This live Webinar will assist SMEs to review business continuity plans and emergency activation plans in the face of the changing business landscape.

The aim of this webinar is to help business owners and managers to mitigate the impact this situation will have on critical business functions,products, and services. What you do now will make all the difference. This 90-minute webinar will offer business owners valuable ways and means on how their business can survive in the coming weeks and months.

Topics Include:

1. Short-term finance options
2. Adjusting your current business plan to revise profit margins
3. Appraising your company expenditure
4. Negotiating your payables
5. Identifying alternative streams of revenue in the short term
6. Crafting a communication plan with stakeholders
7. Diversifying your asset portfolio
8. Tips on personal wellbeing during a crisis

This webinar will be delivered by Monere Development Services.

If you would like to arrange this webinar to run internally for you, your business managers and leaders please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Earlier this week, Chambers Ireland and our nationwide network of chambers called on Government and all State bodies to be flexible and responsive to the needs of their business and economic partners, so that we may ensure business continuity through this crisis.

In particular, we called on Government to ensure that businesses that are in sectors which have had to close entirely are not charged rates for the duration of these closures. As this may create a funding issues for our Local Authorities throughout the country, we also called on central Government to step in to support our local government by bridging the resulting gap in expected Rates returns.

Today’s announcement (20 March 2020) by the Government, offers some relief to businesses who have had to close in recent days but as this crisis evolves, an extension of this deferral will be required.

Speaking today, Chambers Ireland Chief Executive Ian Talbot said, “The extent of the crisis we are facing is still uncertain. Businesses that closed over the weekend and since then, have no idea when normal trading conditions might resume. Recovering from this shock will be an enormous task and every assistance possible must be made.

Because of this, Government must commit to extending the Rates relief to correspond with the duration of the crisis. Government must also ensure that sufficient monies are made available to local authorities, as and when needed, so that essential local services can continue to be funded.

It is crucial that this announcement is implemented and communicated consistently and equitably across all local authorities and that there is a clear understanding amongst local officials as to how it will be applied. There must be a level playing field for all businesses across the country.

It is essential that all sectors that have been adversely impacted benefit from this deferral and will continue to benefit from flexible, sincere engagement from state officials.

As cash-flow will be critical to surviving the crisis, we reiterate our call to all Government Departments, agencies, Local Authorities, State and Semi-State bodies to pay invoices at the earliest opportunity. Government must take the lead on this and make a clear statement on the urgent necessity that all State bodies settle all outstanding bills promptly.”

Chambers Ireland and our network are acutely aware of the immediate impact that the Covid-19 crisis is having on businesses across the country, as well as our employees and communities. Chambers Ireland, along with your local Chamber, remain fully dedicated to supporting our business community and we will continue to work closely with regional and national stakeholders on behalf of businesses across the country.

Through this survey, we are asking for your direct feedback on how Covid-19 is impacting on your business – and wish to hear any suggestions on actions that you believe can be taken on both a national level and local level to help you navigate this difficult period.

We also wish to remind everyone to only follow official sources of information and to avail of the various supports and structures being put in place to help navigate each challenge relating to Covid-19 as they happen.

Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HMG8JM9

Waterford Chamber Skillnet is working with Waterford Chamber and you our customers to ensure you have the essential training you need, when you need it.

We are teaming up with our top class trainers to provide you with essential training webinars to keep your teams and businesses running as smoothly as possible during this time of change.

Join our digital training classroom and train online. We have teamed up with Sure Skills to offer the following modules which can be taken individually or as a bundle.

Effective Management & Working from Home “Series” starting week commencing 23rd March! – registrations are only being taken by website or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

– Each module is delivered remotely (Live Online)

– Each module is 3 hours in duration (9:30 – 12:30) or (1:30 – 4:30)

- Contact us to organise these for your teams only

N.B. Modules will run on a demand led basis. Please nominate your time preference

Take 1 module for €65 or 5 modules €250.

Module 1. Motivating Staff

How do We Motivate Others Remotely?

Motivation Model

The Three Elements of Intrinsic Motivation

Self-Motivation

2. Leadership in a Crisis

The 5 Pitfalls of leading teams in a crisis situation

The building blocks of Crisis Management

Taking back Control

Communication Flow for Sound Leadership

Leadership Styles and Crises

3. Role of Manager

What do you need to Be, Do and Know

Supervisor/Leader/Manager

What kind of Leader are You?

Flexing between Roles

4. Performance Management

Identifying Performance Strengths and Weakness

Day to Day Performance management

Feedback

Identifying Under performance

Development Planning

Dealing with Failure to Improve

5. Change Management

Models of Change

Identifying Responses to Change

Staff Needs of Times of Change

How to Make it Stick

6. Team Development

Stages of Teams

Team Types

Effective Teams and How to Fill the Gaps

7. Managing Self

Emotional Intelligence in Difficult Circumstances

Time Management

Delivery of Results

Professionalism and Accountability

Waterford Chamber and the Network of Irish chambers calls for clarity, certainty, and flexibility from the State and its agencies. As we work with Government to address this national crisis, we urge sincere engagement by state bodies to support businesses to stay afloat during these unprecedented times.

Chamber members are active in every major town and city in the country and the businesses which form our network are deeply embedded in their communities across the island. As the number of cases of Covid-19 has increased, our network has felt its impact in the local economies they represent.

Following dialogue with members, we call on the Government to take the following steps:

•  Deferral of tax payment

VAT, PAYE and PRSI payments will be due to the Exchequer the week after next. It is essential that government allows a deferral of the payments that fall during the period of curtailment. Our membership has already felt the commercial hit of Covid-19, and many will struggle to keep their doors open in the coming weeks. Ensuring cash-flow will be critical to their ability to see this crisis through.

• Prompt payment obligations

Our membership needs Government to ensure that all departments, local authorities, and public sector bodies adhere to their prompt payments obligations. If our members are to be able to maintain employment across the period of this economic shock, employers need state bodies to lead by example through ensuring that their bills are paid as early as possible.  

Speaking this afternoon (13th March) Waterford Chamber's Chief Executive, Gerald Hurley said, "Chambers are an intrinsic part of their communities around the country and many chambers and their members already know some of those who have been affected by the virus and are deeply saddened by the loss of life which has already occurred. And like everyone, our members are concerned for their future and the prospect that is before us.

Many small business and the self-employed have had their work cancelled for the foreseeable future, while retailers around the country have been feeling tighter trading conditions since last week, and the hospitality sector in some parts of the country are facing cancellation rates upward of 60-70%. In parts of the country where Covid-19 first took hold, businesses are already operating in dire trading conditions.

We welcome the Government’s directives today and agree with the necessity of these actions to limit people’s exposure. We stand ready to support the State in whatever future actions prove to be necessary. But we ask that the State works with us by providing certainty for business through the challenges ahead.

Government needs to develop a coordinated communications plan, working with existing networks and bodies such as the Local Enterprise Offices and INTREO to ensure that businesses have clarity about the supports that are available to them and their employees.

Most importantly, State bodies need to be sincere and flexible in their engagements with businesses."

As of 18th March, our offices at 2 George's Street are closed in an effort to stop the spread of the Coronavirus and to protect our staff, customers and the public. Waterford Chamber and Skillnet staff are working remotely and have access to email. For general enquiries please call us at 051 872639 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Contact details for each staff member here.

Waterford Chamber Events

The following events are postponed. Other future events may be postponed in due course.

• Business After Hours at the Tower Hotel (26th March) 
• EY Future Finance Seminar (31st March)
• Business Expo (30th April -> new date in September TBC)
• Business After Hours at Shush! in The Reg (14th May)
• AGM (25th May) has been rescheduled to 24th August

Waterford Chamber Skillnet

Waterford Chamber Skillnet is working with Waterford Chamber and you our customers to ensure you have the essential training you need, when you need it. We are teaming up with our top class trainers to provide you with essential training webinars to keep your teams and businesses running as smoothly as possible during this time of change. Visit https://waterfordskillnet.ie/courses/ for details.

Weekly Newsletter and Social Media

Please continue to send your Member News to us - we will include in our weekly newsletter, website and social media.

Waterford Gift Vouchers

Vouchers can be ordered on our online shop or via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Under the small benefit tax-exemption an employer can provide one benefit to an employee each year up to a value of €500. Many people provide Waterford Gift Vouchers as that benefit. During the COVID-19 crisis Revenue are concessionally allowing an employer to give this benefit more than once per year, but within the same overall limit of €500 in a year. If you wish to reward an employee at this exceptional time or wish to pay someone in excess of the income allowed under the Covid 19 income subsidy, you could use one or more Waterford Gift Vouchers. We would encourage you to use those vouchers so that the money is spent locally

Certificates of Origin

Online service as normal. For offline service, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to make arrangements.

Tramore Tourist Office

The tourist office is closed until further notice. Please visit Tramore.ie for information and send any enquiries to the Tramore Tourism Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/tramoretourism

Useful Information

• Waterford Chamber: Chamber News Updates
• Waterford Chamber: Member News Updates
• Waterford City & County Council: Corona Virus Information
• Waterford City & County Council: Latest News
• Department of Health: COVID-19 (Coronavirus): Health advice
• Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation: Government supports for COVID-19 impacted businesses
• Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: COVID-19 Information for Employers and Employees
• Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment
• Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Illness Benefit for COVID-19 absences
• Chambers Ireland: Coronavirus / COVID-19 Information for Business
• Chambers Ireland: The EU’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
• Enterprise Ireland: COVID-19 Online Retail Scheme
• Revenue: Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme
• Office of Government Procurement: How business can help with supplies and services to respond to COVID-19
• JobAlert.ie: Employees and Self Employed: How to apply for Jobseeker's Payment

Waterford Chamber has been shortlisted for four national Chambers Ireland awards, having won the Event of the Year Award last year for Toys4Engineers.

The awards seek to recognise the outstanding work of Chambers around the country. They are a chance for Chambers to showcase their achievements in a variety of categories, from innovative projects to successful events to collaborations with local and national government.

Under the Event of the Year Category, Waterford Chamber was selected for creating the Tramore Christmas Festival, while the Regional Leaders Programme was given the nod for the Most Innovative Project.

They were also shortlisted for Marketing Campaign of the Year for Network Magazine, a quarterly in-house publication, while the amalgamation with Tramore Chamber of Tourism & Commerce was selected for Best Membership Initiative.

Speaking ahead of the final judging, Waterford Chamber CEO Gerald Hurley said it was testament to the hard work of the Chamber team and their collaborative partners that Waterford Chamber featured so strongly.

“Our team here in Chamber is small but dynamic – they are creative, hard-working and ultimately want to do what they can to support the business community. Both the Regional Leaders Programme and the Tramore Christmas Festival epitomise what collaboration can achieve, and we are very grateful to be working with important stakeholders such as Bausch + Lomb, Waterford Institute of Technology and Waterford Chamber Skillnet on the Regional Leaders Programme and Waterford Council and Every Event on the Tramore Christmas Festival, to bring these offerings to our members and the wider region.

“Network Magazine is a fantastic tool for us to promote our members, ourselves and of course Waterford as a great place to live, work, invest in and do business and we are particularly proud of it as an offering not just to members, but to the wider business community and international stakeholders.

“Our work in Tramore continues in earnest and we are proud to act as the link between the business community and the Local Authority. We adopted the new members last year and the feedback in terms of engagement and on the ground activity has been hugely encouraging, so to be recognised with this nomination is very important to us.”

The shortlist features projects from Chambers all over Ireland, including Dungarvan & West Waterford Chamber, exemplifying the wide-ranging work being done around the country.

Awards will be presented for excellence in six different categories and one Chamber will be awarded the overall award of Chamber of the Year 2020.

Waterford Chamber and Waterford Chamber Skillnet have both been shortlisted for IITD National Training Awards for their Regional Leaders Programme and Graduate Accelerator Programme respectively.

Waterford Chamber’s Regional Leaders Programme has been shortlisted in the category of “Excellence in Coaching and Mentoring”, while Waterford Chamber Skillnet’s Graduate Accelerator Programme will compete in the “Best Consultancy” category at the upcoming awards ceremony on April 24th at Killashee House Hotel.

Now in its twenty-second year, the IITD National Training Awards is recognised as the premier Learning & Development event for industry. The purpose of the IITD National Training Awards is to promote excellence, best practice and innovation in Training and Learning & Development, and to highlight the importance of this area in today’s business climate.

Speaking about the nomination, Gerald Hurley, CEO Waterford Chamber said: “The Regional Leaders Programme, now in its third year, has surpassed all our expectations in terms of delivery and engagement. We now have over 40 mentors giving of their time to develop the future leaders of our region, and we have seen 200 participants pass through the programme. We are proud to say that we have created a culture of mentoring and support among the business community through the Regional Leaders Programme. It has highlighted the importance of succession planning, supporting our employees and the benefits of having an external confidante to engage with. This nomination is a testament to the hard work put into developing and sustaining the programme but also to our partners Bausch + Lomb, Waterford Chamber Skillnet and Waterford Institute of Technology for their support and guidance.”

The Waterford Chamber Skillnet “Graduate Accelerator” programme showcases the successful collaboration and partnership between Waterford Chamber Skillnet, Bausch and Lomb and local industry including Sun Life Financial, Ernst & Young Waterford, Caratmundi, Sanofi, SE2, Jabil, Medite Smartply, and Dawn Meats in response to the learning needs of the emerging workforce in the South East. The programme is the perfect vehicle to develop and support a workforce of homegrown talent by offering practical training designed to ease new graduate recruits into their new working environment by giving them the skills necessary to become a valuable member of a larger corporate team.

Sara Mullally, Network Manager, Waterford Chamber Skillnet, said: “These awards are at the highest level in industry and we are delighted to be featured among the best in class. We take our remit as training providers extremely seriously and our core mission is to support employers in the region to grow and develop their staff to become strong professional, technical and subject matter experts in their chosen field. Waterford Chamber Skillnet is the largest Regional Network of the 70 Skillnet Ireland networks nationally, and in 2019 successfully facilitated 230 training events for 300 companies and 1,707 individuals. We are delighted to be nominated alongside Waterford Chamber and we will both certainly put our best foot forward for Waterford.”

Almost 50 leaders from Waterford’s industrial and commercial, government, educational and economic development agencies gathered for a Breakfast Briefing on Wednesday, 26th February 2020 to initiate a marketing and promotional campaign for Waterford. The initiative is as a result of collaboration between Waterford Chamber, Waterford Institute of Technology and Waterford City and County Council.

Over the past six months the agencies have created an economic baseline for the city and opportunity analysis out to 2040. This research will inform Waterford’s implementation plan to realise it’s critical role as a population centre and economic driver of growing importance and scale as outlined in the National Planning Framework ‘Project Ireland 2040’ and the National Development Plan 2018-2022.

Waterford Chamber CEO, Gerald Hurley said “For me today is about getting the message right and having an ambitious outlook for our city. Up until now, there has been conflicting economic baseline data for Waterford. This is the first time we have come together at a local level to obtain detailed and credible research and data that everyone can use to showcase Waterford as a City of Opportunity. The results of that research, combined with months of data gathering by RIKON and the information we collate here today, will give us an economic baseline for the city and present the ambitious growth opportunities that exist in Waterford. This can then be used by all of us as a tool to attract future investment and educate key influencers.”

Michael Walsh, Chief Executive of Waterford City and County Council in opening the meeting said “The National Planning Framework and Development Plan policy document re-assert our critical role and we need to identify as a city and region of opportunity where our quality of life is unique. This morning’s meeting focussed on the identification of the vision for Waterford and a number of key collaborations which will set Waterford as a place apart”. 

Prof Willie Donnelly, President of Waterford Institute of Technology concluded the meeting by saying “Waterford Institute of Technology offers an attractive opportunity as an educational leader of international repute and is proud to partner with Waterford Council and Waterford Chamber of Commerce to drive Waterford as the primary urban centre within the south east region.”