A message from the President - six months in

Six months ago, I took on the role of President of Fingal Chamber. The time has gone quickly, and it's been a rewarding half-year.

I don't want to use this message to tell you what the Chamber has been doing. I want to point out what you have been doing. The honest reading of the first six months is that the membership has shown exactly what being part of Fingal Chamber is about.

You told us what you're dealing with. Members completed the annual Business Environment and Economic Outlook Survey, and the majority offered to go further and take part in follow-up work. Those responses are the evidence behind every submission the Chamber makes, and every conversation Anthony Cooney has around a Council table. A chamber that argues from opinion gets ignored. A chamber that argues from its own members' data doesn't. Thank you for that.

You turned up. The monthly Network Meetups, Drive to Success and the Summer BBQ all drew strong numbers, with hundreds of member businesses represented across the events programme so far this year. The Chamber team put the work in and deserve the credit for it. But a room only works because of who's standing in it.

You invested in your people. Hundreds of members took part in training through Fingal Chamber Skillnet in the first half of the year, across a wide range of programmes. In a market where finding the right person is hard, developing the person you already have is often the faster answer.

And you helped each other. This is the part I've found most pleasing. A lot goes on in the community platform between events - introductions offered, questions answered, work passed on. It's the quietest thing the Chamber does, and it might be the most valuable.

Behind all of that, the Chamber has made progress worth noting, advocating on behalf of business in many forums and adding new members since January. Not everything has moved at the pace we'd like, and I'd rather say that than pretend otherwise, but working together, and using the collective voice of Fingal Chamber, we'll keep raising the issues that matter and keep backing members in every way we can.

For the second half of the year, I have one ask. If you've been getting value from your membership passively, consider getting involved actively. Come to something you haven't been to. Put a colleague forward for training. Take five minutes to answer someone's question on the community platform. The Chamber gets stronger in direct proportion to how many members treat it as theirs.

Thank you for the welcome and the support over the last six months. I'm looking forward to what the rest of 2026 brings.

Jim Wylie

President, Fingal Chamber