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Irish Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Closure of Bray-Greystones cliff walk has ‘cost the economy €73m'
More than €73 million has been lost to the economy – equating to more than €50,000 a day – because of the continuing closure of the cliff walk between Bray and Greystones , Co Wicklow, economist Jim Power has said. Mr Power, an economic adviser to the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation and a financial commentator, estimated the loss to the economy included €21 million that would have gone to the Exchequer in taxes. The 7km cliff walk, developed in the 1840s as an access route for workers building the railway line, was, until its closure in February 2021, one of the most popular walks on Ireland's east coast. At its highest point it rises to about 100m above sea level. However, following the collapse of a section of boulder clay on the Greystones side and a rockfall further towards Bray, the walk was closed on a temporary basis. READ MORE Wicklow County Council put barriers at either end of the route and advertised an alternative walk, some of which was on the main Bray to Greystones road before climbing the head and emerging at a landmark cross overlooking Bray seafront. However, as time passed and the cliff walk remained closed, local traders expressed concern at the lack of business. 'The closure hit us immediately. I would say we were first in the firing line, and then it hit everyone else,' said Nigel Spendlove, who runs a coffee shop at Greystones harbour. Nigel Spendlove at Spendlove's coffee shop in Greystones. Photograph: Tim O'Brien Claire Cullen, who runs The Fat Fox cafe and cake shop on Trafalgar Road, Greystones, said the closure had cost her '500 customers a week. That is 2,000 customers a month – it is a lot for any business to take'.. Local group Friends of the Cliff Walk commissioned Mr Power to carry out an economic study of the economic cost of the closure. As part of the overall figure of €73 million, Mr Power estimated losses to local shops, restaurants and coffee shops at €4 million, based on yearly spending by walkers of €3.5 million. Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr Power said he had relied on Fáilte Ireland reports on visitor spending, figures for the numbers of people previously walking the cliff walk and his own interviews with businesses in the area among other sources. He said that according to Fáilte Ireland figures overseas visitors would typically spend €105 each a day, domestic visitors would be spending €92 daily and local walkers would spend about €10. He said recent analysis showed 10 per cent of visitors on the walk were from overseas, 40 per cent would be domestic visitors and the rest locals. Using official figures showing 350,000 visitors in the last year the walk was open, the annual spend was €18.4 million. With the walk now closed four years that loss amounted to €73 million overall, he said. He said the impact on the economies of Bray and Greystones has been 'very significant'. 'If we assume the average spend locally is €10 per visitor, the overall spend locally would be €3.5 million. This would support 77 jobs in tourism and hospitality in the local area. Assuming an average wage of €20,000, this would equate to a wage injection of €1.54 million into the local economy,' he said at the launch of his report on Tuesday in Greystones. Wicklow County Council said it was in the process of appointing consultants to advise 'short-term and long-term solutions to address the issues with sections of the walk that have already collapsed or are about to collapse'. The council said it had 'identified unsafe sections, reluctantly closed them, and signposted alternative routes around the collapsed sections of the cliff walk'. It said it was also working to identify funding for the work.
Irish Independent
3 days ago
- Business
- Irish Independent
Report into Bray to Greystones Cliff Walk finds closure ‘has cost national economy tens of millions in lost revenue'
The report, by Jim Power, will be launched in Greystones Sailing Club at 4pm, on Tuesday, June 3, by the community group, Friends of the Cliff Walk. Using national and international economic models, including Failte Ireland data, as well as information from local businesses, the report has found that the closure, now in its fifth year, has cost the national economy tens of millions of euro in lost revenue, with a corresponding negative financial impact on Wicklow, and on Greystones in particular. The report also shows how the closure runs counter to Wicklow County Council's own policies and objectives, including access to a public right of way, as well as national goals relating to exercise, fitness and combatting obesity. The report will be presented by Mr Power and the venue and surroundings (Greystones Marina with the Bray Head backdrop) make for a suitably photogenic setting for the launch. Jim Power is economic advisor to the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation and a former advisor to both Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks. He teaches at Dublin City University and the Smurfit Business School, and is a regular media commentator. Meanwhile, an update was provided on the Cliff Walk at the May meeting of Greystones Municipal District, in which councillors heard that the tender process for a report into the trail, has hit a setback. District manager Marc Devereux advised that because there was a query raised regarding that tender, that query has to be addressed, which resets the clock. While it was hoped that a successful consultant would have been awarded the tender for the report by now, the process has been delayed. Wicklow County Council has two tenders out for the Cliff Walk: one for rockfall stabilisation works to the value of €500,000, and the second to the value of €80,000 for the engineering report. The aim of tender process for the latter is to identify qualified experts to examine issues affecting the trail, and involves a number of key areas, including the condition of the Cliff Walk, the integrity of the rock face along Bray Head, and the identification of all points along the trail that are at risk of collapse.
Irish Times
02-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Retail lobby group seeks pause on minimum wage hikes
Minimum wage increases should be 'indefinitely' paused and a range of financial supports rolled out to protect Irish retailers from being forced to shut up shop permanently, an umbrella group representing the sector has said. Retail Excellence Ireland highlighted how the statutory minimum wage increased by 38 per cent from January 2020 to last January climbing from €9.80 to €13.50 and noted it was the second highest minimum wage among EU member states. It also pointed out that Ireland has the seventh highest standard VAT rate and the highest electricity prices for non-household consumers in the EU27 last year with prices here was 62.3 per cent above the EU average. It pointed to PwC's latest Insolvency Barometer which suggested there were 852 insolvencies in 2024, 16 per cent higher than the 734 insolvencies in 2023 with retail recording the highest number of insolvencies of any sector in 2024. READ MORE It called for the reintroduction and expansion of the Increased Cost of Business (ICOB) scheme, which allocated €257 million for SMEs in October 2023 as part of Budget 2024. The scheme offered eligible businesses a one-off grant payment as a contribution towards business costs based on the value of their commercial rates bill. The scheme was closed in May last year. REI welcomed the Government's decision to pause the introduction of the living wage until 2029, saying that the methodology for its calculation needed to be revisited. Ireland's status as an outlier in the EU due to our significantly higher number of high-paid jobs in sectors such as pharma and tech is skewing the data and is not truly reflective of the broader economy. The umbrella group's chief executive Jean McCabe said the report 'outlines in grim detail the intensely difficult challenge facing Irish retailers today. Not only is Ireland one of the most expensive places in the EU to do business, we also live in a global economy so the retail price of goods sold here needs to be competitive. This means Irish retailers' margins are just being consistently squeezed, with little to nothing left for many. Hence, we see doors closing across the country.' Jim Power, economist and author of the report, highlighted a 'massive escalation in the costs of doing business, including energy costs, insurance costs, labour costs, and compliance costs' and said retailers are generally very labour intensive, so labour costs and other labour market regulations in areas such as paid sick days and parental leave impose an inordinate financial and logistical burden.'
