All photos: Arthur Kinahan
Senator Erin McGreehan said she was very happy to welcome Minister for Finance, Michael McGrath to Louth once again, to the Fianna Fáil Business Breakfast, held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dundalk last Wednesday.
Senator McGreehan told the Dundalk Democrat that it was “a great event with so many local business owners, Fianna Fáil members and Louth IFA also attended. It is important for me to bring my ministerial colleagues to the county to hear first hand the local issues for our local economy and community. It always helps when I raise them again as the Minister has a familiarity to them and to the people they effect.”
“At the event”, said Senator McGreehan, “the Minister spoke about the investment in Louth, the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF) funding, the investment in housing and the importance of the IDA here in Louth with many of the businesses expanding. He spoke about the Narrow Water Bridge and how it is the classic example of the Shared Island Unit.”
Welcoming Minister McGrath to the event last week, Senator McGreehan told those present that the newly appointed Minister of Finance, “not a stranger to the role of ensuring financial stability. Over the past two and half years he has been Minister for Public Expenditure. During this time there was unprecedented challenges on the States finances,”
"The Minister ensured that the economy was protected, ensured that supports were given to businesses, it was not a question of could the state afford to support, it was the reality of how could the state afford not to support businesses. This morning’s crowd is proof that the business community in Co. Louth is strong, over many years this region has struggled, an economy straddling the border, it did not get a chance to thrive and strive like other parts of the country,
"We all know the difficulties that the troubles brought this county. Thankfully, this county that I call home is an entirely different place to that I was born into back in the 80’s. It has benefitted from membership of the EU, it has reaped the rewards of the Good Friday Agreement. But this new era brings different challenges for business. I do know that because of our past that resilience and willingness to adapt, to be creative, to change and to grow is ingrained into the fabric of this region’s economy."
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