'A lot of positives' ahead for retail in Cork city, says new CBA president 

The recently elected president of the Cork Business Association (CBA) has said the city’s retail industry is set for an exciting year ahead following a positive 2024.

Dave O’Brien was elected president of the CBA last month, having held a number of roles within the association over the past five years, including serving as secretary, treasurer and, most recently, vice-president.

Mr O’Brien is head of tax at Xeinadin Ireland, an ancy group based in Ireland and Britain, which acquired Quintas in 2023. He oversees tax planning, company restructures, succession planning, and Vat matters across 30 offices in Ireland.

“We are really looking forward to seeing who comes into Debenhams and what flows from that — once we have a few big tenants, smaller businesses will evolve from that,” Mr O’Brien told The Echo.

“That’s likely to be the biggest thing in Cork retail this year, but there’s also the Penneys redevelopment, so there’s a lot of positives,” he added.

However, the outlook is less certain for hospitality, which has had a better start to 2025 than the year previous, with January 2024 seeing a series of restaurant closures including Cork institutions Nash 19 and Tung Sing’s Patrick St establishment.

“It looks like the Vat rate will reduce in the next budget. This is a positive, but the hospitality sector will be waiting to see what the repercussions are, there may be cost increases coming elsewhere as the Government looks to balance that Vat reduction,” said Mr O’Brien.

Mr O’Brien said Donald Trump’s presidency could affect the Cork hospitality sector as well as US multinationals and indigenous Irish exports.

“There’s good and bad in hospitality at the moment. One of the risks they have is we are pretty reliant on the US market, US tourism coming over.

“With the way the US economy is going and what Donald Trump is doing, is there a potential that market will reduce in size? That’s a risk for the hospitality sector for the year, but we won’t know until the summer.”

As well as the potential risk to Cork hotels, bars and restaurants, there is also the threat of tariffs, or US businesses being lured back to the States, as Cork has benefitted from foreign direct investment, particularly in the pharmaceutical sector.

“The tariffs could impact exports coming out of Cork, but as of now we just don’t know what’s in Donald Trump’s mind, so it’s hard to give an answer for what’s going to happen,” said the CBA president.

“The politicians have gone over this week, and I am sure they are going to do their best to make sure we are not subjected to too many tariffs.

“The pharmaceutical sector would possibly be most affected by those tariffs, and we have a lot of US multinationals, we don’t know what the effect is going to be on those types of businesses.”

Cork priorities

Speaking at the AGM following his election, Mr O’Brien said he aimed to prioritise a continued focus on two key areas: Cork city as the safest and cleanest city, and the long-term vision of Cork city to 2030. 

Over the past year, the CBA set up an active safe and clean committee, advocating for and securing increased Garda presence and a new community safety van.

The organisation also launched successful initiatives such as ‘Leave a Light On’ and ‘Coffee House Lates’, aimed at creating a safer, more vibrant nighttime economy.

A major achievement for the CBA in 2024 was securing funding for community safety wardens, with implementing this initiative set to be Mr O’Brien’s top priority for 2025, through working closely with key stakeholders such as the Department of Justice, Cork City Council, An Garda Síochána, Tusla, and the HSE.

He also plans to work closely with the CBA’s Cork city 2030 committee this year to develop a strategy and initiatives for the future of Cork, including housing, transport, and infrastructure.

“Housing and safety have a massive impact on business,” said Mr O’Brien.

“If the city isn’t safe, people don’t come into the city. If it’s not getting a good reputation worldwide, tourists don’t come, and businesses thinking of setting up here may consider an alternative location.

“Safety is really important, and what we’re planning to do with the wardens will no doubt help make the city feel safer and be safer.

“Companies won’t come to Cork if there’s no housing for their employees either, so it’s vital for attracting businesses that we have housing available — we are definitely planning to push this,” he added.

Mr O’Brien will be looking at what the CBA can do to improve the housing situation in Cork, including putting pressure on the Government to influence policies.

“Planning rules on multiple apartments above shops need to be addressed too,” he said.

“Other European cities manage this, so why can’t we?”

Mr O’Brien explained that getting a framework in place for their Cork City 2030 pillar will be another big task for this year.

“That’s things like transport — the good news is that Bus Éireann now has a full roster of drivers, which is excellent.

“What we need is for people to be able to come in and out of the city without too much hassle, and preferably leave the car away at home.

“We’re still a bit away from that, but we’re hopefully getting there. 

“We’ll be pushing for more park and ride facilities, as the city is not well provided for in that regard.”

Alongside housing and transport, the CBA will also be pushing for infrastructure, with Mr O’Brien identifying apartments as something they would like to see more of.

“We’d like to see more apartment buildings getting built, the gap between getting planning permission and building is too long at the moment, often due to costs.”

They would also like to see more diversity of offerings in places like Patrick St, if the alternative is empty units — again, this requires changes to planning regulations so that more change of use permissions can be granted.

Patrick St in particular is currently used almost exclusively for retail, with just one pub on the street, Le Chateau, which has been there since 1793.

“Maybe more hospitality could get into the city centre, it’s all about making it an attractive place for people to come, a more modern city akin to other European cities,” Mr O’Brien said, adding that currently, almost all businesses on Patrick St are closed in the evenings.

Retailers have warned that new licensing rules around the sale of e-cigarette products might cause several vape shops to go out of business, and Mr O’Brien said that if there are closures in Cork, the focus has to be refilling vacant units.

“It’s a worry if people working in vape shops are losing their jobs, their livelihoods, so we’re all for trying to keep all types of businesses open.

“If they do close down, we need to see can they be turned into another retail premises, or hospitality or even residential.

“More people living in the city is more people visiting the shops and hospitality places, it makes it viable for more businesses to open — the key is just getting units filled, one way or another.”