Welcome to the April edition of the "Donegal Connections" Ezine

Welcome to the April 2021 edition of the Donegal diaspora e- zine. I hope that this edition finds you well, wherever you may be.

The last year has been a challenge for everyone, however we are seeing glimpses of a better time later this year when, we expect, the vaccine rollout will be largely  completed.

I know that many of you have missed opportunities to meet up with your families and friends during this last year. That has been very difficult, particularly for our older relatives and friends and we look forward to the time when we can safely visit each other again and catch up on lost time.

We are continuing to work in Donegal on a range of projects to make our county an even better place to live and to visit. Some examples of these include:

• Regeneration planning and new investment in towns including Letterkenny, Killybegs, Ballybofey/Stranorlar, Ramelton, Burtonport and Ballyshannon and which has seen a recent announcement of €18.1m for Letterkenny alone
• Continued development and investment in new and upgraded tourism products in areas including Malin Head, Bundoran, and Greenways in areas such as Burtonport – Letterkenny and east Donegal
• Delivering and supporting property solutions for business including sites and remote working solutions, including world class broadband capability
• Working with industry and education providers to strengthen existing business sectors in areas such as marine engineering and FinTech

At the end of April we will be launching online our new Donegal place brand which brings together all that is great about our county and which we hope will be embraced by everyone with a love for Donegal and I hope that you will be able to join us virtually for this special event.

We are also 3 months into a “post Brexit” Donegal, the implications of which will take some time to finally bed down to a steady state. Many fears have, thankfully, not been realized on foot of the Trade& Cooperation Agreement between the EU and the UK, in addition to the Northern Ireland Protocol. In the vast majority of business sectors there is not any noticeable change but we are monitoring both the opportunities and possible challenges closely to make sure that any necessary responses are considered and highlighted to Government.

All of this gives Donegal a great platform to do business from in a post Brexit and post Covid world, where many of the previously accepted norms of business are being questioned and where the best quality of life in the world can now be experienced alongside your workplace.

If you have any questions on this, please contact us at economicdevelopment@donegalcoco.ie where one of your team will be very happy to answer any of your queries and, if desired, carry out further research and follow up on any plans that you might have for business location, re-location or even bi-location.

Stay safe,

Garry

Garry Martin

Director of Service

Economic Development, Information Systems & Emergency Services.