Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Brexit & Covid19

Enterprise Ireland-backed companies which won new contracts declined by 12% in the first half of 2020 due to Covid-19 with this year described as "very challenging" for Irish exporters.

As the Irish Examiner writes, the state agency responsible for helping Irish companies export to international markets said Covid-19 has had a negative impact on order books and international market confidence. Approximately 1,000 client companies are impacted by the pandemic with 75% reporting that their exports have been impacted by Covid-19 and more than half saw a negative impact on cash flow. 300 companies are very exposed with high levels of exports to the UK.

The agency has warned that challenging conditions will continue to impact exporters who will face the dual challenge of both dealing with the Covid-19 impact on their business and also the impending January 1st Brexit deadline.

For 2019, Enterprise Ireland reported strong levels of export performance by its client companies, up 8% to €25.6bn. Last year, exports to the Eurozone region saw record growth of 15% to €5.6bn, while exports to North America increased by 16% to €4.7bn last year.

More on the export sector here

Published in Ports & Shipping

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.