Connell Street, LimerickTel: 061 417222 Fax: 061 412191

Email: [email protected]: www.brownthomas.com

MARQUEE HIREO’Donovan MarqueesBirdhill, Co. TipperaryTel: 061 379328 Fax: 061 379328Email: [email protected]: www.odonovanmarquees.com

MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTSProfiles at WorkExecutive Coaching, Training, Psychometric TestingBallyheefy, Killaloe, Co. ClareTel: 061 376461 Fax: 061 375496Mob: 087 2640028Email: [email protected]: www.profilesatwork.com

MARKETINGCustomer Care SolutionsAnne Sheehan, Harbour House, Locke Quay, Limerick.Mobile: 087 6684819E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.customersolutions.ie

Molly D MarketingCastlecrine, Sixmilebridge, Co.ClareTel: 061 369898Mob: 086 2371508Email: [email protected]: www.mollydmarketing.ie

MARKETING CONSULTANTSAND MARKETING RESEARCHMartin McGuire & AssociatesDock Road, LimerickTel: 061 228822 or 061 229233E-mail: [email protected]: www.martinmcguire.com

MODULAR CONTAINERS, CABINS & OFFICESBallysimon ContainersEastway Business ParkBallysimon Road, LimerickTel: 061 312530 Fax: 061 313520Email: [email protected]: www.asp-ire.ie

MODULAR OFFICE ACCOMODATIONAsp-ire Advance Space Providers IrelandEastway Business ParkBallysimon Road, LimerickTel: 061 312530 Fax: 061 313520Email: [email protected]: www.asp-ire.ie


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MORTGAGE & FINANCIAL SERVICESODCL Financial Services and Mortgages1 Mount Kennett Place,Henry Street, Limerick.Tel: 061 411000Email: [email protected]

Redmond Mortgages & Pensions1A Hartstonge Place,Upper Hartstonge Street, LimerickTel: 061 446629 Fax: 061 446809Mobile: 087 8290736E-mail: [email protected]

NEWSPAPERSLimerick Independent Newspaper48 O’Connell Street, Limerick.Tel: 061 404900Fax: 061 404940E: [email protected]: www.limerickindependent.com

OFFICE EQUIPMENTGerry Webb Office Equipment72 Wolfe Tone Street, LimerickTel: 061 467380 Fax: 061 467380Mobile: 087 2625768Email: [email protected]

OFFICE EQUIPMENT / PRINTING & STATIONERYCurley Copy CentreLittle Ellen Street, Limerick.Contact: EileenTel: 061 315331Fax: 061 315171Email: [email protected]

OFFICE FURNITURE & SUPPLIESG & A Manifold(Showrooms)Unit 6E, Docklands Business Park,Dock Road, Limerick.Tel: 061 312777 Fax: 061 313434Email: [email protected]: www.gamanifold.ie

PACKAGINGIPS Industrial Polythene SolutionsContact Name: Sean O’CarrollAnnacotty Business Park,Annacotty, Limerick.Tel: 061 508980 Fax: 061 508984Email: [email protected]: www.ipspackaging.ie

PAINTING AND DECORATINGKeith LarkinClonlara, Co. Clare.Residential, Commercial, Industrial.087 2333772email: [email protected]

PENSIONS & INVESTMENTSKarl Daly Pension & Investment Ltd.

2nd Floor, Riverfront BuildingHowleys Quay, LimerickTel: 061 318701 Fax: 061 318702Mobile: 086 2602326Email: [email protected] Web: www.karldaly.com or www.ssiaideas.ie

PHARMACEUTICAL MANUFACTURERSchwarz PharmaUCB (Schwarz Pharma Ltd)Shannon Industrial Estate,Shannon, Co. Clare.Tel: 061 714100 Fax: 061 714101Email: [email protected]: www.ucb-group.com

PHOTOCOPIERSMJ Flood (Ireland) Ltd.(Sales & Service)23 John Street, Limerick.Tel: 061 312211Mob: 087 7815252 Fax: 061 415595Email: [email protected]: www.mjflood.ie

PHOTOGRAPHYBrendan Gleeson LIPPA NUJ25 Cherry Avenue, Caherdavin Lawn, LimerickTel: 061 453253 Mobile: 087 2159325Email: [email protected] www.bgleesonphoto.com

PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTSAble Marketing50 Thomas Street, LimerickTel: 061 417575 Fax: 061 410055Email: [email protected]: www.ablemarketing.ie

PUBLIC RELATIONSEcho Marketing5 The Mews,Hartstonge Street, Limerick.Mob: 087 9892463Email: [email protected]: www.echomarketing.ie

Molly D MarketingCastlecrine, Sixmilebridge, Co.ClareTel: 061 369898M: 086 2371508Email: [email protected]: www.mollydmarketing.ie

MKC CommunicationsThe Archway, 4A Lower Pembroke Street Dublin 2Tel. +353 1 703 8600 Fax. +353 1 678 8331Email: [email protected]: www.mkc.ie

O’Brien Communications30 Ashbrook Grove

Ennis Road, LimerickTel/Fax: 061 457999 Mobile: 086 6019214

Quinn CommunicationsContact: Niamh Quinn MPRII 38 Roches Street, Limerick.M: 087 1220119F: 1890 886803E: [email protected]

PUBLIC TRANSPORT BUS SERVICES & PRIVATE HIREBus EireannColbert Station LimerickTel: 061 313333 Fax: 061417166Email: [email protected]: www.buseireann.ie

RADIO STATIONS (NATIONAL)Limerick Live 95 FMP.O Box 295Radio House, Richmond Court Dock Road, LimerickTel: 061 461 900Fax: 061 41 95 95Email: [email protected] Web: www.live95fm.ie

RTÉ lyric fmCornmarket Square, Limerick.Tel: 061 207300Fax: 061 207390Email: [email protected]: www.rte.ie/lyricfmContact: Aodán Ó’Dubhghaill & Julie Knight

RECRUITMENTIrish Recruitment ConsultantsCharlotte House, Charlotte Quay, Limerick.Tel: 061 313744 Fax: 061 417553Email:[email protected]:www.irishrecruitment.ie

Richmond Recruitment/CPL,10/11, Steamboat Quay,Dock Road, Limerick.Tel: 061 221701Email: [email protected]: www.richmond.ie

Staff SolutionsUnit 2 Belfield House, Ennis Road, LimerickTel: 061 329250 Fax: 061 329252E-mail: [email protected]: www.staffsolutions.ie

RECRUITMENT SPECIALISTSWork Access Ltd.1st Floor, Pillar House,Little Ellen Street, Limerick.Tel: 061 493095 Fax: 061 409345Email: [email protected]: www.workaccess.org


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RESTAURANTSThe Cornstore19 Thomas Street, Limerick.Tel: 061 609 000/ 609 001Fax: 061 409 334Email: [email protected]

PoppadomAward Winning Indian CuisineUnit 2C, Robert Street,Corn Market Square, LimerickTel: 061 446644www.poppadom.ie

SECURITY SHREDDING & CONFIDENTIAL WASTEDGD Papers Ltd.Bay M1, Raheen Business Park, LimerickTel: 061 491333 Fax: 061 491335Email: [email protected]: www.dgdpapers.com

SIGNAGESignLynxContact: Jack O’LoughlinFranklin Motor Yard, Cahernorry,Ballysimon, Limerick.Tel: 061 333736 Mob: 086 8094420Fax: 061 333737Email: [email protected]: www.signlynx.ie

Sign It LtdUnit 6, Eastway Business Park,Ballysimon Road, Limerick.Tel: 061 469900 Fax: 061 417502Email: [email protected]: www.signit.ie

SignsplusUnit 7,Eastlink Business Park,Ballysimon Road, Limerick.Tel: 061 437950 Fax: 061 437940Email: [email protected]: www.signsplus.ie

SOFWARE DEVELOPMENTAction PointUnit 8B, Plassey Enterprise Centre,National Technology Park, Limerick.Contact: David JeffreysTel: 061 337 632Call-Save: 1850-ACTION/ 1850 228 466Fax: 061 301 924Email: [email protected]

SOLICITORSHolmes O’Malley SextonBishopsgate, Henry St: Limerick.Tel: 061-313222 Fax: 061-310414E-Mail: [email protected]: www.homs.ie

TAXATION

BDO Personal and Corporate Tax Advisors4 Michael Street, Limerick Tel: 061 414455 Fax: 061 414172Email: [email protected]: www.bdo.ie

TEAM BUILDINGFunireland Team Building SpecialistsChilders Rd Enterprise Centre, LimerickTel: Limerick 061 437000/320292Tel: Dublin 01 4741888E: [email protected]: www.funireland.com

WATER COOLERS & DISPENSERSCrystal ClearLeamy House, Hartstonge St: Limerick.Tel: 061-454962 Fax: 061-454449Mobile: 087-2561239E-Mail: [email protected]

WASTE MANAGEMENT & DISPOSALMr BinmanLuddenmore, Grange, Kilmallock, Co. Limerick Tel: 061 351127 Fax: 061 351918Email: [email protected]: www.mrbinman.com

WEDDINGS AND EVENTSRebecca May Weddings and EventsChilders Rd Enterprise Centre, LimerickTel: Limerick 061 437000/320292Tel: Dublin 01 4741888Cell: 087 4178516E: [email protected]: www.funireland.comW: www.irelandweddings.ie

WINE RETAILERSFine Wines Fine Wines Group, Tipperary Road, Ballysimon, Limerick.Tel: 061 417784 Fax: 061 417276Email: [email protected]: www.finewines.ie

The Wine Buff17 Upper Mallow Street, Limerick.Proprietor: Mike O’ MaraTel: 061 313394E-mail: [email protected]: www.thewinebuff.com

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Tel: 061 304 599 • 086 106 3744www.creativewavedesign.com

* Design is based on a logoin EPS format suppliedby your company.

Photography by Michael CowheyTel: 061 227640 Mob: 087 2581318

Ferndale, Ballinacurra, LimerickEmail: [email protected]

www.mikecowhey.com

Downsizingwarehouseor office?

NeedFile/Archive

Storage?

Need Bulkor Pallet Storage?

Free phone:

1800946666

www.limerickselfstorage.com

Rubber Stamps - Printing - Stationery - Laser Engraving

We Don't Just Sell StampsWe Make Them!

14 Lower Gerald Griffin St., Limerick, IrelandTel. 061-417855 Fax. 061-410845

[email protected]

€

4 FOR €25Tel: 061 301999

€FOR ALL YOURSIGNAGE REQUIREMENTS

061 333736 / 086 8094420Email: [email protected] WEB: www.signlynx.ie


Unit 2c Robert Street, Corn Market Square, Limerick

(tel) 061 44 66 44

Early Bird Special 3 courses €19.95

3 courses vegie €17.95)Fri - Sat 5 to 7.20 pm

STOP!Don’t throw it out!

Don’t buy new!

Have your furniture repainted to suit your room scheme byman experienced

Decorative Painter.

Also advice on choosing colours for your home

or business.

Refs; available

Ph. Therese:

087 2846917

PLAYA BLANCA

Lovely one bed bungalow

Mazda MX-5- 1991 Convertable. Red 1.6L with full NCT. Great condition, 4 new tyres. €3,750 ONO. Private Sale.

Tel. 086-2451153

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Early-closing entries for days three, four and five of the 2010 Irish National Hunt Festival at Punchestown are revealed with many more of the biggest stars in jump racing set to appear at the meet-ing, which runs from Tuesday, April 20 to Saturday, April 24.

Thursday, April 22Those entered for the GRADE 1 LADBRO-KES.COM WORLD SERIES HURDLE, fea-ture race on Thursday, April 22, include Big Buck’s and Time For Rupert, who filled the first two places in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle at Cheltenham.Big’s Bucks is one of no less than four winners from this year’s Cheltenham Fes-tival entered in the Ladbrokes.com World Series Hurdle, alongside the Albert Bar-tlett Novices’ Hurdle hero Berties Dream, Quevega, who landed the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle for a second consecutive year, and runaway Vincent O’Brien County Handicap Hurdle victor Thousand Stars.The same day’s GRADE 1 RYANAIR NOV-ICE CHASE could see a fascinating clash between some star names from both sides of the Irish Sea.Trainer Henry de Bromhead is mulling over whether to run his brilliant Chelten-ham Arkle Chase winner Sizing Europe in either this novices’ event or the Grade 1 Boylesports.com Champion Chase on the Festival’s opening day.Captain Cee Bee was sent off favourite for the Cheltenham race and could bid to bounce back at Punchestown although trainer Edward Harty is also considering a return to hurdles in the Grade 1 Ra-bobank Champion Hurdle.Other possibles in the Ryanair Novice Chase include Riverside Theatre, owned by actor Jimmy Nesbitt, and his stablem-ates with Lambourn handler Nicky Hend-erson, Mad Max and French Opera.

Friday, April 23Friday’s feature GRADE 1 RABOBANK CHAMPION HURDLE is shaping into a fas-cinating contest with the Charles Byrnes-trained Solwhit, winner of the race 12 months ago, set to bid for a sixth career Grade 1 success in the two-mile contest.Byrnes is hopeful that the six-year-old can return from a rare below-par run when only sixth in the Champion Hurdle at Chel-tenham.

“We have given Solwhit an entry in the Rabobank Champion Hurdle and I am hopeful that he will run. He has won two Grade 1 races at Punchestown, including this race last year, so he will hopefully go there if the ground comes up soft,” said Byrnes.“You would have to say that his run at Cheltenham was disappointing but I think that it was down to a number of things. The track didn’t seem to suit him and the ground didn’t really play to his strengths - I had reservations about both before he ran. Willie Mullins has four entries and, as well as Quevega and Thousand Stars, many eyes will be on Hurricane Fly, last season’s superb Evening Herald Champion Novice Hurdle winner who has been off the track since November.The novice Dunguib could step up to championship company while other Brit-ish raiders could include Punjabi’s sta-blemate Zaynar, who finished third in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, and the Alan Fleming-trained Starluck.Reve De Sivola is set to travel to Punch-estown for the GRADE 1 CATHAL RYAN MEMORIAL CHAMPION NOVICE HURDLE on Friday, April 23, to bid to give his train-er Nick Williams a first success at the Irish National Hunt Festival.The Dermot Weld-trained Rite Of Pas-sage, who finished third at Cheltenham, and the lightly-raced and rapidly-improving Captain Chris, from Philip Hobbs’ stable, are others among a very-strong entry.There are 74 entries for what promises to be an ultra-competitive renewal of the PUNCHESTOWN NOVICE HANDICAP CHASE on Friday, April 23. Copper Bleu, trained by Philip Hobbs, is a likely starter following his success in the Jewson Nov-ices’ Handicap Chase at Cheltenham while Willie Mullins is also targeting the Punchestown contest with The Midnight Club.

Saturday, April 24Trainer Evan Williams today confirmed the GRADE 1 FAMILY DAY AT PUNCH-ESTOWN 4YO HURDLE, feature event on the concluding day of the Punchestown Festival, as the next start for Barizan.The four-year-old had an 18-length lead over his rivals turning for home in the JCB Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham but had to settle for second place as Soldatino ar-rived late on the scene to clinch victory.Williams said: “There is every chance that Barizan will go to Punchestown. He has been very well since his run in the Tri-umph Hurdle. He had a very tough race at Cheltenham, there is no doubting that, but he did have a mid-winter break, which means that he was quite a fresh horse going there. “It was torture watching the final furlong at Cheltenham. I stood down by the last flight and could see it all unravelling in front of my eyes. I have to give a lot of credit to Barry Geraghty who has given the winner a peach of a ride. It was disap-pointing but the more I look back on it, we ran a blinder and were beaten by a good horse that was given an exceptional ride by a great jockey. The JCB Triumph Hurdle form could be well-represented with the third-placed Alaivan and Carlito Brigante, who came fourth, also entered. The progressive Sanctuaire, winner of the Fred Winter Juvenile Novices’ Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham, has been entered by Paul Nicholls while Nicky Henderson could be represented by Super Kenny, part-owned by ex-Scotland rugby international Kenny Logan and his television presenter wife Gabby.The PUNCHESTOWN PAVILION HANDI-CAP HURDLE on Saturday, April 24, has attracted a huge 82-strong entry with Willie Mullins - successful 12 months ago with Sesenta - accounting for no less than 12 of those.

More Stars Entered at Punchestown

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Having a business can at times be hectic, but when you’re required to travel as a part of your business schedule, things can become more complicated. Fortunately, there are some very useful iPhone apps that can help you manage and maintain your business on the go.

Google Analytics app The Google Analytics app gives you access to Analytics reports on the go so that you can keep tabs on your company’s website when

you’re not at your desk. All you need to do is enter your Google account information and the iPhone app will provide you with up to 47 reports, including a snapshot of your traffic statistics for the day.

LinkedIn appRather than collect piles of business cards at your next meeting, consider using the LinkedIn iPhone app instead. You’ll be able to add that

new business contact’s profile to your network and as an added bonus, you can

send and receive updates so that your network knows where you are and what you’re working on.

Evernote app The Evernote app for iPhone can help you organize all your ideas, pictures, and even voice memos on your iPhone so that you can sync

it to your computer later. Evernote is great for keeping you organized on the road, and since it also syncs to the service’s website, you can review your notes even before you get home.

Oracle Business Indicators AppIf you’re concerned about how your business is performing in your absence, the Oracle Business Indicators App can help put

your mind at ease. The app allows users to view and change financial, human resources, supply chain, and customer relationship management analytics on the go, and includes a search feature so that you can easily find the information you

need quickly.

SugarSync appSugarSync enables you to access documents on your Mac or PC from anywhere in the world, allowing you to retrieve any information

that you may have forgotten to bring along with you. It backs up an unlimited number of computers, so you can always have the information you need in an instant.

The popularity of the iPhone has also inspired the creation of more basic applications which can be endlessly useful on business travel, including flight updates, and even credit card processing software. With the advent of mobile technology, today’s business travelers can be prepared and aware of what is happening in the office.

IDF Marketing LtdTel: 061 375412Email: [email protected]: www.idf.ie


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By Kevin Meaney, IDF Marketing

Getting Down To Business With AppsTop 5 Business iPhone Apps

LinkedIn appRather than collect piles of business cards at your next meeting, consider using the LinkedIn iPhone app instead. You’ll be able to add that

new business contact’s profile to your

Google Analytics app The Google Analytics app gives you access to Analytics reports on the go so that you can keep tabs on your company’s website when

Evernote app

Oracle Business Indicators App

that you may have forgotten to bring along

70

70BL201004.indd 1 02/04/2010 11:34:43

home of entertainment and choice

Bentley’s BarIssac TaylorsOrchard Garden101 Club

101 O’Connell Street, LimerickTel/Fax: 061 214625

Book Your Party Now – Email: [email protected]

Bentley’s

Bentley's.indd 1 09/04/2010 17:19:09

THERE IS NO BETTER PLACE TO GET INSPIREDTHERE IS NO BETTER PLACE TO GET INSPIRED

IRELAND Vs BARBARIANSThe MasterCard Trophy

ThomoND PARk FRIDAy JuNE 4Th7.45Pm kIck oFF

Hospitality

To Book PLEASE coNTAcT mIchELLE PAyNE AT [email protected] oR 061 421 129

* Conference & Banqueting

* Product launches * Exhibitions

* Seminars

* Meeting Rooms

And much more...

Tel: 061-421100Email: [email protected] Website: www.thomondpark.ie

Thomond Park (D).indd 1 09/04/2010 17:17:09

business limerick magazine april 2010

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