Lavishing praise on Waterford City Council’s recently established Business Support Unit, Council member Mary Roche said this week it epitomised everything that was best about public service.
Staffed by three Economic Development Officers, whose key role is to provide a one-stop-shop for any business related queries arriving at City Hall, the BSU works closely with other economic development agencies in the city on joint initiatives such as Enterprise Week and the Unemployment Fair, held last year.
Speaking at Monday night’s City Council meeting on the work of the unit, Cllr Roche said Waterford was now demonstrating that it could do things for itself. She asserted: “We are building that kind of culture now, one which shows belief that we can pull ourselves up by our own bootlaces, aided, it must be said, by a kick-ass City Council.”
Cllr Seamus Ryan said the BSU was providing leadership to the rest of the country as to how business and services should be supported.
Cllr Gary Wyse said there was genuine appreciation among the local business community of what was being done and he welcomed the involvement of the Chamber and retail sector representatives.
But Cllr David Cullinane, while acknowledging that supporting entrepreneurship was among the most important functions of the City Council, said there were a lot of stakeholders ‘with huge budgets’ who needed to be at the table as well.
See The Munster Express newspaper for full story.
